Rochdale nursing associate visits the House of Commons

Ayesha Leonard has recently qualified as a nursing associate and works at Nye Bevan House

A newly qualified nursing associate at Rochdale has attended a prestigious dinner at the Houses of Parliament to share her learning experience.

Ayesha Leonard has recently qualified as a nursing associate and works at Nye Bevan House in Rochdale as part of the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale integrated care team.

She was invited to the House of Commons in February as part of the Greater Manchester Trainee Nursing Associates legacy cohort 2017. The event which was hosted by Lord Willis of Knaresborough, on behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and Health Education England, was a celebration of the first nursing associates joining the NMC register.

The nursing associate role was launched in a bid to bridge the gap between healthcare assistants and qualified nurses, and to supplement existing nurse recruitment. Nursing associates have to complete a challenging two-year course at university before they can qualify in their new roles.

Ayesha started her healthcare career in 2005 as a healthcare support worker. She said: “I wanted to become a nursing associate as I felt like I had many skills from my previous role, but I wanted to broaden my knowledge base and gain more clinical skills which could be utilised with any team in a healthcare setting. 

“Nursing has always been my passion and I felt that I had more to offer if I underwent further education.  The nursing associate programme allowed me to do that and now that I am qualified I love going out there and putting into practise the skills and knowledge that I have gained. Feeling that I have been able to help somebody on a higher level fills me with pride.

“I really enjoyed the celebration dinner in London as I felt that it was a fitting end to my two years of training. My background in healthcare helped me immensely and I am proud to say that I was offered two jobs before I had qualified!”

The Northern Care Alliance Group, which Rochdale Infirmary and its integrated community services belongs to is one of the first hospital groups in the country to be involved with the initial nursing associate pilot project set up in 2017 and the new nursing associates are amongst the first wave of new trainees to graduate the course. A total of 44 new nursing associates have been trained across the NCA group, with seven of those graduates working within Rochdale Infirmary and the integrated healthcare teams within the community.  

Shirley Fisher, assistant director of nursing HMR integrated neighbourhood teams, said: “We are delighted that Ayesha has joined our team as a fully fledged nursing associate. She has worked extremely hard throughout her training period and we are confident that she will now demonstrate a high level of compassion and care delivery with our patients.”

Suzanne Drury, lead for clinical workforce transformation, explains more about the new nursing associate role and how it will help transform patient safety and care on hospital wards: “The new nursing associates will play a key role within nursing teams throughout the hospital. They will work with our healthcare assistants and registered nurses to deliver first class care to patients. Their role will provide vital support to registered nurses, with their duties including a variety of clinical tasks including cannulation, venepuncture and ECGs. They will also perform and record key clinical observations such as blood pressure, temperature, respirations and pulse checks, all of which will help to improve the care patients receive on wards.

“Their training has been rigorous and they have gained a range of experience across all fields of nursing, which can only benefit the care and treatment we offer to patients. I’m sure they will be a very welcome addition to our wards.”