Healthcare Assistant to Doctor; Celebrating our staff for International Women's Week | Latest news

“Go with your instincts, they are always right.”

Meet Amy, one of our Foundation Year 2 Doctors

Born and bred in Nottingham, Amy has been fascinated by the human body from a young age. She remembers being intrigued when growing up, watching her Mum, who has type 1 diabetes, inject insulin daily. Biology was her favourite subject at school; she went on to study it at University in 2009. However, the course didn’t turn out to be quite as human biology focused as she wanted; leading her to leave University to explore some of the world!

Later, whilst traveling in Vietnam, Amy developed a kidney infection, as was poorly with this. She couldn’t shake wanting to understand exactly was happening inside her body. After recovering, in 2010 she enrolled in a Bio-Medical Science degree in Leeds, which included a year studying in Sydney, where she joined her Brother who was also living in Australia.One morning, whilst brushing her teeth, she could hear something, which turned out to be a woman in labour in nearby toilets. Finding herself again in situation where her fascination with the human body grew, Amy returned to Leeds to complete her degree, graduating in 2013. A couple of years after graduating, Amy was drawn to a hospital setting, and in 2015 she began working as a  Healthcare Assistant on B3, one of our Acute Medicine wards, at our Queen’s Medical Centre site. Healthcare Assistants carry out a wide range of care duties directly with the patient, and work as part of a wider team to ensure compassionate clinical care. Healthcare Assistants work exceptionally hard, and carry out a lot of the on the ground, direct patient care activities, such as supporting the patient’s comfort and hygiene needs, transferring patients in the hospital, supporting with ensuring cleanliness of the wards, and lots more.

In this role Amy gained first-hand experience of acute conditions, and was intrigued by the situations she encountered. Fuelling up again her hunger to learn more about the human body, she enrolled to study Medicine at the University of Nottingham in 2016, at graduate entry level. Graduating in 2020, Amy is now in her second foundation year, after spending her first year of foundation training at King’s Mill Hospital. Fate would have it that she’s come full circle to be a Doctor on Ward B3; where her hospital setting journey started as a Healthcare Assistant.

“Working again with staff that I worked alongside as a Healthcare Assistant is wonderful. Having been a Healthcare Assistant myself, I know exactly how hard this group of staff work, and it gives me a real understanding of the importance of everyone’s role in ensuring the best outcomes for our patients. I am so grateful for my exposure to the hospital as a Healthcare Assistant, which is helping me to be the best Doctor that I can be.”

After she’s completed her second foundation year, Amy will start her specialism training, choosing the GP pathway. She was inspired by a conference she attended, and heard from a GP how wonderful it is to be involved in patients’ lives from the start, to see them grow up, and support them with their health needs as they move through different stages in their lives.

We are sure that Amy will make a fantastic GP, and that her patients will experience the highest quality of care and compassion from her.