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Students try their hand at working in the health industry
Patrick Allanah, Jennifer Abazuwa, Blessing Matthew, with Bev Prynn, Careers & Employability Officer at CU London, and Manisha Modhvadia, Healthwatch Officer, Sadia Akhtar, Henna Nicole Dhina Ali, and Natel Allen, Employer Engagement Manager at CU London
Degree news / Student news
news
Friday 21 December 2018
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A group of Health & Social Care students based in London have been given their first taste of professional life after participating in a hands-on work placement.
Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham, an independent body which scrutinises local care services, recently welcomed six first-year students from CU London on a three-day placement.
The students, who stepped out of the classroom for their first mandatory work placement as part of their Health & Social Care course, took part in a range of community activities that included visiting local practices and observing the problems faced by patients and GPs.
The placement also gave students an insight as to how the NHS, local authorities, and the voluntary sector work in collaboration to improve health and care services.
Healthwatch has offices across the UK and supports the improvement of care facilities in regions across the country.
Manisha Modhvadia, Healthwatch Officer for Barking and Dagenham, said:
The students played an active role in helping to find out why patients are having to wait such a long time before being able to get a GP appointment.
They were trained as Enter and View Representatives and undertook visits to four different GP Practices across the borough with the support of Healthwatch staff.
All six of them performed very well and made valuable additions to the team while they were here.
I hope their time here has provided them with some valuable experience, and some useful knowledge ahead of successful careers in health and social care.
Students also visited Barking Library, Dagenham Library, The Ripple Centre and Barking Walk in centre to speak to service users about the areas of health and social care they thought needed to be looked into in the near future.
Bev Prynn, Careers and Employability Officer at CU London, said:
Our new partnership with Healthwatch in Barking & Dagenham has really taken off recently and working together has proven very successful.
Our first group of students have been working in the local community, engaging with employers, and offering other support services in the local area. They have already built up good relationships with Healthwatch and would like to continue their next placement with them, which is really encouraging.
Discussions have been held on how the placement can support the learning outcomes of their assignment enabling the activities to relate and give them the good quality experience.
At CU London we encourage our students to have the best opportunities available to them including working with valued employers. Placements are beneficial for our students as they gain practical experience relating to their course. We are excited about the relationship we have established and hope to continue the process of placements for our students.
