As part of International Nurses Day 2022, we sat down with Claudio Buggiotti who teaches the ENDO1 course for the JETS Workforce programme

AO: Can you give us a background to who you are and what you do?

My name is Claudio Buggiotti, I come from Italy, and I am currently working as a clinical endoscopist in Llandough Hospital, Cardiff.

AO: What led you to choose Nursing as a career?

I wasn’t one of those people who wanted to become a nurse, I tried something else before Nursing. There was a period in my life when I did not have a job and a direction. In this period, I met an old friend of mine who was going into a nursing university, and I decided to join her in this journey. I have always been good at supporting people, so I thought ‘I may be good at being a nurse’. I went to do this competition and got a space to start studying Nursing.

AO: Do you thank that friend for talking you into nursing?

Yeah, I am grateful, I’ve managed to meet a lot of people and change my career so many times and also, I have changed country. I think it is a great job if you like people, communication and networking with others.

AO: How long have you been a nurse?

I have been a nurse since 2006, my first job was in a private clinic looking after plastic surgery patients. I worked there for a couple of years and then moved to one of the big hospitals in Rome, “Agostino Gemelli”, University Polyclinic. After being there for another couple of years I applied for a position in A+E at another hospital and stayed there for 6 years. I really liked working in A+E.

AO: What was it like working in A+E?

I like A+E because every day was a different day. You could be assigned to paediatric surgery, orthopaedics, or you could be with minor or major injuries. Although I was enjoying this job, I felt I would move forward and because one of my dreams was to work abroad, in November 2015 I moved to Wales. I went from Rome to Newport in South Wales.

AO: Rome to Newport? 

I have a sister who lives in London, but I had never been to Wales before. It was a bit of a shock in a way. Newport is smaller than Rome and there wasn’t much to do. After a month I moved to Cardiff, although I was still working in Newport for a few years in the medical assessment unit. During this period of time, I picked up lots of skills and experience, especially I familiarised with the NHS paperwork.

In 2018, I decided to change my career again, I was a bit burnt out after a long time in emergencies, especially with a new language and new systems. I applied for an endoscopy job in Llandough Hospital, and I started work there as a band 5 Endoscopy Nurse. So, I started to get to know the endoscopy world. I really liked the team and my colleagues and the way we were working. We were able to give higher quality care just to one patient instead of rushing back and forth between patients in A+E.

After a couple of years, I was fully training and assisting all sorts of procedures in endoscopy. There was an opportunity in 2019 to be part of a training to become a clinical endoscopist and I decided to apply and got the job.

AO: How did you celebrate?

I went out with my husband and my friends, and it was a nice moment. In answer to your question, what is your best moment in nursing, I think this was one of the best because I had always dreamt to become a practitioner and I think that was the opportunity that led me to this new career with a different level of responsibility.  It can be a bit overwhelming at the start, but I received a lot of support.

AO: You chose to work with JAG teaching ENDO 1, how did that come about? 

As part of the advanced nurse practice, teaching is part of the four pillars of advanced practice. I wanted to explore the teaching point of view and I decided to do my faculty training course in March 2021.  It was great, although at the beginning it was a bit scary because English is not my first language. I was impressed at how much you can get from teaching the ENDO1 course. You get to know a lot of people from all around the UK, so you don’t feel alone, and you can refresh all your basics in endoscopy. Teaching these courses also allowed me to break the monotony of my schedule.

AO: How do you think JAG will help the workforce in the future?

I think the Joint Advisory Group is great because it has set up standards to improve the quality in endoscopy units all around the UK. JAG has been great for me because it gave me the possibility to be a practitioner as a nurse and gave me the possibility to become a clinical endoscopist and be accredited under the standard of JAG. I think the standards set up by JAG will help to improve all the endoscopy services around the UK, of course it won’t happen overnight, but through this journey we all reach excellence in Endoscopy.

Claudio Buggiotti was speaking to Anthony Olsson, project coordinator for JAG