THE FAB FOUR
Four college students from Wishaw have taken their lives in a new direction by following their dreams of pursuing a career in nursing.
Stephanie Cooper, Hannah Yates, Deborah Dalziel and Scott Brown are half way through their Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP) to Nursing course at New College Lanarkshire.
And they have all now received conditional acceptances to study a three-year BSc degree in adult nursing at University of the West of Scotland (UWS).
Their conditional offer of a place at university starting this autumn comes after a recent Scottish Government announcement that nursing student intake figures for the academic year 2018/19 are set to rise by 10 per cent.
Deborah Dalziel and her fellow students are among a new generation of would-be university student nurses who are choosing the nursing profession.
Deborah left Coltness High with no qualifications and took a job in a Glasgow contact centre, making and receiving calls for Sky and British Gas.
“I was a bit scunnered with it all,” admits Deborah, 27.
“My mum and sister-in-law are nurses and it always appealed to me. Until I was accepted for this course, I didn’t think I’d have a chance at looking at the prospect of going to university.
“Now, it’s all becoming real. I’m thinking about doing my Masters and becoming a nursing practitioner, which would allow me to prescribe medication. It’s one step down from being a doctor.”
Stephanie, of Coltness, worked as a carer at Kirknowe Care Home in Wishaw for eight years.
But when her son, Michael, was born in November 2015, Stephanie decided it was time for a change.
“Nursing was something I was interested in. I used to work night shift alongside a nurse and she pushed me towards it. So, I bit the bullet and applied for the course,” explained former Our Lady’s High School pupil Stephanie, 27, who has aspirations of specialising in dermatology.
“I was on the reserve list and found out a week before the course started that I had been accepted.
“I love the course and should have done it eight years ago. I’m fascinated by it.”
Dad of three, Scott, is a former railway track worker who was inspired to pursue a career in nursing after giving up his job to care for his sick grandad.
For a year, Scott would call at his 86-yearold grandad’s Newmains home to run daily errands and give him the care and support he needed.
When grandfather Charles Richardson lost his battle with cancer in January last year, Scott continued his caring role by taking a job as a community care worker with the Carewatch agency in Motherwell.
And when he learned of the SWAP to Nursing course at New College Lanarkshire, he decided to take it to the next level and apply.
“Before my grandad ended up getting not well, it was something I had never thought of,” explained Scott, 28, of Craigneuk.
“It is not something I thought I’d be capable of doing. Once I was accepted I decided to stick to it full-time.”
Former Braidhust High pupil Hannah had geared her chosen studies at school towards becoming a student nurse.
But when she failed to get the grades she needed, she embarked on a two-year Art degree course at Edinburgh Napier University.
“I did not want to do it to begin with,” admits Hannah, 24, of Netherton.
“It was not what I wanted. My heart was in nursing all along.”
She accepted a role as a support worker for adults who have a learning disability and then took a full-time job at Netherton Care Home.
Hard-working Hannah juggles college classes Monday to Wednesday with working 12-hour shifts in the care home Thursday to Sunday.
“Nursing has always been what I wanted to do. I didn’t think I was going to get on the course. It was like a pipe dream,” said Hannah.
“When I got my place, I was ecstatic. I was crying down the phone to my mum.”
SWAP is a partnership between colleges and universities in the West of Scotland which aims to support access to higher education for adults.
The SWAP to Nursing course is the equivalent to an HNC and provides an opportunity for students who are returning to education to obtain the university entrance qualifications required for nursing.
All subjects are taught and assessed as a continuous process, with no end of course examinations.
A combination of workbooks, practical activities, and written assessments are used to assess students’ level of knowledge and understanding.
Describing the news that the number of student nurses starting their course in the autumn is set to rise as “a move in the right direction,” Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland associate director Ellen Hudson said: “Scotland needs more nurses. Over the past year we have seen the highest ever rates of nursing vacancies within our NHS and significantly higher levels of nursing vacancies within the care home sector.
“Nurses are struggling to deal with increased workloads and we know more nurses will be retiring over the coming years. In our recent survey on safe and effective staffing, our members told us that a lack of nursing staff is having an impact on patient care.
“We are pleased that the Scottish Government has listened to our concerns and has recognised that in recent years Scotland has simply not been training enough nurses.
“Nursing is a rewarding profession and we need to ensure that student nurses have the funding, resources and support to be able to complete their studies and enter the workplace.
“We welcomed the Widening Access Commission’s proposal to review student funding and we will work with the Scottish Government to take forward this, and the other recommendations, to encourage people from a diverse range of backgrounds to choose nursing as a career.”