The partnership between the University, the Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and London Road Surgery in Bedford will allow student nurses to carry out clinical placements in General Practice, gaining new skills in this area.

The scheme’s first placement student is 38-year-old Cassandra Pinner, who is in the final year of the University’s pre-registration Adult Nursing degree

“This scheme allows me to gain skills in a totally different style of nursing to those required at the hospital. A GP’s surgery is most people’s first port-of-call and so the diverse range of reasons why people visit is what makes the job so appealing,” said Cassandra, a mum-of-two from Kempton.

“With this experience I can go on to join a GP surgery feeling confident that I can provide a great standard of healthcare and fulfil all competencies expected. I look forward to a future in this brilliant environment, providing the best care for my patients and expanding my skills and knowledge.”

The University’s Director of Practice Learning in the School of Healthcare Practice, Dr Mark Wareing, said: “We have been using clinical placements for pre-registration healthcare students within GP practices for several years. Although valuable in terms of providing an insight into primary care, these placements were relatively short in duration and limited as students were at times, only able to ‘shadow’ healthcare professionals.

“Through our partnership with Bedfordshire CCG, we have been able to develop a range of new assessed placements for final year pre-registration nursing students who have expressed an interest in a career as a practice nurse as their first destination after graduating.”