Vida Healthcare is celebrating after taking on over eighty nursing and paramedic placement students as part of its partnership with the University of Bradford.
Since the relationship between the two institutions began in 2020, Vida Healthcare – the UK’s leading provider of specialist dementia care – has seen 48 mental health and adult nursing students and 40 trainee paramedics from the University take on placements at its care homes.
The placement scheme provides the students with the opportunity to transfer classroom knowledge into clinical skills, and the chance to build confidence and competence working with Vida’s specialist nursing and care staff.
The patient-centred course sees the students undertake hands-on exercises, alongside equal amounts of theory work, providing them with the opportunity to experience a range of different nursing and social care specialisms.
Former University of Bradford student Summer Marshall, who is preceptorship nurse at Vida Grange, commented: “Before I started my placement at Vida Healthcare I had a preconceived conception about what it meant to work in the social care sector, but when I came on my placement here it completely changed my views.
“The team at Vida really does care about its residents, and it was wonderful to see the team treat residents like members of their own families.
“The knowledge I have gained while on my placement is so valuable and the training has opened my eyes to a care approach for people living with dementia that I hadn’t heard of previously. I loved my placement so much that I decided to return to Vida Healthcare once I’d completed my nurse training – I feel incredibly valued here and feel passionate about providing the best possible care to the residents. It’s an absolute pleasure to be part of the Vida family.”
Bernadette Mossman, healthcare director at Vida Healthcare, said: “Our partnership with the University of Bradford allows students to make informed decisions about health and social care. It enables them to have a clearer awareness of the opportunities in social care and break down preconceived ideas about the sector.
“Offering students the chance to share best practice and work jointly has been an utter pleasure for us and allowed multi professionals to join our team at Vida, giving them their very own career pathway.”
Ithsham Tariq, placement development officer in the School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership at the University of Bradford, commented: “This has been a very successful partnership which has been built on a shared commitment to educating our future workforce in health. Vida Healthcare has shown that they are willing to invest in our nursing students, not only with their time but also their expertise in dementia care.”
