NCIC’s first cohort of home grown Nursing Apprentices have graduated to become Registered Nurses.
And the first group of Nursing Apprentices are now registered as Nursing Associates.
Many Trusts in North West will have NAs but we may be the first to have a graduate group of registered nurses.
Dr Gwen Baxter, Practice Development Lead at NCIC, said:
“We have many apprentices for the size of our organisation and it was only a few weeks ago we were delighted to learn we had already taken the initiative to develop assistant practitioners and nursing associates into registered nurses – we may well be one of the first in the North West to have done this.”
The consequences of COVID-19 and the various restrictions for celebrations means that over the recent months, the Trust’s graduating nursing apprentices (registered nurses, assistant practitioners and nursing associates) have received their awards from Dr Baxter. It is hoped university graduation ceremonies will be held in the future.
Dr Baxter added:
“The current nursing apprentices are continuing with their studies through the pandemic, they and their recently graduated colleagues have supported redeployees and the aspirant nurses who responded to the need for staff, as well as continuing with their own studies, without their usual input from the universities, managed to hold their families together and work in extraordinary circumstances.
“They are to be applauded to have kept going.”
Kathleen Conway, Recruitment Specialist for Practice Development Lead, said:
“The Trust has come together to support our own staff to develop and become qualified nurses. A lot of staff have supported this group and they are the first ones. As a relatively small Trust we develop more of our staff than any other Trust in the region and are at the forefront of apprenticeship nurses.”