Not only are we student nurses, we are also service users
- Zoe Carciente
- Apr 11, 2019
- 2 min read
We are student nurses, we spend our days in lecture rooms, on placements, studying, researching, our minds working overtime on all the information we need to process.
We started this journey not knowing what to expect and not knowing where our place would be in the university – a place so much bigger than our previous educational establishments.
On 5 March, we made a mark on the BSc child nursing course. We were part of a group of students from different fields who sat in front of a panel from the Nursing and Midwifery Council and university regulators answering questions and putting forward our views at the 2019 validation and programme approval event for BSc nursing.
Our university received the go ahead from the NMC and university regulators that the course we have worked on tirelessly for the September 2019 intake is accepted.
We say ‘we’ because students were involved in the process from the onset and worked collaboratively with academics, service users and clinicians. We are all stake holders and our university recognises this.
As students, during the validation process, we were invited to give feedback on the new 2019 programme, we have fed back information from our cohorts to university staff, and felt included and validated as students. We helped make a change and most importantly, helped shape the course for the future student nurses.
Not only are we student nurses, but we are also service users. Services users of Middlesex University. To be given a voice in helping to make a difference to future students showed us the importance the university places on its service users.
As third-year and second-year student nurses, we have overcome a lot of challenges to reach this point as service users of Middlesex University and faced varied new experiences.
Some were challenging personal circumstances, others were in one or two placements and the reality of incremental degree of academia as the different levels of study kicked in. Middlesex as a university has always supported us and it was our time to support the university through validation.
Through our time at Middlesex University, we have been involved in different aspects, from representing the cohort as student voice leader to student learning assistants, facilitating in seminars with our lecturers, involved in the progression of other student’s academic studies and seeing the difference we can make.
With nearly 20,000 students in Middlesex University, we have helped to make a difference. It’s exciting to see the changes that will be made and it’s exciting to see the students that will grow from the new programme.
We wrote this blog to encourage our peers to get involved and be invested in your own and others learning. It is especially important when people are invested in you.
We are of the opinion that valuing people and their contribution is a major trait of any future nurse.
Published in the Nursing Times, 3 April 2019
Written together with Millie Page
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