T-LEVEL healthcare student Kass Maun showed how well she has absorbed the qualities needed to care for patients when she came a close second in the South West Skills Challenge at Wiltshire College & University Centre.

She was competing against students from three other colleges in the annual test of healthcare ability, which this year was held in the teaching ward of the Trowbridge campus.

Quality and Innovation Lead Rhian Ramsden said the challenge, which comprises four tasks, is designed to test students’ knowledge and aptitude – and above all their adoption of the profession’s six Cs – care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment.

“They are the guiding principles of British nursing and each of the four tasks were focused on at least one of them,” said Rhian.

Kass, and students from Swindon College, Stroud College and Bath College and The Guernsey Institute, competing for the first time, were first asked to make a presentation on one of three topics around cultural impact on healthcare.

Next, they had to grade pressure sores. “We had a patient with pressure sores on their heels and the student had to grade the pressure sore and then find some information out about why it happened, and then present that,” said Rhian.

The third task tested students’ ability to converse with a patient showing signs of dementia and speak to them in language they could understand. “It was a test of their patience and being able to communicate,” said Rhian.

The final test looked on the face of it to be a straightforward examination of a new patient, but, said Rhian, there was more to it. “What they were actually being tested on was whether they recognised that the person they were talking to was a safeguarding risk,” said Rhain.

“It was a handover of an elderly person from a care home into an assessment unit at a hospital. They were clearly unkempt and the student had to pick up the fact that this was a safeguarding concern from the care home and hand this over to a senior member of staff.

“It was a test of their courage as much as anything else because it’s not an easy thing to do, to speak out.”

She said Kass scored particularly high marks in this round. “She did particularly well because she really did pick up on the fact that the patient wasn’t being looked after and was very concerned.

“It was not just the courage to talk to the patient but also to be able to go to someone else and to raise the safeguarding issue because as soon as you do that, you open a can of worms and there can be serious consequences, but it takes courage to do that.”

Her performance left her just one point behind the eventual winner, Lily Hawke from Guernsey. “There were only four points in it, the lowest place was 30 and the winner got 34, it was a very close competition,” said Rhian.

“The standard was really high and it was so close because the students all competed really, really well. They had really good clinical skills, empathy skills and personal skills. It really was what we want to see from our next generation of healthcare workers.”

She thanked judges Brendan Ardner-Forsdyke, from Wiltshire Council, Kitt Richardson from NHS North Bristol, Cashmir Binding, a staff nurse from Swansea Bay University Health Board and Karen Bentley from Totally Living Care. “Thanks also to all the college staff who helped by acting as patients for the challenges,” she said. “Everyone helped make it a really great day.”

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