Case study: Emma, Student Nurse | Blog posts

Emma is a Student Nurse at the Mid Yorkshire Hospital’s NHS Trust who began her career as a Healthcare Assistant after leaving school. She started her career following her personal dream to be a nurse and has never looked back. 

I joined the Trust as a Healthcare Assistant about six years ago, I currently work in Cardiology at Pinderfields Hospital.

I’ve always known I wanted to be a nurse, so in school and college I took health and social care related subjects and A Levels. I applied to four Universities and I got in all of them to study a Nursing Degree, but at the time I lived with my nana and I didn’t drive, so I worked out with my student finance this traditional route into nursing would leave me struggling.

I would have had no money to travel, no money to pay my nana board and I didn’t know how I would get to university to be ready on shift for 7am. So, instead I decided to take another direction, I took a panic job in a care home for initial experience and this was my gateway into hospital health care.

After some time, I was able to apply to be a Healthcare Assistant and absolutely loved it! I got to work with experienced health care professionals and got mentored by a previous healthcare assistant who helped teach me everything I know. 

I was able to care for people and get to know them on a personal level whilst they spend time on my ward.  It was lovely to be able to see them improve in their conditions and eventually leave out care. Some days the roles ups do come with the downs but I would say these are outweighed most the time if you truly are passionate about what you do.

From being a healthcare assistant, I became a Registered Nursing Associate, working 8-9 months in that role before applying to be a Registered Nurse, which I will be qualifying at the end of March 2023.

All these opportunities wouldn’t have been possible without the Trust funding my degrees and giving me the opportunity to earn a good wage, have protected learning and have flexibility with my shifts.

I will now have my degree with no debt, which I think is great way to learn and progress from a Healthcare Assistant.

I am so grateful for the opportunities given to me by the Trust and I am glad I’ve nearly made it to my dream role!