“Patients are so pleased when you say oh, I trained in Cornwall.”
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Two local mums are celebrating being the first registered nurses to qualify from the University Centre Truro and Penwith.
Toni McIntyre, a mum of three from Redruth and step mum Rebecca Armstrong, from St Austell, both qualified as Nursing Associates at the University Centre before taking the top up course to become registered nurses.
Neither nurse had far to travel from the University Centre to find employment, with both nurses securing high skilled jobs across the road at Cornwall’s main Hospital, Treliske.
“We’re home-grown nurses,” says an excited Toni. “Patients ask all the time, ‘where did you have to go to train?’ And they’re so pleased when you say ‘oh, I trained in Cornwall.”
Being a mum, for Toni to be able to further her career locally and live at home was essential. For Rebecca, having the new multi-million-pound STEM and Health Skills Centre in Bodmin on her doorstep, where student nurses train one day a week with the latest equipment in the health simulation suites proved ideal.
Asked how it feels to be the University Centre’s first Registered Nurses both students laughed and commented:
“Scary! Like it’s really nerve wracking; when you’re a student and something goes wrong on the ward, you go and ask the nurse in blue. Now we are the nurses in blue.”
Both students are used to pressure, having started their nursing journey as healthcare workers on the wards of Treliske during the Covid 19 crisis. Toni returned to work 17 years after first starting out in healthcare and Rebecca returned to higher education following 10 years in the Navy.
As mature students, they were worried about the academic side of the course. Both were surprised at how they adapted and said the support from the university tutors has been amazing. Both also praised the lifelike simulation suites at Truro and Bodmin and said the equipment was realistic to what they used professionally in the workplace.
Both agreed studying the Nursing Associate course first, which is filled with short placements, let them experience all the distinct roles within healthcare so they could then decide which sector they enjoyed the most and wanted to specialise in as registered nurses.
Rebecca has chosen to work in haematology and Toni is going into the critical care unit both at Treliske.
Tamzin Irvin, lead for Nursing and Allied Health at the University Centre Truro and Penwith, Comments:
“Their dedication, professionalism and compassionate care for patients throughout their course has been exemplary. It has been a privilege to support them through their NA qualification and now to see them progress to obtain their full nursing degree.
We are so proud to be giving local people such as Toni and Becca, progression routes within nursing and allied health and look forward to continuing to expand the local workforce further.”
