Posted: 6 February 2020

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust welcomes first intake of Nurse Cadets

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is working in partnership with Buckinghamshire College Group to deliver on-the-job experience to future healthcare workers and create career pathways for young people. The Trust is the third in the UK to be offering this experience, following on from pioneer projects in Cumbria and Norfolk.

The Nurse Cadet Programme offers young people, studying Health and Social care, the opportunity to take their first steps towards becoming qualified nurses and healthcare practitioners. The placements are in a variety of settings allowing students to gain valuable hands-on experience and exposure to different areas and roles within the NHS whilst working alongside staff in caring for patients at Stoke Mandeville, Wycombe and Amersham hospitals. Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has taken on 15 cadets in its first intake.

Ruth Machado, Education Lead for Professional Development at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “This is such an exciting opportunity for the Trust. The scheme will help to ensure we have a pipeline of future nurses and health care assistants.  We hope that after their placements, the cadets will choose to come and work at one of our hospitals or as part of our community team or go on to study nursing at one of the local partner universities.”

Nurse Cadet Emma said, “It is a great opportunity to care, to serve and to help patients. The variety of placements means we get to experience lots of different areas within the hospital and work with a range of clinical staff.”

The Trust is looking forward to welcoming a second intake of Nurse Cadets in March this year.

For more information, or to follow the journey of the Cadets, please follow @CadetsNurse on Twitter or  @Nurse_Cadetstv on Instagram.