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Lucy is a Student Nursing Associate. Explore how she reached her current position from the training and qualifications she's completed to what brings her joy in the role. 

Overview of current role

Setting: Charitable organisation supporting homeless and inclusion health.

I support people who have addictions coming to the charity for support when they are physically and mentally unwell. We support them over a short and intensive period of time to get back on a level where they can go out into the community, they have a blank slate to rebuild their lives. I have a lot of colleagues who are in recovery themselves and working with people who have had addictions changes the way you look at the world. My role is the first within the charity to be supported through an apprenticeship to the nursing associate qualification. This means I work full time with one day a week in university and the rest of my time in my organisation or placement for learning.

There is no typical day, but all of my time is spent with people, sometimes doing telephone assessments and supporting admissions and discharges.

How did I get here

I started out doing a degree in History thinking I wanted to be a history teacher but when it came to it, I wasn’t sure, so I got a job at Tesco on the customer service desk. At the time I knew I wanted to do something different, so I applied for a job with a charity as a support worker.  I had some lived experience with my brother being an addict and I think that drove my passion. The first day it just wasn’t what I thought it would be, but I stuck at it and by the second week my manager noticed that despite the chaos I was really settling in.

I thrived in my role and learned so much from the teams and my nursing colleagues noticed how keen I was to learn so they gave me their time to support my learning which was a positive influence. I am really grateful to those nurses who took that time and taught me so much about empathy and resilience that I needed to do this role, and my success is a credit to that. My organisation is supporting me through the nursing associate apprenticeship programme, and I am due to qualify this year and move into permanent role. My hope is to go onto to do a registered nursing degree programme.

What brings me joy

I love seeing people succeed. I supported someone whom I sat with for three nightshifts whilst they were going through detox from an addiction. They moved on into rehab and I bumped into them in the street recently to hear that they now volunteer in the service. The time you put into someone really makes a difference and it’s great to see them grow.

Qualifications and education

• A Levels to get into University 
• BA (Hons) in History
• Functional Skills Level 2 in Maths 
• Pre-registration Nursing Associate programme

Training, knowledge and skills

• experience of working with people 
• resilient 
• knowing when to ask for support, seek reflective discussion or debrief
• keen to learn from others and hear different perspectives
• understand the value of lived experience and collaborative team working
• perseverance to pursue academic qualifications whilst working full-time.

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