Does the NHS assist its' professionals to study medicine???

[The7thGuest]

Obviously I am talking about every NHS professional who is not a doctor?

I am of a 'mature student' age and was wondering if this scheme existed, if you had say, three years work experience in the NHS and then you decided you wanted to do something more?

Is there anyone on here which can confirm if such a scheme from the NHS exists or not?

Thank you for your time!

[foxyamy]

Hey - there used to be a scheme in the trust where I used to work where you could be seconded to do nursing. Most of the people who did this had been working on a particular ward for a significant time though (like 5+ years), but then got seconded so that they were paid a full-time HCA salary while completing their training. I also know that a very similar thing exists in the same trust for lab assistants to upgrade to Biomedical scientists, where they work one/two days a week then attend uni part-time for four years to get their degree, but are paid full-time salary the whole time.

[The7thGuest]

Thank you for your reply, nursing and biomedical scientists are all good? But what about say, being a scientist already and looking for a way to get into medical school with the support of the NHS???

[foxyamy]

I can't say with any authority, but I would strongly doubt it. The point behind the schemes I talked about is that they are aiming to fill a gap within the Trust. There is absolutely no need for them to do this for doctors as they don't need to fill a gap, so they would be gaining nothing from funding you. There is already such as massive scramble for medical school and then foundation jobs that they don't really need to waste money on funding someone to do it.

[Clarkey]

Nope, for exactly the same reasons foxyamy has outlined. There are various routes into medicine and no real need to try and attract people in different ways.

[kiaravin1]

No, there aren't any schemes for routes into medicine. Due to budget cuts, they have halted all secondments of HCAs to do nursing as well.

[The7thGuest]

I read about it some time ago, that something like that was going to be introduced into hospitals, but I suppose with the financial problems all over Europe it was only a matter of time the UK government tighten the belt...

[louise colette]

Yes there's definitely no scheme for budding medics. I was a ward sister before medicine and seconded several HCAs to become nurses, however there was no opportunity for me to be seconded to become a doctor! Shame really...

[The7thGuest]

^ Yeah, that is a real shame, in other countries I've heard that it was definitely possible to make the transfer from nurse (albeit needing to have a certain number of years experience) to studying to become a doctor.