Arsenia Davies
Arsenia was born in Manila, Philippines before being recruited by the NHS and moving to Llandough, South Wales in 1999 as one of the first cohort of Filipino nurses to come to the UK. After spending years developing her career and skills, Arsenia currently works as clinical leader in neurosurgical theatres.
Arsenia states:
"Having grown up in the Philippines, my father, who was an experienced mariner, felt that becoming a qualified nurse would provide me with more opportunities to work and live abroad. During his years of visiting different countries, he learned that nursing is a great career choice, so I decided to heed his advice and started studying nursing.
"I gained my bachelor’s in science degree in Nursing in 1991, before taking my examination licence in the Philippines, which allowed me to practice as a nurse. This is slightly different to the UK system, as the Philippines’ educational system is largely based on the American model, where qualified nurses need to pass the professional regulation commission’s licensure examination before they can legally practice as registered nurses.
"From 1992, I worked as an operating theatre nurse, as it was something I was passionate about. 5 years later I undertook further education and started my master's degree in nursing, before moving into the academe and working as a clinical teacher at the Centro Escolar University, in Manila. I stayed there until the opportunity to work in the UK presented itself in 1999.
"I am currently working as a Band 7 as the role of manager and expert scrub practitioner in the neurosurgical theatre team and have been in this position for 10 years. Prior to this, I have worked my way up from a D-grade scrub nurse to Band 6 scrub practitioner where I work with multidisciplinary teams within the perioperative environment, and in collaboration with the other departments. I carried out a benchmarking exercise in 2012 and visited Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Here I networked and shared learning experiences and gained insight on the challenges and opportunities within the neurosurgical theatres. In the same year, I co-authored a study on accounting for specialist items in neurosurgery, which was then published in the Journal of Perioperative Practice. In 2022, I had the opportunity to visit the Ohio State University Hospital in the USA, to observe and learn about the theatre set-up in the iMRI for the advanced therapies in neurosurgery – as the procedure is relatively new in the UK. This has helped us to set up this ground-breaking procedure within our health board.
"Wales is such a beautiful country, and it is the first thing I noticed when I arrived here. You can experience both the city life, and countryside, without travelling too far! The people are diverse and friendly, which made a big difference coming from a busy city like Manila, where people do not normally talk to each. Before I came here, I was unaware that Wales has its signage and official documents in both the English and Welsh language. While that was a surprise, I can see how important it is to keep the Welsh language and culture alive. I have seen this recently in the Eisteddfod which was held close to where I live. Although people in Wales can speak English, everyone is certainly encouraged to speak in Welsh also. It is a great language to learn too, and I have picked up lots of fun words and sentences.
"Having lived here for over twenty-five years, I consider Wales as my home. I met and married a colleague from work, who is a born and bred Welshman. We later had two children and recently, our eldest daughter graduated from Cardiff University. Our son is currently in his second year at Swansea University. I love living in Wales as it has such a rich culture and history, and it has lots to offer. It has plenty of places to see, ranging from vibrant city centres, historical castles, mountains, forest areas, national trust parks, gardens and beaches.
"I currently live in a town called Pontypridd, which is around twelve miles outside of the capital city of Cardiff. I love living here as it is still quite close to Cardiff - with all the benefits a large city can offer. As it is just outside of Cardiff, the property price is excellent value for money compared to Cardiff itself. I also like going to the local market and the park, as people will usually stop to say hello and have a nice chat too. We are also close to the Brecon Beacons and not too far from the seaside, which is just perfect for me as it provides different options depending on my mood.
"I have been very fortunate to have managers who understood the need to balance work and family life and have backed me up and supported me where necessary. I believe employees become more productive and are happier when there is a mutual respect, and having been on both sides of the situation, I always try to give back to the team members who need support.
"Looking towards the future, I am hoping to retire in a few years, but may come back to work in a part-time capacity as part of the “retire and return” programme. I would like to carry on providing care to people, and to support the future nursing and theatre scrub practitioner workforce."