Thinking of a career in healthcare? An increasing number of people are: the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to be responsible for a surge in people applying for healthcare qualifications. 

If you are one of them, this Saturday, October 3, will be perfect chance to understand the partnership of education, clinical practice and research provided by the Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery (OSNM.) Tutors, students and graduates from the school will share their experience at the Oxford  Brookes University Undergraduate Virtual Open Day.

Among speakers will be Kate Riddle (picture above, right), deputy director of nursing at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, and Hajrah Yousef who graduated from Brookes 2010 as a mental health nurse and nowadays works as ward manager at Littlemore Mental Health Centre. 

OSNM is partnership of Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Health Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust, overseen by Academic Health Sciences Centre. Established in 2017, the school aims to Aim to re-frame nurse education, nursing practice, scholarship and research to promote excellence in each area through greater integration and synthesis.

Director of OSNM, and Oxford Health governor, Dr Mary Malone says: “We benefit from excellent collaborative working with leading local health care providers.

“The variety of placements available locally in Oxford and Swindon is a real benefit of our courses. Our students can get experience in physical health, mental health and community health settings.” 

 “The variety of placements available locally in Oxford and Swindon is a real benefit of our courses. Our students can get experience in physical health, mental health and community health settings.” 

Kate Riddle, Deputy Director of Nursing at Oxford Health, says: “We are very fortunate to have this partnership locally and delighted to able to offer placements in mental health and community health settings for future healthcare professionals.”

“There’s a huge variety of job roles in healthcare and equally great range of opportunities for career progression,” she says.

“The collaboration between Brookes and local trusts of course helps the local recruitment challenge, with the hope that students gaining experience in the local trusts will want to continue their nursing career with us.”

Hajrah Yousef did just that. Born and bred in Oxford, she went to OSNM in 2010, and couldn’t praise her experience more.

“It was amazing,” she says. “I found it was very well organised and I was pleased with the level of independence we students had. Most of all, I was impressed by the tutors’ commitment to us; how accommodating they were and ready to find a solution if there ever was a difficulty.”

At Brookes Open Day, Hajrah will give a ‘whistle stop tour’ of her career progression since graduating in 2014 and opportunities she’s had. She is a mental health nurse, working as a ward manager on a learning disability and mental health ward at Littlemore.

“There are opportunities for development and upskilling if you are a mental health nurse with an interest in learning disability nursing,” she notes.

She will also talk about how COVID-19 has been managed on the wards.

“I was involved in the first wave of coronavirus pandemic at Littlemore Mental Health Centre and it was intense. Now we are of course entering the second wave. We thought it will be important to discuss this as people may have anxieties about placements,” Hajrah says.

The Open Day sessions will include: 

• Living and studying in Oxford and Swindon
• Scope and diversity of placements in each NHS trust
• Newly qualified nurses’ talking about their experience
• Hajrah’s experience of her career progression. 

To see the whole Open Day programme and to book your place, see Oxford Brookes Undergraduate Open Day.

More information about studying nursing and midwifery can be found on the Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery webpages.