Download Jane Roberts – case study

Jane Roberts – case study
Jane Roberts, a mother of two, has been trying to become a nurse since the age of 18.
When she left school at 16, bringing in a salary was more important. She took a job in
finance and tried again several times to start nurse training, but the entry requirements
had changed and for various reasons it never seemed practical. When Jane gave up a
senior manager’s role in Marketing and Customer Services at Jersey Post to have a
baby daughter, who was born prematurely, she realised that perhaps money wasn’t
everything.
Jane joined the Health Care Assistant nursing bank in 2000, between the birth of her
daughter and the birth of her son in December 2001, after which she tried again to train
as a nurse. Jane was prepared to sell her house and her husband planned to leave his
job for them to the move to the UK for her to study because there was no opportunity to
do it on Jersey.
Jane commenced an Access course in further education to enable her to gain the entry
requirements for a Nursing Degree in a University in the UK as there was no training
available locally. Channel Island residents are unable to access the Diploma Nursing
Course in the UK as they are exempt from the NHS Bursary system. Therefore, Jane
was deemed to be an overseas student to which entry onto a Degree Nursing course
was the only option and which is becoming extremely difficult.
Then in 2004, the opportunity arose for Jane to study with the Open University (OU) and
gain practice within Jersey’s Health & Social Services (HSS). This allowed Jane to stay
on Jersey with her family, stay in full-time employment, and train to be nurse. Jane was
a full-time Health Care Assistant on Portelet Ward at Jersey General Hospital when she
joined the OU Nursing Programme. The programme wasn’t easy, and took careful time
management – Jane juggled studies, a full-time job, her placements and caring for two
small children.
She says: “At the OU it was very self-directed learning. It was very time-managed
because from my point of view I had to get the children to bed every night and do my
study of an evening. I was juggling full-time study and working in practice as well, this
would not have been achieved without the total support of my husband and family which
enable me complete the four years of my training.
Today Jane works as registered nurse at Jersey General Hospital, on the Renal Unit
carrying out dialysis for patients with Kidney failure, and is looking forward to taking up a
further 6 months of her 12 month development post on a Private Patient’s ward before
she’s able to apply for a permanent post in Health and Social Services.
“As the first students of OU nursing, we really challenged people’s outlook or views on
training in Jersey. It was good for us as students and good for the H&SS too, because
as students with the OU we questioned practice and we offered different perspectives
as we learnt more about contemporary care issues. The support we have had from all
colleagues across H&SS has been very supportive”.