Health and Social Care students at Newbury College were given a walking tour of the Royal Berkshire Hospital on Tuesday 27 January by Health Education England, Thames Valley (HETV) as part of the widening participation strategy.
Six students from the Health and Social Care course were given the opportunity to have a walking tour of the hospital departments, both frontline and behind the scenes, giving students an insight into work opportunities available within the NHS. Students also took part in a discussion around local public health issues.
Health and Social Care Placement Co-ordinator Val Aspray who attended the tour said, "This was a great opportunity for the students to see the wider range of career opportunities within a hospital setting first hand and be able to see areas that they may not have had the opportunity to see before for example the pharmacy and phlebotomy departments as well as A & E. The students were able to ask questions to the very approachable staff about the different areas and have hands-on experience trying out the automated external defibrillator (AED) on Resusci Annie. Students thoroughly enjoyed the visit and it was a great experience for them!"
Walking tours of the Royal Berkshire Hospital have been open since December 2014 and have proven to be popular. The NHS would now like to see the opportunity available in hospitals in other areas. In order to promote the Health For Youth project, which has been sponsored by HETV, a short film will be made of Newbury College's walking tour of Royal Berkshire Hospital to be showcased on their website.
Health Education Thames Valley has been developing a new work stream which supports the promotion of careers in the NHS, seeking to widen participation from all sections of our community, and which looks to develop new relationships between local education institutions, the NHS and wider healthcare providers.