Velindre placement nominated for prestigious national award

16 February 2024

Velindre Cancer Centre’s Student Nurse model has been nominated for a national nursing award.

The First Floor Ward has been shortlisted for a Student Nursing Times Award in the ‘Student Placement of the Year: Hospital’ category for a hub and spoke model in the practice learning environment.

The model was implemented at Velindre Cancer Centre with the aim of improving students’ experience and knowledge of the cancer patient journey.

It allows student nurses to experience a wider variety of clinical areas beyond that of the existing team model, which restricted students to the single inpatient unit. These areas are:

• The Assessment Unit
• The SACT Day Units
• Clinical Trials
• Theatres for Brachytherapy
• Ambulatory care
• IV Access Clinic
• Outpatients
• Clinical Nurse Specialist-Led Clinics

The project found the student nurse experience was excellent and they gained a valuable insight and understanding of the wider cancer patient journey.

One student said: “I often thought that cancer care as a nurse could be very much doom and gloom and I was nervous about coming here, but it isn’t, and I was so glad to experience good news being given when scan results were good.”

Another student said: “This one of the best placements I have had. I have achieved loads of competencies and learnt so much. Everyone is very knowledgeable.”

This way of providing a student placement was a significant change for the organisation as it now involves the wider teams outside of the inpatient environment.

The change has been embraced and the hub and spoke model is now fully embedded into the organisation. The project also has the potential to increase placement capacity in the future.

Nicola Williams, Executive Director Nursing, Allied Health Professionals and Healthcare Scientists , said:

“I am so proud of the team for what they have achieved here. They have recognised how important it is that we give student nurses a positive learning environment and that we maximise the opportunities for them to have as rounded and varied experience as possible so that they can become our next generation of graduate nurses. To achieve this in the current extremely challenging times is amazing.”

About the Awards

The Student Nursing Times Awards is hosted every year by The Nursing Times and celebrates nursing education.

The ‘Student Placement of the Year: Hospital’ category seeks to recognise the wards and hospital settings that go the extra mile to manage the anxieties associated with going on placement, by providing a structured learning environment that helps students to develop and flourish.

This includes clearly setting out what students will be exposed to during their time at the hospital, and ensuring they are supported to learn, practise skills and gain knowledge from those around them with more experience.

The 2024 awards’ ceremony will be held on Friday 26 April at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel in London.