Nottinghamshire Healthcare has been a long supporter of the Armed Forces Community and recognise the valuable contribution, wealth of experience and skills that Armed Forces personnel and their families bring to the organisation and that this contributes to the delivery of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led patient care.
In supporting the Armed Forces, the Trust has signed up
to the Armed Forces Covenant and NHS Employers Step into Health
programme. Armed Forces and their families include service leavers, reservists,
veterans, Cadet Forces adult volunteers and spouses, partners and families of
those serving.
For Armed Forces Week, we’re sharing
stories from our reservists and veterans who, having had a career in the Armed
Forces have now chosen to continue their career in the NHS.
Angela Holland started work at the Trust at the beginning of
last year as a Research Delivery Assistant (RDA). Angela had not planned on
being a reservist. It was only when she went to Australia and New Zealand on a
working visa and met someone that was talking about the fitness training they
did with the Territorial Army, that planted a seed for what would become an
exciting career move.
Angela Holland |
“I thought nothing more about the Territorial Army (now
known as the Army Reserves) following my trip to Australia. However, a seed had
been planted,” says Angela. “I have a
weight issue and started to lose weight doing a lot of running and fitness
classes after I returned home. The Army
started its ‘Be The Best’ advertising campaign and because I was getting
fitter, I wondered if I was fit enough to join.
I was a jewellery repairer and designer at the time, but I love to
explore and to learn new things. Being
offered the opportunity to train to become a Combat Medical Technician (CMT) as
an army reservist was very exciting. My
CMT role has gone on to shape and direct my civilian career into the NHS.
What made you decide to work for the NHS and what is your
role?
“Because of my CMT work, I applied to work for East Midland
Ambulance Service. However, I have
always had an interest in finding out more about research and how
evidence-based practice informs the way we do things within the NHS. I would hear about clinical trials and
changes that had been made because of those trials and wanted to get more
involved. The ambulance service tends to
a lot of patients with mental health issues and I wanted to be part of a team
that helped to improve mental health and wellbeing services for patients and
staff within the NHS. I applied for my
job as a Research Delivery Assistant (RDA), based at the Institute of Mental
Health, last year and started in January 2021.
How does your NHS work compare to your work you undertook
in the Armed Forces?
“My civilian role and working environment is very
different to my army role, especially if I’m on exercise and living in the
field. Responsibilities for CMTs can
include supplying medical support on all kinds of operations and exercises:
giving first aid on a battlefield, helping with medical evacuations in hostile
conditions, working in primary healthcare or occupational health, providing
medical training and health education to the wider army. You have to be more aware of the natural
environment and the weather during army work and training because you are
exposed and vulnerable to it, but your training helps you to prepare and adapt
to this.
“I’m currently a member of 212 Field Hospital Army Reserve
unit. Our hospital has a 200 bed
capacity and can operate almost anywhere in the world at short notice and is
sustained by drivers, chefs, healthcare assistants, specialist nurses, doctors,
operating department practitioners, trauma surgeons, antitheists, physiotherapists,
pharmacists, radiographers, biomedical technicians, and many more. When deployed we have similar types of
equipment you would find in any NHS hospital but instead of walls, we have
green canvased tentage that link together to make our hospital the size we
need. Our hospital is stored in ISO containers
and we help build or dismantle our hospital.
Whilst this is happening, we may still have to treat patients. Sleeping accommodation is in the form of a
sleeping bag on camp beds under green tented canvas or on a roll mat under a
basher. If we have the use of a field
kitchen, we can get amazing food from the army chefs. If that is not available, we use 10 person
rations or individual 24-hour ration boxes that we warm up ourselves.
What qualities and skills have been transferable to life
working in the NHS?
“Although being a CMT is very different to being a RDA, the
training you get in the Armed Forces is varied and very transferable. In the army, you are taught to be a soldier
first, to be self-reliant in looking after yourself, especially living in the
field, but to also took out for your team – ‘a buddy-buddy system’. Army training is structured and reliable,
this is really important when your working environment could change at short
notice or you find yourself in an unfamiliar situation. Because of this, you learn to be organised
and pro-active. You are taught the
importance of listening and follow orders.
Then as you progress up the army ranks, you learn management
skills. You can command and control any
situation by giving out structured orders and delegate tasks to your team. You learn about the responsibilities that
come with your job role and that people rely on you to do your best, to ‘Be The
Best’ for your team. You train and live
in extreme situations, learn to adapt quickly, become resilient and all these
skills matter when working for the NHS during a global pandemic.
Have you supported the work in the vaccination centres?
If so, what was your involvement?
“The Institute of Mental Health is a partnership between
Nottinghamshire Healthcare and the University of Nottingham and has a catalogue
of their own study trials. Normally, I
would be trained to work on some of those studies but due to the global
pandemic, I have been dispatched to help work on Urgent Public Health Covid-19 study
trials as they are a priority at the moment.
I am currently supporting work on the ‘Comparing COVID-19 Vaccine
Schedule Combinations’ (Com-COV) study trial and will soon be helping with the
Medicago vaccine study trial.
In what ways have you been supported by the Trust as a veteran/reservist?
“My manager Julie Mernick, Senior Research Delivery Nurse for the Research Delivery Team
at the Institute of Mental Health, has never had a colleague that is a member
of the Army Reserves. Julie is very
interested, supportive and has been very accommodating in giving me leave to
accommodate my reservist training, despite the fact I only started working with
the Trust in January this year.
“The Trust has several documents and policies that supports
colleagues that are members of the Armed Forces and promotes flexibility for
any employee that needs to attend annual training.
If you are currently employed in the armed forces and interested
in exploring future employment opportunities at the Trust, why not check out of
vacancies: recruitment.nottshc.nhs.uk/
For further information about careers in the NHS Working in health |
Health Careers
For further information about the NHS Employers’ Step into
Health programme, visit the Transition into an NHS career
| Step Into Health (militarystepintohealth.nhs.uk) or email jackie.hogan@nottshc.nhs.uk.
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