Everyday we hear stories about the pressures on the NHS; lack of funding, low staffing levels and staff working to their limits. It could be very easy to slip into a discussion around politics and it’s influence on these issues but I would like to focus on the positives.
Universities across the country train thousands of Doctors, Nurses, Radiotherapists, Midwives, etc, every single year. At Sheffield Hallam University this current academic year, around 1,250 students started their first year of studies in Nursing & Midwifery, Social Work & Social Care or Allied Health. On average our Health and Social Care department has a 98% employability rate, meaning almost all of our students are in employment or further study within 6 months of graduating. So what are we doing to maintain our enrolment numbers and ensure the workforce is supplied with enough staff?
The Schools and Colleges Engagement team works closely with the Health and Social Care department and we have created a range of activities and tours to work with our partnership schools and colleges. Our activities aim to showcase the breadth of job options and help inspire students into considering a career in this area. May has been a busy month for health and social care activity, within 8 days we held or supported 4 different full day events.
As part of a project I’m working on, to increase the number of applicants in the Doncaster region applying for BSc Adult Nursing and selecting the Doncaster Hub as their first choice placement area, I helped design and run a new style event. We decided that in order to be accessible for those that may consider a career in healthcare, we should hold an event within the hospital itself. On the 11th May “Your Future in Healthcare” was held at Doncaster Royal Infirmary. In order to maximise attendee numbers we split the event into three sessions (Schools/Mature learners & current workforce/All interested).
We were incredibly lucky to have two inspirational lectures delivered by Professor Laura Serrant (@lauraserrant) and Jo McNamara (@SHURadiotherapy). The attendees were also able to meet staff who were currently working at Doncaster Royal Infirmary and find out about their professions. Overall, 139 people attended and we received comments such as “This event has helped me greatly understand what I can do going forward to get where I want to be.” We are now looking to replicate this event in the future and even looking to hold more similar events with our other placement providers.
One of our key activities that we run every year is our Health and Social Care Taster Days. This year we were able to run the taster days within our Healthcare facilities, allowing us to show off our Clinical wards, operating theatre and X-ray suite amongst other spaces. The students met with our ambassadors to discuss their chosen profession and those that didn’t know their direction had the chance to see exactly what’s out there and available. A number of students even left with a new career in mind due to being able to access information about courses they didn’t know existed but were better suited to them! We are very lucky to have a really strong pool of student ambassadors, they do an amazing job promoting their courses and helping students with their transition from school to university.
We also supported a recruitment event in Chesterfield with local trusts where we were able to direct attendees to further studies in order to access University education and even able to help students put their UCAS application in the following week in order to potentially start their course in September 2017.
So it’s not all doom and gloom, we as a University are working hard to support those considering a career in healthcare. There may be funding changes, staffing pressures and political uncertainty but I really love seeing how many people out there are still so passionate about these professions and how many students are excited to start their future in healthcare.
