Three Dutch nursing students have come to the end of their 3-month placement at Basildon Hospital. They have been working alongside experienced nurses in our accident and emergency (A&E), ambulatory care (AMU) and neonatal intensive care (NICU) units.
Anne te Focht 18 (AMU), Nikki van der Lans 18 (A&E) and Sophie Kok 19 (NICU) are all students on the same nursing course at Nova College in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
They were placed at Basildon University Hospital and spent three months in their main areas of AMU, A&E and NICU, getting the experience of an acute hospital setting - along with additional placements in CTC Theatres and Dermatology.
“I don’t see myself doing anything else - being a nurse is in me” said 18-year-old Nikki to which Anne and Sophie quickly agreed.
“It’s great to have experienced first-hand what it’s like to work across so many different departments and wards. In A&E I learnt how to react in acute situations and how to work under stress.” – Nikki continued.
“Before my placement on NICU I had never held a baby. Initially it was hard because these are pre-term babies. Now I am a lot more confident. It’s grown our confidence being here – we were initially really shy but not anymore, “said Sophie.
“Now we come in everyday ready to help, we’ve seen ourselves grow. We would tell our student nurse friends at home just do something like this, it really helps with confidence. At first you’re worried about speaking English to people as it’s not our first language. After a few weeks that goes and if you don’t go for it you won’t get anywhere. This is a really unique experience” The girls continued.
Catherine Green Professional & commissioned education facilitator for our hospital group said:
“The benefit of placements like this is to understand how nursing works in other countries. It enables student nurses to meet new people and experience a different hospital culture. It’s been great to watch the student nurses grow and become more confident over the last three months. “
