L-R: Tina Smith, Emelia Sargeant, Julia Copson, Jessica Ransome, Dr Sue Baron, Christina Keeping, Dr Jackie Dominey and Hayley Bonner.Five final year Adult Nursing students from the BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing and Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship programmes at Bournemouth University have been selected for the Lewis-Manning Hospice Care Palliative and End-of-Life Care Scholarship Scheme.
Christina Keeping, Julia Copson, Jessica Ransome, Emelia Sargeant and Tina Smith were selected from 24 applicants, following shortlisting and an interview with Dr Sue Baron, Principal Academic from the Department of Nursing Science at Bournemouth University, Dr Jackie Dominey, a local GP and Trustee at Lewis-Manning, and Academic Advisor and Professor Sue Green, Deputy Head of Department of Nursing Science, Bournemouth University.
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 Dr Dominey and Dr Baron, as well as wider clinical development opportunities made available to them through Lewis-Manning Hospice Care.
Julia explained that her passion for palliative care had been inspired by personal experience. "Sadly, I’ve lost both of my parents in the past 5 years. My dad died quite suddenly and was supported with end-of-life care for his final 5 days. My mum had a very different experience and was supported with palliative care for 3 years. Everyone has such different experiences with death, which inspired me to seek to study this further and apply for the scholarship," she said.
Jessica added, "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 4 years now as I am so passionate about supporting them at this later stage in life. 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 BU, Lewis-Manning Hospice Care and The Burdett Trust for Nursing. The Burdett Trust for Nursing was established in 2002 with the aim of making charitable grants to support the nursing contribution to healthcare. The Burdett Trust for Nursing Trustees focus their funding on three key areas: Building nursing research capacity and capabilities; Building nurse leadership capacity and capabilities; Supporting local nurse-led initiatives.
Dr Sue Baron said: “The Lewis Manning Scholarship provides an amazing development opportunity for our final year nursing students. I am yet again extremely impressed by the talent and passion they have shown, and the aspirations expressed by this year’s applicants and award winners during their final year. 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."
Dr Jackie Dominey added, "I am looking forward to working with such an enthusiastic group to raise awareness amongst professionals of supporting palliative care, it’s great to have these new scholarship students onboard.”
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.”
