Mother of two excels in Mental Health Nursing Studies degree
Laura Washington graduates with First Class Honours after achieving an exceptionally high mark of 86.17% in her BSc course in Mental Health Nursing Studies and is pictured with Pro Vice-Chancellor of Learning and Teaching Professor Tim Thornton.
Mon, 17 Nov 2014 13:34:00 GMT
“...I came into university quite late, but I would say to anybody – give it a go...”
LAURA Washington saw a lot of life before she decided to follow the career path that truly interested her – the specialised field of mental health nursing. Highly successful degree studies at the University of Huddersfield have now fully equipped her for the next phase of her future.
Mother-of-two Laura, aged 37, has graduated with First Class Honours in her BSc course in Mental Health Nursing Studies. She scored exceptionally high marks of 86.17% over her final two years, meaning she is among the top five students of all those graduating at the November Awards Ceremonies, for which she received a coveted Chancellor’s Prize – awarded to the students who earn average marks over 80%. Now she has begun work in a highly-demanding full-time post.
The University of Huddersfield BSc is actually Laura’s second degree. After leaving school she studied and graduated in psychology, which gave her an interest in mental health care as a possible career.
“But life kept getting in the way!” she said.
Relishing the challenge
Laura lived in Australia for several years and held a sequence of office jobs. She returned to England and settled back in Huddersfield. She was married with two children by now, but decided on a change of direction in her career and enrolled on the degree course, which requires students to undertake a sequence of work placements. Her first was on a dementia ward for older people with severe behavioural problems and it was, she confesses, a “massive shock to the system”.
“But I thought, if I can get through this I can get through most things,” said Laura, who went on to relish the challenge of a wide variety of placements, predominantly in community health care settings. Meanwhile, she was excelling at the academic aspects of her course.
Shortly after completing her degree she took a post in a psychiatric intensive care unit in Wakefield, as a member of a team that cares for psychotic patients who are extremely ill. “It’s a locked unit and the patients are under section and some are aggressive.”
“I was nervous before starting there, but it has gone really well and I really like it,” said Laura. “We are a big team, so I feel completely safe. Some of the patients will have their illnesses for the rest of their lives, but we can certainly make them better than they are.”
Other fields of mental health nursing, such as early intervention, are areas that Laura might consider in the future. She also has an interest in psychotherapy.
Meanwhile, she is glad she returned to University and made her change of career.
“I came into it quite late, but I would say to anybody – give it a go.”
