News

Military March is a month-long celebration by NHS Employers that shines a spotlight on the awesome contributions of our Armed Forces community to the NHS. We recently spoke to Neera Shah, Area Pharmacist at the Trust, about her work as an Army reservist, why she wanted to get involved and how it compliments her role within the Trust.

Neera is a Captain, and Second-in Command of Waterloo Company at the Army Training Regiment in Grantham. There they train approximately 1/3 of all reserved soldiers who apply for the army.

Neera started out as a Pharmacist Officer in the Army Reserves, Royal Army Medical Corp, after four years she transferred to become a Royal Engineer Officer,  and then on to her current role in the Training Regiment. 

Neera said: "I've always had a passion to serve people and I didn't feel my role in the NHS was enough, I felt like I could give more. I really appreciated the leadership skills, discipline and sense of comradeship that the army brings.

"My work with the military sparked my interest in my current role within the NHS, I wanted to look after a similar demographic of patients.

"In the NHS I work as the Area Pharmacist for HMP Lincolnshire and HMP Ranby, in Offender Health, and work across five sites.

"The army is predominately males, and this is the same for patients in the prison service I look after, so I felt like I could really understand the demographic of patients and it complimented my army role well at the start of my career. 

"The skills needed in the army and my NHS role are very similar, you need good people skills and people management skills. You continually need to adapt and change in both roles. 

"The army and NHS also both really thrive on continual professional development.

"You get to work with such diverse patient base, you are constantly improving the way you treat patients, and in the Army we are moving with the times in terms of our teaching and learning styles, adapting for a more modern approach. The qualities and skills are transferable between the two roles as they require a similar personal and professional discipline. Not everyone who works in NHS is clinical, but everyone is professional. Army personnel are also professionals and take their commitments  seriously as a result. 

"There are a lot of values and standards that I see as transferable between the Trust and the Army - Trust, Honesty, Compassion, Respect and Teamwork - all of these fall within the same scope of the Army's rigorous Values and the Standards we hold ourselves to as soldiers. 

"To anyone who has considered becoming a reserve I would strongly encourage you to go for it. I wouldn't be where I am today without the confidence and skills the army has instilled in me. I used to worry about things I can't control and lack self-belief, but the army has built resilience in my capabilities and taught me how to support others.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about what a military person looks like and there is no mould to fit, diversity brings a robust workforce, just as true in the NHS, as it is the Army.

"For Trust colleagues, please get in touch with the Trust's Armed Forces Community Network via the Connect page, if anyone would like further details."