Celebrating our apprentices: Alicia's story | News

Alicia Armstrong, 25: “Be willing to learn. If you’re on placement and someone is doing a procedure, ask if you can watch or help.”

Which apprenticeship? Registered Nurse Apprenticeship

Time it takes? It’s a three-year course. I’m in my final year and finish in December.

What made you decide to do an apprenticeship? I’d always wanted to be a nurse and I joined Royal Surrey in 2016 as a Healthcare Assistant (HCA) to find out more and get some experience. When I saw that the Trust was advertising a nursing degree apprenticeship, I thought this is my opportunity because I can study and get paid.

Pros and cons? It has been good but a challenge with Covid obviously. We haven’t gone into uni that much – the last part of the first year was online, then the whole of the second year, so it’s meant adapting to learning differently.

I really enjoy being on my placements and getting to practise clinical skills. When I hear lovely feedback from patients as well, that’s really special.

Advice to others thinking of doing an apprenticeship? I think the most important thing is to be as organised as possible, assign the time when you’re going to do your coursework because if you’re on placement, at uni, or back at work, there’s not much downtime. It’s also good to be willing to learn and offer to help out when you’re on a placement. If I see someone is doing a procedure while I’m on a placement, I always say ‘can I watch’ or ‘can I help?’