Jessica Robinson

Mental Health Nursing BSc

What made you want to get into nursing?

My mam is an adult nurse and I’ve always been interested in Psychology – I did it at A level and I thought it was fascinating how you can’t see the person’s illness and you have to work with that person to figure out what their difficulties are. I like the challenge of mental health being impacted by so many different things such as physical health and social circumstances.

Why did you choose to come to Northumbria?

I chose Northumbria because I live in the region and I wanted to stay at home. I thought the course was really good and I liked how it was half placement and half university based.

What have you enjoyed most about the course?

I’ve really liked how I was able to get involved. I started a society and we were always offered the opportunity to feedback and make changes. The practical elements were really good – the simulation robots in particular were some of the best ways to learn essential nursing skills. They prepared you for going into a room and planning to assess a situation and finding a completely different scenario to what you expected. We would record the sessions and watch them back. In one of the first simulations I quickly realised that I had a highly expressive face and that in a crisis situation I would have to wear a mask of calmness for my patients.

What kind of placements did you have?

I had placements on wards such as dementia with challenging behaviour, forensics, crisis response, psychiatric liaison and drug and alcohol. I feel that the variety of experiences I had as a Northumbria student really helped me grow professionally and personally.

How did they help your career?

I was really unsure about having an elderly placement as I always wanted to work in forensics, but about a week through I realised I loved it and I now work in dementia care dealing with really challenging behaviour, which is not what I expected at all, but I love it. I couldn’t ask for a better job.