Made in Barnsley ambassadors visit Trust HQ
We welcomed 15 Made in Barnsley ambassadors from Penistone Grammar School to our Fieldhead Hospital headquarters recently.
The Made in Barnsley Programme is an expansion of the successful Sheffield Cutler’s Better Learners, Better Workers Programme which currently works with 29 secondary schools across South Yorkshire. Building on the success of Sheffield, Barnsley Healthcare Federation launched the Made in Barnsley project three years ago, which links healthcare, engineering and construction sectors with schools and provides successful students with opportunities to become better prepared for the world of work.
This was the third annual visit of ambassadors to Fieldhead to learn about NHS services. The day started with a visit to the Trust’s mental health museum, where Arshad Mahmood gave an insight into the history of mental health care.
Ambassadors also learnt how to recognise signs of stress and talked through techniques for dealing with their own stress levels with Rhyann Morley from Barnsley IAPT.
As part of the day, the ambassadors had a question and answer session with the Trust’s director of provider development, Sean Rayner. Sean explained how he had joined the health service, his previous roles and what his job entails on a daily basis.
Next it was onto Yorkshire Smokefree where the ambassadors learned about the dangers of smoking from Neil Carr, as well as how the team support people to quit.
Over lunch Natalie McCarthy, education and training co-ordinator told her own story of how she re-engaged with education, qualified as a nurse and roles she has held within the NHS.
The ambassadors finished their day with a visit to the clinical skills training room to learn basic life support/resuscitation skills from Trust resuscitation manager, Simon Gillot. Ambassadors learnt how to look for signs of life, keep an airway open and revive a dummy.
Trudy Warner, operational support officer, who co-ordinated the day has been working with the young people as part of the programme. She said: “This is the third year that we have welcomed the Made in Barnsley ambassadors to Fieldhead. Our young people are always very interested to hear about the history of mental health care in our region, from the historic asylums to today’s modern health and wellbeing services. We hope that our day inspires the ambassadors to consider a career with the NHS and look forward to seeing them in the future.”
