My Journey From Healthcare Support Worker to Student Nurse

Laura reflects on her journey from Healthcare Support Worker, to Student Nurse and gives insight into things you should remember.

Topics Covered In This Article

Introduction

Have Belief In Yourself

Experience Is Key

Learning To Deal With Pressure

Unfounded Worries

Conclusion

Introduction

Hi everyone, my name's Laura.

Today I'm gonna be doing a video about my transition from a healthcare support worker to a student Nurse.

Now a bit about my background.

I've been a healthcare support worker for many years within the NHS.

And last September, I started my journey to become a Nurse. So I'm currently a first year student in my local university. I'm studying on a part-time basis.

So I work part-time as a healthcare support worker and I study part-time. The courses run over four years.

Have Belief In Yourself

So I always wanted to train to be a Nurse, but life and my circumstances, they kind of got in the way.

I've got young children, I needed to work to earn a regular income.

So it was always that thing of going to university full time wouldn't really be an option for me.

There's been many times throughout my journey as a healthcare support worker where I wanted to train to be a Nurse, but I didn't believe in myself. I didn't think I would be capable of the academic side of training with the university work.

And I also could see the responsibility the Nurses had and I wasn't sure if I was capable of being good enough to become a Nurse

So it took me a long time from being a healthcare support worker to build up that confidence in myself, to be able to go forward and apply and become a student and do my training.

I think sometimes as healthcare support workers, especially when you've been a healthcare support worker for a long time, we can fall into the kind of, not a rut but we can become comfortable in our role.

And we don't wanna come out of our comfort zone.

And I think sometimes pushing yourself to do something perhaps you wanna do, but you might not believe you can do it, it's just having that confidence to take that first step.

And I think I've had a lot of support from work colleagues, family, and friends which has helped me believe in myself and given me the kick I needed to actually pursue my Nurse training.

So that was my one concern when I first took on the role of a student Nurse was the belief in myself.

Experience Is Key

So I know for a lot of you if you're a healthcare support worker and you wanna make that transition, I think you need to realize a lot of the experience you've got that is absolutely vital in your Nurse training to have the experience as a healthcare support worker behind you.

I think we need to realize how important that is and how lucky we are to have that experience.

So going in and starting my course, I feel a lot more ready for the course. I feel a lot more able in things I'm doing on placement.

A lot of it comes natural to me and I don't want anyone to be afraid of pursuing their dream of going on and becoming a Nurse, because they're too comfortable at the moment.

So that was my main concern. I thought, oh, can I really do this?

Am I capable of doing it?

And I think we don't realize how much qualities we've got as healthcare support workers that are just brilliant in the steps of becoming a student Nurse.

And we can take them forward with us on our journey and then build on them to become really good, registered Nurses.

Learning To Deal With Pressure

So a concern I do have at the moment is obviously is the direct responsibility of patients as Nurses, that we are gonna have.

So when I finally qualify as a Nurse, I will be the main person who is there to assess the patients and put things in place to care for them and plan their care, and how that care is gonna be delivered to the patient.

That's gonna be down to me, whereas as a healthcare support worker I'm used to just following on from the Nurse, so being guided by the Nurse and just providing the basic care aspects to a patient but I feel my journey even so far, like I've only started in September, I can see it is gradually building up.

And although it's a concern for me, I can see at the end of it, I would've built up a good foundation to be able to deal with that.

And I will become a good Nurse for it. And for having the experience of being a healthcare support worker.

It's been a really good experience transitioning from a healthcare support worker to a student Nurse.

Unfounded Worries

All my worries, when I thought I wouldn't be able to do the academic side of things, I thought, well I've been out of a studying environment for so long.

I didn't think I'd be able to manage with the essay writing, with exam work. And it has come, I find my experience from being a healthcare support worker helps me in the academic side of work too, because I'm able to relate to the work that's being given to me.

And I can reflect upon experiences from being a healthcare support worker. And I can incorporate that then into my university work.

So I'd just like to really encourage anyone out there who is a healthcare support worker and is thinking do I look at taking the next step to becoming a Nurse?

Is it worth it for me?

Am I capable of doing it?

I think just, if you can speak to colleagues around you, perhaps speak to your local university, just have that, just that little bit of courage to take that step and apply and you will see it will all slot into place.

And I think it is a brilliant opportunity for people, especially healthcare support workers to just take that next step and progress in your career.

Conclusion

And it's just been a really wonderful experience so far.

So I just hope it continues to be so and I continue enjoying it, but yeah if anyone's got any questions about how they go about applying or they need any more information and please comment on the video, I'd be only too happy to help and I'll get back in touch with you.

But yeah. Good luck to anyone who watches this and thinks, right, that's it.

This is my wake up call now I'm gonna go and apply.

I wish you the very best luck, bye.