NHS youth volunteer scheme to expand

Members of NHS Humber Health Partnership's voluntary services team with a group of volunteers

A youth volunteering scheme in Hull that has helped young people secure careers in the NHS is expanding across the region.

The Hull Hospitals' Young Health Champions programme said it had helped launch the careers of thousands of young people since it started 10 years ago.

The head of the voluntary scheme said it serves as "a passport around the NHS" enabling volunteers to experience different health roles to see which interests them most.

The scheme has now been rebranded as the Humber Health Champions, and offers those aged between 16 and 25 the opportunity to volunteer and gain experience in a clinical setting.

Holly Giles,22, started volunteering through the scheme when she was 17, and said she had now reached her "dream goal" securing a full-time role as a staff nurse in Hull Royal Infirmary's Emergency Department.

Staff nurse Holly Giles has reached her "dream goal"

Ms Giles explained she had thought she wanted to go into paediatric nursing.

She said she helped out in various settings, before she realised where she wanted to work.

"I looked into becoming a paramedic", she said.

"But based on my experiences as a volunteer, I eventually decided that adult nursing was for me.

"Having that chance to help on the wards helped me to understand the areas that I would be working in and to develop my communication skills."

Since the scheme started in October 2014, the programme said it has helped more than 2,700 young people.

Many of those went on to careers as nurses, doctors, physiologists and emergency care workers.

Rachel Hardcastle-Pearce, group head of voluntary services for NHS Humber Health Partnership said volunteering gave young people "insights and experience you just wouldn't get in a classroom".

Ms Hardcastle-Pearce said the scheme had helped to inspire the next generation of healthcare professionals, "shoring up hospital services for the future by growing our own staff locally".

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