News: Tahya explains what it’s like to be a Level 3 apprentice for Nottingham City Hospital

Tahya Fells is currently working as a Senior Healthcare Support Worker at the City Hospital and was a recent award winner at our 2022 Apprenticeship Awards.

She’s a year into her Level 3 role at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) after deciding that she wanted a more hands-on approach to learning and undertaking a apprenticeship.

An apprenticeship can be a fantastic route into a healthcare career and we currently have a number of apprenticeship vacancies within the health sector available to apply for on our website.

Apprenticeships give you a mixed approach to learning a new skill – combining practical work with traditional, theory-based study.

Our Senior Healthcare Support Worker apprenticeship spans a range of healthcare areas, such as adult nursing, maternity, mental health, theatre support and more. In these roles, you will be assisting hospitals with a range of caring tasks. In Tahya’s case, she provides support on an admissions unit where she deals with short-stay medical admissions. 

“In the morning the patients come to us before they go to theatre. So, we’ll do their observations, get them changed, send them off to theatre and then we’ll take their belongings to the ward. Because of the pandemic, we often get sent to help at the wards. So, in the morning you’d do a handover, you’d find out which bay you’re assigned to, you’d help wash the patient and every couple of hours you would have to do turns.

Observations would be things like taking their pulse and their blood pressure. On my ward you also have to do a standing blood pressure reading as well, just in case it drops, as it creates a risk of falling after theatre.”

Each apprenticeship we offer is different and may require a set level of experience or certain qualifications. For example, the Senior Healthcare Support Worker apprenticeship requires you to have English and Maths qualifications, either as a GCSE or Functional Skills qualification. Our apprenticeship team will be able to support you in your application and put you onto relevant courses, such as Functional Skills if you do not already meet the entry requirements.

We asked Tahya about who she thought would suit a Senior Healthcare Support Worker apprenticeship and what led her to choose the apprenticeship herself. 

“I was doing Health and Social at college and I found it very interesting. I’ve always wanted to look after people and care for them the best I can. If you’re considering this apprenticeship, I’d say that you’ve got to want to look after people. Handling personal care isn’t the easiest thing to do, so you must be a naturally caring person.”

A role in healthcare can be very rewarding. If you’re looking for a career where you will be able to make a difference in society, by helping others, it’s worth talking to us about the apprenticeships we have available.

“The best part of my job is being able to help the patients. When I help with washing patients in the morning, it’s really rewarding to see them looking and feeling better. When they come into the ward, they can also be a bit nervous so it’s nice to be able to talk to them and make them feel more relaxed. I’m so glad I chose this apprenticeship to do.”

This apprenticeship can lead to a variety of roles and in most cases, you will be able to progress onto a full-time job straight away. For those that need a little more time or more experience to help them decide on a career path, Nottingham University Hospitals offers a temporary staffing service called NHSP.

“At the minute, I don’t know what speciality I want to go into so I’m just observing as much as I can to help me decide. Once I finish this course, I’ll look into something called NHSP, where you can pick up shifts online in a variety of wards. So, you can go into a wide range of departments.”

We offer a comprehensive range of business solutions to help you realise your workforce potential. Whether you are looking to recruit apprentices, train your existing staff or address any skills gaps; we can work with you to develop what you need.