Shelley Harrison always wanted to be a nurse, but it was never anything more than a distant dream until she took the plunge and signed up to an apprenticeship.
The most nerve-wracking moment of Shelley Harrison’s nursing apprenticeship was her first day in a surgical theatre.
“I love doing the whole placement you have to do on an apprenticeship, but that was really scary!” Shelley says. “I wanted to make totally sure I got the infection control process right and it is a very specific process for scrubbing in, right down to how many times you wash your hands.
“Then you need to be really careful once you’re in theatre; there are things you can’t touch and other things you can’t go anywhere near. You even have to make sure you don’t touch your own scrubs in certain places.
“This was all new to me because I’d been doing all my training on the ward. It was scary.”
Shelley laughs when she thinks about how she dealt with her worries.
“I basically just stood there dead still – hardly daring to breathe! – with my hands pressed together in front of me. The rest of the team thought it was so funny.
“I explained I’d never been in theatre before and they were brilliant about it, right down to the surgeons who explained everything they were doing in a way I could understand.”
Shelley is due to finish her Nurse Associate apprenticeship in 2023 and then she will be a fully qualified nurse – a goal she couldn’t have hoped to reach without apprenticeships.
“I’ve worked as a Healthcare Assistant for years and always wanted to be a nurse, but I couldn’t afford to go to university for years to train, especially after I had my second daughter,” she says. “But when I came back from maternity leave, I told myself ‘I’m going to do this’ and I signed up for an apprenticeship.
“That decision has made a massive difference to me and my family and I’m really proud I’ve done it,” Shirley adds. “I have a lot more opportunities now and on top of that I’m more confident looking after my family and we can afford better holidays!”
Shelley recommends anyone who wants to get into – or get ahead in – healthcare thinks about an apprenticeship.
“Doing my apprenticeship has been tough and a fast learning curve. There’s a lot of on-the-job training and academic work to do, as well as a lot more responsibility day-to-day for patients’ wellbeing.
“But there is also a lot of support, including practise assessor, who is my mentor.
“I have regular meetings with her, and she checks whether I am up-to-date and whether I need any support.
“When I go on placements, I also have practise supervisors who help me work through learning plans and competencies.”
So, even though her apprenticeship been a lot of hard work – particularly with a one-year-old to juggle on top of her day job as a Health Assistant – Shelley urges anyone interested to go and find out more.
Circle Health Group’s Learning and Development team, responsible for apprenticeships and further education across the company
“An apprenticeship gives you chances you wouldn’t get otherwise; I’m going round the ward trying to get all my colleagues to go on it!”
Shelley is already eyeing her next apprenticeship, a theatre development programme where she would learn about anaesthesia and being a scrub nurse.
Which means she could soon be the one helping out the new apprentice who is standing like a statue in the corner of the operating theatre, worried about touching – or even breathing – on the wrong thing…
To discover more about apprenticeships and careers with Circle Health Group please visit https://www.circlehealthgroup.co.uk/
