Two mothers are celebrating being the first registered nurses to qualify from the University Centre Truro and Penwith.

Redruth mother-of-three Toni McIntyre and St Austell step-mother Rebecca Armstrong qualified as nursing associates before taking the top-up course to become registered nurses.

Neither had far to travel to find employment, with both women securing highly-skilled jobs across the road at the Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske).

Being able to further her career locally and live at home was essential for Toni, who said: “We’re home-grown nurses. Patients ask all the time, ‘Where did you have to go to train?’ They’re so pleased when I say I trained in Cornwall.”

Rebecca attended the new multi-million-pound STEM and Health Skills Centre in Bodmin, where student nurses train one day a week with the latest equipment in the health simulation suites.

“When you’re a student and something goes wrong on the ward, you go and ask the nurse in blue,” she said. “Now we are the nurses in blue.”

Both students started their nursing journey as healthcare workers at Treliske during the COVID-19 crisis. Toni returned to work 17 years after first starting out in healthcare, while Rebecca returned to higher education following 10 years in the Navy.

As mature students, both adapted easily to the academic side of the course, with support from university tutors.  

The Nursing Associate course is filled with short placements to enable students to experience a variety of roles within healthcare and decide which sector they enjoy the most. Rebecca has chosen to work in haematology and Toni is going into the critical care unit, both at Treliske.

“Their dedication, professionalism and compassionate care for patients throughout their course has been exemplary,” said Tamzin Irvin, lead for Nursing and Allied Health at the University Centre Truro and Penwith. “We are so proud to be giving local people like Toni and Becca progression routes within nursing and allied health, and look forward to continuing to expand the local workforce further.”

Applications are still open to study at the University Centre Truro & Penwith in 2024. Find out more and register for an open event at www.truro-penwith.ac.uk/uni