All student email, Thursday 7 May 2020

Dear student,

We hope you are looking forward to a warm and relaxing bank holiday weekend. In today’s briefing, we hear how nursing students and staff are working in, and with, the NHS frontline to fight COVID-19. You can also read about how you can still take part in the ever-popular annual Bud’s Run as the fixture changes to adapt to the current restrictions on events.

Today’s updates includes:
• Birmingham Heroes - Nursing students and staff supporting the NHS frontline
• Bud’s Run

Birmingham Heroes - Nursing students and staff supporting the NHS frontline

Students and staff from across the School of Nursing have been supporting the NHS by undertaking extended placements, gearing up to work in the Nightingale Hospital and working directly with NHS staff to improve their skills.

A number of third year BNurs students put themselves forward to undertake ‘extended placements’, meaning that they will be situated in partner NHS Trusts, including University Hospitals Birmingham, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s, and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust. The students are working in frontline services providing direct care to patients and have already provided positive feedback on the experience so far.

Several members of staff have had their inductions at the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham in preparation for volunteering while Ronnie Meechan-Rogers, Linda McGrath, Professor Annie Topping and Louise Beesley have been helping NHS clinical education teams to develop skills for staff for going into the new hospital. Elsewhere, Jane Nicol and Dr Amelia Swift have been supporting the Worcestershire Community Inpatient Unit and the Intensive Care Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital respectively, while Lorna Hollowood has been working with the clinical education team at Hereford Hospital.

You can find out more about nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic by reading this editorial in the Journal of Clinical Nursing by Professor Caroline Bradbury-Jones and colleagues.

Well done to colleagues in the School of Nursing! 

Bud’s Run

The University’s Head of Athletics, Luke Gunn has pioneered a running challenge in honour of Endurance Coach, Bud Baldaro who suffers with Parkinson’s disease. Every year, we normally host a 5km ‘Bud’s Run’ on campus to raise money for Parkinson’s UK, and this year in the changing circumstances, Luke, alongside Scholarships Officer Hannah England have reached out to their running communities to try and raise a whopping £26,200 for the charity, by running a collective 26,200 miles!

It started with the 2.6 Challenge a few weeks ago, and since the team have raised £6000 and 6000 miles. Anyone can ‘donate’ their own miles that they run, or cash if it can be spared, on the Justgiving page, and this weekend Luke and fellow Coach, Dean Miller, ran their own 26km (16mile) longest runs over the weekend for the cause, and Performance Centre Physiologist, Ollie Armstrong, clocked up an amazing 26miles in a run/walk combination on Sunday.

Stay up to date by following them on Facebook or Instagram, and why not donate a few of your own miles to the cause, by commenting on the Justgiving page?


Best wishes and restful bank holiday weekend
Student Communications Team

Colleges

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