An “exciting and varied” placement for students who are training to be mental health or learning disability nurses has been launched.

The Healthcare Landscape Nursing Placement involves a select number of departments which have agreed to accept student nurses for one week at a time, providing them with a unique opportunity so they can gain experience within services they would not normally get to work on.

A total of nine nursing students have now completed the placement at the Northampton-based charity, having worked across a wide range of services, to name a few; REDS Recovery, Infection Prevention Control (IPC), Research, Pharmacy, Quality Assurance and PALS and Complaints.

Rachael Garner, lead for the initiative, said: “This exciting and varied placement provides nursing students with an insight and deeper understanding into the wider departments involved within patient care here at St Andrew’s Healthcare. This opportunity provides varied opportunities and an overview of all the different services we provide here at the hospital.”

Uzoma Ezeh, who has completed the Healthcare Landscape placement, said: “The value of this placement should not be overlooked. During my placement I worked in PICU, the CAMHS college, Pharmacy, IPC and the Governance team. Doing a week with each team with access all areas, has given me a wonderful insight into how they work, so once I have graduated, it will make me a better nurse as I will have a deeper understanding of other services.”

So far, two cohorts of third year nursing students have completed the Healthcare Landscape placement. The next group are due to start in September.

Adebayo Emmanuel Komolafe is also another student who has also recently completed his placement. He said: “It was incredibly interesting working within different teams on a weekly basis. It was also very insightful and has definitely enhanced my knowledge in this profession.

“Being a part of this placement was a real lifetime opportunity and I’m so grateful that I got a chance to be a part of it. Everybody who I worked alongside were so knowledgeable about their jobs, so I learnt such a lot and it’s inspired me.”

For more information, please contact Rachael Garner (Preceptorship Lead) or Katie Phillips (Clinical Placement Lead).