From burnout to a top job in nursing research: what I’ve learned

Senior nurse researcher Jill Maben talks about her career path and offers tips for a move into research

A new appointment may have cemented her position as one of the UK’s most respected nursing researchers, but Jill Maben almost left the profession a couple of years after she had qualified.

‘I was already burnt out, I felt unsupported and was really struggling, if I’m honest,’ says Professor Maben, who has just been appointed a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) senior investigator.

The baptism of fire that led to burnout

She qualified in 1982 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge before moving to King’s College Hospital in