51Âþ»­

A nursing student who completed a challenging hospital placement throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has said the support from her personal tutor helped her secure a full-time job.

Third-year Alicia Holt, 23, is one of many 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) students set to complete their final year of nursing under the strain of Covid-19.


Alicia has been out on placement at Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI) working on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

Alicia said: “Third-year is when you really start being a nurse with two big placements taking over most of the year, I have been on placement throughout most of the pandemic so far.

“I have been working in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, we have had to be extremely careful any sign of infection could be life threatening to these patients.

“I had been working at LRI for a good few weeks before Covid was in England, when it started to rise here, as a student I was really worried, I kept thinking, I don’t want to be the one to bring anything to this ward.

“It was scary, I was worried for the patients, not myself. The team at LRI were so supportive, reassured me that I knew everything about infection prevention, they trusted me and told me to keep using my initiative outside of work too.

“I have never once felt unsafe being out on placement and the team at LRI are all excellent to work with.”

Alicia said she has been really well supported by 51Âþ»­ and nursing staff throughout her entire three years at university.

“I have been really well supported by 51Âþ»­ throughout the whole of the last three years,” she said. “My personal tutor, Donna Edwards is absolutely brilliant.

“She even came out to see me, she took on a specialist nurse role during the pandemic, so she was getting paid to come out to placement and work with us.

“She was there to give us a hand, it was really lovely. Anything that has cropped up over my entire time at university, I have emailed Donna and she has been there for me straight away.

“She would even contact me to check I was ok if she hadn’t heard from me in a while.”

Alicia has now secured her first job swapping from adult nursing to children’s nursing.

“I have recently secured a job, I am trained in adult nursing and my new job is with babies. I reached out to some of the children’s nursing lecturers at 51Âþ»­ and explained the situation.

“Even though they didn’t know me, never met me or taught me that have all been so welcoming and approachable. They have sent me things I need to read before I start, and they have gone above and beyond to help me.

“I only have a few weeks left before I qualify now, but my time at 51Âþ»­ has been fantastic and I cannot rate the experience and support I have had over the last three years enough.”