Care worker Alison lands nurse apprenticeship
A senior care worker is taking advantage of the career progression offered at National Star by training to become a nurse. Alison Dreezer, known as Sonny, joined National Star two years ago and is working as a senior care and support worker (facilitator) at Elizabeth House, Gloucester. In September, she’ll start her four-year nurse apprenticeship, which will result in her qualifying as a Registered Nurse.
‘I can’t wait to get started. I love learning and I always wanted to be a nurse,’ says Sonny. ‘My youngest child starts senior school in September and I want a career now. The children have reached a stage where they don’t need me so much and this is something that I want to do.’ Sonny has worked for more than two decades in care. She can remember the defining moment when she knew that she wanted to become a nurse.
‘I was working at a care home where I was caring for someone at end of life. The lady needed a medication to calm her as she was getting very agitated and the agency nurse couldn’t get to her.
‘I spent the night watching this woman in such distress and suffering. Everything I needed to make a difference was there in that room but I couldn’t administer it because I wasn’t qualified. I decided then I couldn’t watch such suffering again and not be able to do something.’
National Star employs a team of part-time and full-time nurses in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, including a number of specialist learning disability nurses. They ensure that all the day-to-day needs of students and long-term residents are met. They are on hand to offer advice, support and guidance regarding health and wellbeing to colleagues, students and residents.
National Star offers a range of apprenticeships to staff who have worked at National Star for two years. In September Henry Turner, an in-residency physiotherapy assistant and James Harper, a physiotherapy assistant at Ullenwood, begin their physiotherapy degree apprenticeships. They will be joining Thea Du Monceau who begins the third year of her physiotherapy degree apprenticeship.
View National Star’s current vacancies and discover more about embarking on a career with one of the region’s most respected care and education providers.
