ADULT nursing students from Wiltshire College & University Centre say placements on Salisbury District Hospital’s wards is giving them valuable hands-on experience.
The second year T Level students are in the middle of their second placement at the hospital, putting into practice some of the skills they’ve developed at the Salisbury campus’ Health Zone, which features a replica of the wards they now find themselves on.
The T Level course combines classroom learning with 315 hours of placements. In the first year students spent time in care homes and are on a second stint at the hospital, having completed one before Christmas
“The ward at the college is really helpful because it taught me little things like how to raise the beds,” said Lauren Bueno De Mesquita, 17. “If I’d come in without that I wouldn’t have had any idea about the general environment of a bay, I probably would have found it really overwhelming.”
She is working on Pembroke Ward, which cares for patients with cancer and blood diseases, and was previously on Britford Ward, caring for people who have had surgery. “I’ve really enjoyed both of them and I’ve learnt more skills that I’m able to put into practice independently,” said Lauren, of Salisbury. “I feel much more confident.”
Milly White said learning to carry out basic observations on the lifelike mannequins in the college’s ward had been helpful. “I’ve been on Imber Ward looking after older people and my second placement is on the spinal ward,” said the 19-year-old from Salisbury. “I’ve learned much more here, mainly how to talk to the patients, because we go from talking to a dummy to a real-life person.”
She got a real dose of reality when she watched a crash team rush to the aid of a patient. “It was my first week and it was crazy how everyone worked together so well to come and so fast paced,” she said. “You can’t talk about it enough in the classroom to actually understand what it is like, you have to witness it.”
Lilly Davies said she is enjoying getting to know patients at the spinal treatment centre, where the 17-year-old is working with fellow student Milly. “I like interacting with everyone, nurses, doctors and patients,” said Lilly, from Salisbury. “I think it’s easier to build a bit of a connection with the patients here and, because they’ve been here a while, they know the routine. Sometimes they’ll say ‘oh, you need to do it like this’ and the fact that they can show you is pretty cool.”
Lizzy Northam said knowing the basics from practicing in the college ward gave her an advantage. “It was really helpful knowing the theory and having some sort of hands-on experience with taking observations and manual handling,” said the 17-year-old from Salisbury.
Chrisvin Sanu, 18, of Old Sarum, said working alongside experienced staff and getting their feedback has helped him while working on the spinal and geriatric wards. “I have a good relationship with the staff, as well as the patients,” he said. “The staff work as a team and are all helpful and honest with me, which was a really good thing.”
Makanaka Chinodakufa, 20, said having the ward at the college took away some of the fear factor of going into the hospital. “It was still scary at first but having the ward here actually helped to prepare us to deal with the real world in terms of things like pressure sores,” she said. “The really interesting thing for me is learning the different conditions and how you try to address them for different people.”
Louise Wood, the college’s Healthcare Development and Relationship Lead, said the placements give students an invaluable opportunity to see if the career path they’ve chosen is the right one. “It’s completely valuable in every way to build their confidence and to ensure that they’re on the right path,” she said. “They can be sure that they’re choosing the right thing for themselves at quite an early stage, so they’re not getting further down that pathway and regretting it for any reason.
“It’s a fantastic chance to really open their eyes and broaden their scope because the placement rotation means they will see more than one area and come into contact with lots of different staff, they’re not just getting pigeon holed into one area.”
She said the feedback from the hospital about the students and their wok has been positive. “The feedback has been I great and it has really strengthened our partnership with the hospital,” she said. “They have been so accommodating in terms of what they’ve offered, and the practice education team has made sure the students are experiencing lots of different things, and that they are supporting them while they’re there, so they’re doubly lucky really.”
This is the first cohort of T Level students from the college to go on placement and its success has prompted the introduction of a new mental health nursing T Level next year. Said Louise: “It’s been fantastic and everything we hoped it would be, our students are getting incredibly valuable experience and it’s setting them up for their future career, so it’s great.”
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