The healthcare workers starting a new chapter in Shetland

Jane and Steven Wylie met in Tanzania, volunteering to build homes for vulnerable families. They put down roots in Inverness, where Steven is from. Then, in the autumn of 2024, they moved to Shetland.

"Jane and I always think of our life as chapters," says Steven. "We met in Africa, we lived in Inverness, and then Shetland is chapter three."

For Jane, who grew up in the islands, it felt like coming home. For Steven, it felt like the beginning of something new. In this blog post, we turn the page on what it means to live and work in healthcare in Shetland.

Jane was brought up in Cunningsburgh on the South Mainland. Returning to Shetland had always been a vague intention rather than a firm plan. "I had it in the back of my mind that I'd like to come back; I just wasn't sure of when that might happen."

She was settled and happy in her role at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness when friends in Shetland began to get in touch. The lead pharmacist post at Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick would soon be vacant. A role that aligned closely with the experience Jane had been building.

She went for it. "I thought, this might be the time I'm meant to go back home. And then it just all fell into place."

For Steven, the move was less straightforward. He'd built his career with NHS Highland and had no job to go to in Shetland.

His employers agreed to keep him on while he found his feet, which meant spending that first year travelling back and forth every two weeks: two weeks in Shetland, two weeks in Inverness, staying with his parents in between.

"It sounds good talking about it before doing it," he says, "but going up and down and being reliant on flights and ferries every month starts to grate on you. And Jane was up here by herself."

After a year of checking for jobs in Shetland daily and making himself known to the estates team at NHS Shetland, the right role came up. He applied, got it, and is enjoying a more settled existence in Shetland.

Both Jane’s and Steven’s work spans a breadth of responsibilities they wouldn't have encountered in a larger health board.

Jane is Lead Pharmacist at the Gilbert Bain, overseeing the running of the pharmacy while also maintaining a clinical role in surgery.

She chairs a medicines governance group, is involved in workforce development for pharmacy technicians, contributes to the local roll-out of national frailty work streams, and helps plan how medicines reach the outer islands where there may be no resident doctor.

“In a larger board, for example, there would typically be a dedicated vaccination pharmacist responsible for planning and coordination, whereas in Shetland that falls to me.

“Here you get involved in a lot more. Your breadth of knowledge is wider. I’ve learned a huge amount since I came to Shetland."

Steven remembered a conversation with his NHS Shetland manager before he moved. "He said, 'We wear a lot of hats up here'. And I've come to realise that very much."

His role covers building and infrastructure works across the whole NHS Shetland estate, from the Gilbert Bain Hospital to the outer isles.

The specialist support he could easily reach for in Inverness simply doesn't exist in the same way here. "I have to do my research, read the guidance documents, and work it out. But I enjoy that part of it."

What both have found is that the smaller scale of NHS Shetland changes not just the workload but the feeling of the work.

"Up here it's our NHS," says Steven. "You want to get stuck in and improve what we have because there's a more personal aspect to it. Most of us know someone who's in the hospital. We are part of the communities for which we provide care."

Since moving to Shetland, life outside work has shifted, too. Back in Inverness, they drove separate cars to the same hospital at different hours and barely overlapped at home.

Now they commute together, eat dinner together, and walk their two dogs along the coast in the evenings.

"There's a bit more flexibility in how we live life up here," says Steven. Jane's parents are a 10-minute walk along the road, which Steven, the self-appointed family cook, has embraced fully.

Sunday lunches have become his domain. He's working up to Shetland bannocks.

Jane has joined a book club, swims with colleagues in summer, and put in the hard miles for the Simmer Dim half-marathon.

Much of Steven’s spare time is currently dedicated to turning their newly built house into a home, with plans to create a garden and outdoor space to enjoy.

As they settle into their new surroundings, they hope to play an active role in the local community and give something back in the years ahead.

For any couple weighing up a move where one partner has a job, and the other doesn't, Steven's advice is direct. "Don't wait for the right time. There might never be the right time.

"I was willing almost to go back to plumbing if I had to. I just wanted to give life here a chance. And it has worked out."

It seems like chapter three, ‘Shetland’, might just be their favourite so far.