A student nurse has shared on social media how proud she is to work for the NHS during a day of NHS employee strikes.

By 8.30am this morning (Monday, February 6), more than a dozen members of the Royal College of Nursing were outside John Radcliffe Hospital on Headley Way – calling for a rise in pay.

However, Becca Collacott, a mature student nurse who is training to become a registered nurse and currently works in the Emergency Multidisciplinary Unit at Abingdon Community Hospital, said she loves working for the NHS.

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Ms Collacott said: “After having given birth to my daughter Freya, I was rushed into the operating theatre.

“I was absolutely petrified as to what was happening. I remember lying on the operating table and a nurse was holding my hand, I was sobbing, not knowing what was happening, all kinds of thoughts running through my head.

“As the tears poured down my face, that nurse gently wiped them away, reassuring me all the time.

“The nurse stayed with me all through the procedure. I was awake, I’d been given a spinal block.

“I was petrified, but that nurse just sat with me holding my hand and wiping my tears away. It was that moment then that I wanted to be a nurse, I wanted to be that nurse, I wanted to reassure, care and help people just like that nurse did for me.

“I never saw her again.

“Tyler, Lewis & Freya grew up, when Freya was 5 I got a job as a nurse auxiliary in the trauma unit, and I loved it.

“I cared for and reassured all the patients I looked after on that ward and received such wonderful feedback. But the hours didn’t suit, I wasn’t seeing Gareth, Tyler, Lewis or Freya so had to change my job.

“I waited until 2012 and Freya was in senior school and then went back working for the NHS, it was the best move ever.

first I worked in mental health then in 2018 transferred to general health, where I am now a mature nurse student.

“I’m so proud to be working for the NHS. I work in an Emergency Multidisciplinary Unit, my dad was treated there in 2017, I saw how the nurses rallied around looking after my dad, and I saw how grateful he was.

“I wanted to be them, and now here I am just a few months away from qualifying.

“It’s my day off today, but I’m going to drive past the picket line at Abingdon hospital and beep like mad supporting my colleagues.

“I’ll probably pop up and take them some warm treats too. Tomorrow I’m back at work. I’m not striking today or tomorrow but I do fully support my colleagues who are.”

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1