Hundreds of Sheffield Hallam healthcare students volunteer to join NHS workforce

Over 600 final-year nursing and allied health students from Sheffield Hallam University have volunteered to join the NHS workforce immediately and help battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

This includes 376 nursing students who will be joining their NHS colleagues sooner than anticipated as part of the UK’s response to the virus.

The healthcare students are in the final six months of their degrees and will become paid volunteers. The posts will support key staff involved in the fight on the frontline – including nursing, midwifery, paramedic practice, operating department practice, radiotherapy and oncology, diagnostic radiography, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and end of life care.

Registration operates on a voluntary basis. Training sessions are being delivered by academics from Sheffield Hallam’s College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences to help prepare students for the frontline. The sessions will provide the latest Covid-19 guidance, oxygen therapy, advice on how the students can look after their own mental wellbeing and guidance on the necessary personal protection equipment. 

Professor Sir Chris Husbands, Sheffield Hallam University Vice-Chancellor, said: “I am immensely proud of our final year healthcare students stepping up to join the NHS during this extraordinary crisis. Their confidence to volunteer is a testament to the excellent teaching they have received from colleagues in the College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences. The support they will be able to provide to key workers on the frontline will be invaluable. I wish them well and encourage them all to ensure they make full use of the advice and guidance on the personal protection equipment they will be provided with.”

Sheffield Hallam is one of the largest providers of nursing, midwifery and allied health professions education in the UK. This includes education and training for all fields of nursing – adult, child, mental health and learning disabilities.

Read more here https://www4.shu.ac.uk/mediacentre/hundreds-sheffield-hallam-healthcare-students-volunteer-join-nhs-workforce