Nursing is family affair as son graduates and father to follow

A FATHER and son will maintain a family tradition by going into the nursing profession after they received degrees from Edinburgh Napier University.

Fraser Chalmers, 25, graduated with a BN in Nursing in a ceremony at the Usher Hall and will now take up a post as a community staff nurse in the city.

Looking on was his father Ross, 51, an ex-mortgage broker who is now in the third year of his own BN course at the university after the financial crisis forced him to rethink his career plans.

But the family’s involvement in nursing does not end there.

Fraser’s mother Sarah, 50, works as a district nurse team manager covering north west Edinburgh, his younger sister Kirsty, 22, is a staff nurse in the neonatal unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and his twin brother Murray – also an Edinburgh Napier graduate – is a recruitment consultant who recruits nurses for the Scottish Nursing Guild.

Fraser, who will be based at Bruntsfield Health Centre, said: “I’m really proud to follow in my mum’s footsteps and become a member of a district nursing team. She has been an inspiration to me and has taught me the key values of care and compassion that you need to be an excellent nurse.

“I am proud to achieve my goal and I’m also looking forward to seeing my dad collect his degree next year.”

Fraser, whose family is from South Queensferry, studied law for a year before becoming interested in nursing and working parttime with his father at a private care agency. He joined the NHS as a clinical support worker in 2011.

Two years later he embarked on his BN in nursing at Edinburgh Napier in the belief that qualifying as a community staff nurse band 5 would equip him with the skills he needed to make a difference to patients’ lives.

Meanwhile, his father is progressing on his academic journey. After leaving the finance industry he had been part of for 25 years, Ross worked as a home carer, going on to become a coordinator with an Edinburgh company.

He joined the NHS as a band 2 clinical support worker in ward 57 at the city’s Western General in 2012. After completing an HNC, he joined the second year of Edinburgh Napier’s BN Nursing programme.

Ross said: “My ambition is to get a band 5 post back in ward 57, which is a urology ward. That is where this journey started and I really love working in a surgical setting.

“To be at Fraser’s graduation was a really proud moment and gives me the drive and determination to be where he is this time next year.”