Drew Burnett, Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) – GP Portfolio Team
Tell us a little about your job
My job involves reviewing the patients under the care of the consultants in the community hospitals and liaising with local GPs and medical staff to ensure the best quality of care is provided. We work as a team and cover a wide area in Forth Valley. There are four ANPs, myself included, and five GPs at present. The team also provide support to Cornton Vale and Glenochil prisons and Polmont Young Offenders Institution. We can prescribe and do full assessments of patients, with the ability to investigate and act on these findings.
Why did you choose to work in the NHS?
I had wanted to help people from an early age and I always had an interest in medicine so nursing was a good choice for me.
How do you spend your leisure time?
These days it’s about running the kids about and doing stuff with them, be that ice skating, rock wall climbing or swimming. I still go up the rock wall sometimes but more often I seem to be the one standing at the bottom just in case anyone falls!
I still enjoy hill walking but don’t get out as much as I used to. I have climbed almost all the hills in Glencoe and some of the peaks in Skye including the Cuillins. The picture of me is at the foot of the Inaccessible Pinnacle.
Memorable moments?
Getting married and having my two kids.
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child?
Don’t eat yellow snow! Only kidding…. Listen to the people who have done it before you, they know what they are talking about.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours with no travel restrictions?
Go to Disney World in Florida for the day with the family.
The temptation you wish you could resist?
That last bit of cheese cake!
What possession do you value above all others?
None, people mean more. There are obviously things like photographs which you would miss terribly if there was a house fire but I am not bothered about material things. Some people may say their mobile phone, but to me things like that don’t really matter.
Unfulfilled ambition?
I should have travelled more. When I was working in the Isle of Man I came into contact with a lot of people from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa who were travelling after qualifying. Listening to them I wished that I had taken the option to spend a couple of years seeing the world. I still would like to go to Australia and New Zealand but money, kids and work have put paid to that for the time being. I’ll get there one day.
How do others see you?
I would hope I’m the guy they can go to for help at work.
