Caring Times, June 2018

The University of Wolverhampton is working with specialist mental health care services provider Cygnet Health Care to create a new generation of nurses.

Cygnet is one of the first providers to introduce Nursing Associate Foundation Apprenticeships into the independent sector as a way of addressing the national shortage of registered nurses.

Twenty one Cygnet employees (pictured below) who work for the organisation as support workers are studying to become nursing associates through the new Nursing Associate Foundation Degree Apprenticeship, which was launched by the Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing at the University’s Walsall Campus in March.

The role of a nursing associate aims to bridge the gap between healthcare support workers and registered nurses, enabling nurses to spend more time on clinical duties and take more of a lead in decisions about patient care.

Nursing associates are an important part of Cygnet’s strategy to simultaneously provide greater career development opportunities for their support workers, while also further improving the support they provide for the individuals in their care. ')}