Adam Cramp has recently completed his nursing degree apprenticeship at the Trust. He was voted Apprentice of Year in the Our Health Heroes Awards in 2018.
Adam worked in retail for eight years before deciding on a complete change of scenery. He worked in security at Broadmoor Hospital for ten months, doing shifts on the wards. That’s how he realised he wanted to work with patients and decided to become a healthcare assistant at West London NHS Trust.
While in this role, Adam decided to train to become a registered nurse and applied for a mental health nursing apprenticeship, with the support of his manager. Adam was recently featured in a Government funding announcement committing funding for more nursing apprentices across the healthcare sector in England
Adam talks about his career path and experience as an apprentice.
“The Nursing Degree Apprenticeship training scheme has been excellent and has given me invaluable skills. I would recommend it to anyone.”
Adam Cramp
"I had no idea what I was doing after I left school at 17 and I ended up at a supermarket for eight years. I got into work at Broadmoor just as a change of scenery. Some of the shifts were on the wards and I slowly decided that I’d like to work with patients, so I got a job as a healthcare assistant."
"I don’t know what I loved about the job but it just felt right from the moment I started and realised that it was what I should be doing. I really love being able to support and help people, no matter how challenging they can be."
"Without this apprenticeship, I wouldn’t have been able to get the qualifications I needed due to barriers in attending university, especially as a mature student. Though I didn’t have A-levels, I had the GCSEs in English and Maths they needed. I now believe that this is the best route into a nursing career regardless of your personal situation."
"They were incredibly varied. For example, working with a psychiatric liaison team in an emergency department really did show me another side of mental health care. We’d see people with mental health difficulties, assess them, then formulate a care plan with them, sometimes referring them to other services."
"I seem to be able to cope and keep calm in many challenging circumstances. I’m just me at work, which seems to do the trick."