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Keele celebrates family of nursing alumni
Earlier this year , Keele University celebrated the 25th anniversary of its School of Nursing and Midwifery , which has trained thousands of healthcare professionals , including the Hill family .
Mairead Hill , a third-year Adult Nursing student , graduates from Keele this year to become a nurse , following in her mother ’ s and father ’ s footsteps — who also studied at Keele .
Mairead said : “ I decided that I needed to make my little boy , Arthur , proud of me and do something important with my life . I was proud of both my parents growing up , as they were both nurses , and thought that I would want Arthur to think of me like that too .
“ I found the course really engaging and realised that was because I found everything so interesting . I love working in a team , and how we can make such a massive difference in other people ’ s lives .
“ When I heard about Covid-19 and how student nurses may have to go into practice early , for an extended period of time , I jumped at the chance . I wanted to help the nurses that had taught me so much in practice . I am lucky that I have been placed as a band four on the unit , so I have a job for when I qualify , and I have the most fantastic ‘ assessor ’. She has supported me through the best and worst times on the ward , and encouraged me when I have doubted myself .”
Mairead ’ s grandmother Teresa Rogers , 86 , ( pictured right ) first started the family tradition of becoming a nurse by training as a State Registered Nurse and went on to become a midwife and a tutor .
Mairead ’ s mother Cath Hill ( pictured above with Mairead ), joined Keele University in 1990 as a student nurse . Speaking about her student days , Cath says : “ The nursing programme
transformed me . I found something I was good at . I could even do well with the academic work because it was engaging , and I could apply it to what I was experiencing in clinical practice . I lived in the nurses home for the full three years and it was liberating and the best fun I ’ d had , I even met my husband there just before I qualified .
“ They were amongst some of the greatest memories in my nursing career . The friends made have been friends for life , the shared anguishes and laughs can do that to a group of people . It was like having another family . We were a happy team and the care for patients was second to none , the patients were part of the family and were cared for like one of them .”
Cath went on to work on a surgical high dependency unit and two decades later she became an adult nursing lecturer teaching future nurses , including her own daughter . Cath is still studying herself and is working towards a doctorate degree in education .
Cath ’ s husband Pete studied children ’ s nursing at Keele and still works in healthcare as a Hospital Sterilisation and Disinfection Unit Technician , helping prepare surgical equipment .
Pete says : “ I am fortunate as I have the unique experience of having a career in frontline nursing and now provide a support service in an insightful manner . I am fortunate to have met my wife at Keele and undertook post registration study there . It is a wonderful place to study and has a real atmosphere of acceptance and is such a beautiful campus .”
Studying at Keele University has become a tradition for the Hill family as Mairead ’ s brother Ciarán Hill is also in his final year of his history degree . Like his family Ciaran has an interest in healthcare and has a place on an NHS postgraduate management training programme .