Ashleigh Rudd has been on a work placement at MK Hospital for around six months. Currently studying Level 3 Health and Social Care, she is just about to complete 500 hours of valuable work experience.

Having worked on a variety of wards, Ashleigh has been shadowing nurses and health care assistants, and has learnt to perform a variety of tasks on real patients.

Ashleigh’s Story

“I’ve always wanted to work with children, and I can’t think of anything better or more rewarding to do as a job than helping poorly children get better. I thought about going to Sixth Form but I knew that having to take different A-Levels wouldn’t offer me what I wanted”, explained Ashleigh.

Health and Social Care students are required to complete their hours at a variety of work placements. In addition to MK Hospital, students have worked at MK Snap, YMCA, dementia-specific care homes and many more local establishments. This offers students the chance to find out what life working in the industry is really like, and to help them decide which path they want to go down.

On a typical day at the hospital, Ashleigh is paired with a Health Care Assistant that she shadows throughout the day, helping with things like taking and reporting observations of blood pressure, oxygen levels and general health, making beds, assisting with serving meals, interacting with patients, and much more.

What have you learnt?

“I’ve learnt how to deal with a wide variety of patients from watching how the nurses and staff interact. Everyone is different, and you have to learn how to read people’s body language and facial expressions to find out how they’re really feeling and how you should approach the situation. People can sometimes become aggressive or violent, which I found intimidating at first I’ve learnt how to deal with different situations appropriately”.

“Ashleigh has matured massively, she has come out the other side a different person. Not only has she grown in confidence in her skills, but in herself and her people skills. Six months ago she was shy and timid, but now she’s able to interact and work alongside senior nurses and managers with confidence in her ability”, commented Claire Jelley from the Private Education Department at MK Hospital.

Students on placements at MK Hospital have also worked alongside staff on the Surgical and Paediatric wards, giving them the best chance to scope out where they might like to work in the future.

Ashleigh has been offered a place to study Child Nursing at three different universities and is currently deciding which one to take up.

Interested in Health and Social Care? We have Advanced and Intermediate courses available, as well as other related subject areas. Take a look at our course finder for more information.