“We could share our experiences with each other. When topics came up and I didn’t know something but someone who works in ITU did, they were keen to help us out. And if the topic was end of life, I was quite helpful for everyone else, so it worked really well.

“Everyone had a home placement in their own place of work so I would shadow one of our nurses all day and do the jobs they would do. It’s good because I’ve worked at St Helena for so long that I know the routine and what the nurses do, where as if I started a new job I would have to learn everything as well as being a new nurse.

“Everyone at St Helena has been really supportive and really keen to get me learning. I’m so grateful that I got to do it as an apprentice because I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”

One of Emma’s motivations for wanting to train as a nurse was the patients. Before beginning her training Emma would sometimes play the piano in the corridor and sing for the patients. One day the husband of a patient who was nearing the end of her life, asked Emma to sing:

“The patient was my mum’s age and she had a daughter a similar age to me that sang as well. So I sang and I saw the daughter and I asked if she wanted to sing with me and at the end she just cried on me. And then I went off and cried. The patient died the next day so it was really nice she got to hear her daughter sing one last time.

“She always sticks in my head. So when I did a reflection assignment at uni about what therapies other than pain relief you can give to someone, I did a lot about music therapy. I got a really high mark and I think that’s maybe because I felt so strongly about that patient, that it came across in my writing.”

And now Emma is ready to take on her new role:

“It is nerve-racking but exciting. I’m now accountable and responsible for drugs and decision making but I have got a really good team around me. I was talking to Sarah Courtney, Developmental Advance Nurse Practitioner, and she reassured me that every new nurse will feel nervous that they don’t know everything, but you don’t need to know everything, you have a team behind you. And they are so supportive here, I’ve been so lucky and I can’t thank them enough.”

This story may not be published elsewhere without express permission from St Helena Hospice.