Earlier this year we celebrated National Apprenticeship Week and featured Casey Bilson who is one of two Trainee Nurse Apprentices.
It’s the first time we have undertaken a nursing apprenticeship that could see Casey become one of the first fully qualified nurse through our own apprenticeship programme. We were intrigued by this so wanted to find out more…here’s what Casey told us.
“I suppose my journey started more than ten years ago when I was a Student Nurse. I didn’t finish the course for personal reasons, including the financial side, which is something I’ve always regretted.
“Since then I’ve worked in primary care, including the past eight years as a Healthcare Assistant, mainly at Bowling Green Surgery in Leicester, but could never shake the feeling that I could be a nurse. Then, with DHU’s support, I had the opportunity to take on the Assistant Practitioner Apprenticeship that gave me additional skills and responsibilities. Since then, things have really changed for me.
“Two Student Nursing Apprenticeships became available at DHU so I applied and was so pleased to be accepted. It’s a dream come true for me because this two-year course, if I successfully complete it, will mean that by the end of it, I will have my nursing qualification without the financial pressures that I faced ten years ago.
“I’m only around five months into the course but I love it. You learn as you do the job so experience it properly and gain experience as part of your qualification. I’ve been doing vaccinations, health promotion, NHS health checks, involved in screening programmes and spending time with specialist in COPD, cardiac, diabetes and much more with even more to come.
“I have the support of my manager and colleagues as well. Zoe Hunt is our Clinical Practice Development Lead and my personal tutor, I have regular meetings with her to assess my strengths, weaknesses and how to progress. For example, I’ve never worked in acute care so this is an area of development for me. I can access different nursing specialties as part of my learning which is opening up so many areas of interest for me.
“Zoe and our Clinical Service Lead Julie A’Lee have been amazing in supporting me through this. I feel like I’m righting the wrongs of my past and I can only do that thanks to the support of them and DHU’s apprenticeship programme.
“It genuinely means everything to me; it’s my dream and I thought I’d missed my chance. My aim is to become a practice nurse with DHU at one of our Leicester GP surgeries where I’ve been working as an HCA, it’s what and who I know and I can bring that experience with me into the role. I’m so thankful to have this opportunity to finish what I started all those years ago.