17 July 2015
Essex students feature on radio documentary Who Wants to be a Nurse?
Essex students featuring in Who Wants to be a Nurse?
Inspiring University of Essex nursing students are featuring in BBC Radio 4 radio documentary Who Wants to be a Nurse? being broadcast today (Friday 18 July).
The students have been sharing their experiences with BBC Radio 4 presenter Jenny Clayton as part of two programmes investigating how nurses are trained in the UK.
Professional nursing bodies have long debated how best to train our nurses so that they have the mix of skills they need to serve patients so BBC Radio 4 decided to follow four Essex students on the ward, at university, at home and in the community finding out what inspires them and investigating the challenges and issues they face.
The programme follows second year students Peter Brown, Amy Pond, Kayleigh Lee and Charlee Lystor during their studies at the Essex and then on placements at Broomfield Hospital and Braintree Community Hospital managed by Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust and working in the community in Thundersley with South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT).
Since 2013, everyone who wants to become a nurse in the UK must undertake a nursing degree. They spend half their time on placement working alongside trained nurses and dealing with patients, and the other half at lectures and tutorials.
Charlee, who's in her second year, thinks nursing is changing: "Nurses are being given more and more responsibility, more and more is being asked of them so we have to grow with that."
21-year-old Amy spends a lot of her time in the library. "As nurses, it's always important that as new literature is provided we keep up with it."
Peter on a placement in the Burns Unit at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford tells Jenny: "I love patient contact, I love talking to people."
Kayleigh adds. "When I come on placement, it reminds me what I'm driving for... You walk away from it and you feel rewarded."
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