Isabel says goodbye after securing Sick Kids' future

Isabel McCallum, the woman behind a revolutionary project that will see the transformation of Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, is set to bow out of the nursing profession at the end of this month.

Ms McCallum has been the clinical director for the new hospital project, and has seen a multitude of changes in her time since she first began nursing at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Her retirement coincides with the 150th anniversary of the Sick Kids hospital.

Born in Nottingham, Ms McCallum has spent 26 years in the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh in addition to six years at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as director of nursing for Lothian University Hospitals Trust.

She was a ward matron at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and also a "pelican" (a nurse who trained at the Royal Infirmary).

The 55-year-old has been a staff nurse, sister-in-charge of Surgical Intensive Care, surgical nursing officer, director of nursing and now project clinical director in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. And she said she treasures her early training in London.

"I had the benefit of a great grounding in cleanliness management in the ward area and that is not something that the University students are taught in that practical way now," she said.

"Now registered nurses work towards clinical care that would have been delivered by senior students in the past, and care has become much more evidence-based and often highly technical and there is more paperwork involved."

Ms McCallum became clinical director in 2005 at the Royal Hospital of Sick Children and is confident that the new hospital will be the envy of other cities once it is built.

"We looked at how the clinical services for children and their families should run and have designed the new hospital to support the delivery of that service.

"This new hospital will be purpose-built for the 21st century."

Ms McCallum said that she will miss her colleagues when she retires but feels that she will leave behind a state-of-the-art hospital as a fitting legacy.

"I shall miss my colleagues. The doctors, nurses and other staff here are working so hard with us to inform the planning of the best possible design.

"As I look towards my retirement day, I would have wanted to see the complete design and that hasn't quite been finished but I'm looking forward to seeing the new hospital being built.

"I feel it is time for someone else to take over."