Student nurses in Dorset awarded scholarships at local hospice
A group of five final-year student nurses from Bournemouth University are to receive funding and mentorship as part of a scheme to develop their career potential in end-of-life care settings.
They have been selected for the Lewis-Manning Hospice Care Palliative and End-of-Life Care Scholarship Scheme.
“It’s very inspiring and our charity is incredibly proud to be supporting the next generation of nurses in this way”
Hayley Bonner
All five are students from either the university’s BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing or Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship programmes.
Christina Keeping, Julia Copson, Jessica Ransome, Emelia Sargeant and Tina Wmith were selected from 24 applicants, following shortlisting and an interview process.
Each awardee will receive £3,000 in funding to support their professional development during the 2023-24 academic year.
They will also benefit from mentorship from academics and GPs, as well as wider clinical development opportunities made available to them through Lewis-Manning Hospice Care.
Among those selected for the scholarship, Ms Copson explained that her passion for palliative care had been inspired by personal experience.
“Sadly, I’ve lost both of my parents in the past five years. My dad died quite suddenly and was supported with end-of-life care for his final five days.
“My mum had a very different experience and was supported with palliative care for three years. Everyone has such different experiences with death, which inspired me to seek to study this further and apply for the scholarship,” she said.
Meanwhile, Ms Ransome said: “I had a unique experience as a student nurse on a placement in the Philippines for a month, where I worked on an internal medicines ward and A&E department.
“I also observed people’s different experiences of dying; it taught me so much. I have also worked locally with elderly people and people with dementia for over four years now as I am so passionate about supporting them at this later stage in life.”
She added: “One of my ambitions is to encourage more students into caring for and supporting older people as I believe this is so important.”
This scholarship opportunity is now entering its third year and is run in collaboration with the university, Lewis-Manning Hospice Care and the charity the Burdett Trust for Nursing.
Dr Sue Baron, principal academic from the Department of Nursing Science at the university, said: “The Lewis Manning Scholarship provides an amazing development opportunity for our final year nursing students.
“One of the goals for this year, identified by our award winners, is to work together to develop educational resources to support and enable health professional students to feel appropriately and better prepared for delivering supportive, palliative care to anyone who needs this.”
Director of clinical services at Lewis-Manning, Hayley Bonner said: “Our new students are brilliant and so passionate about growing their knowledge and skills.
“It’s very inspiring and our charity is incredibly proud to be supporting the next generation of nurses in this way.”
