April 24, 2020 4.36 pm This story is over 47 months old

Nearly 100 Lincoln student nurses join NHS coronavirus front line

A big boost to the local NHS workforce

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Nearly 100 final year student nurses from the University of Lincoln will be joining the front line NHS Lincolnshire teams to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The student nurses will be joining all three Lincolnshire healthcare providers at the end of April following a national call for nurses-in-training to step up and serve in the fight against coronavirus.

They will play important roles in supporting acute hospitals, community services, and mental health and learning disability services. They will be matching their skills to meet particular needs in the local area as follows:

  • Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust is expecting to have 17 student nurses. Two student nurses will work on community hospital wards, two in urgent treatment centres. The remaining students will be spread across the county in the community teams
  • Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will benefit from 20 student nurses working countywide in both inpatient and community-based mental health and learning disability services
  • United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s workforce will be strengthened by a team of nearly 60 student nurses, who will join its frontline staff to work at Lincoln County Hospital, Boston Pilgrim Hospital and Grantham Hospital

Anita Lewin, Director of Nursing, Allied Health Professionals and Quality, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said on behalf of all of the providers: “We are enormously grateful to the students who are joining Lincolnshire NHS as it faces an unprecedented challenge. It is by no means an easy way to start their career.

“Students will be working alongside our dedicated staff in Lincolnshire hospitals, community, mental health and learning disability services, putting their much-needed skills into practice to support us in keeping our services going throughout the pandemic. They will combine their final stages of nursing training with paid NHS roles, and we are indebted to colleagues at the University of Lincoln for their support in helping us to achieve this.

“On behalf of all Lincolnshire healthcare providers, I want to say thank you to the new generation of NHS staff who are stepping up to help us at this challenging time”.

The university added that it has “great confidence in our students that they will make a valuable contribution working alongside other NHS frontline staff in our local hospitals and other health settings”.