Stop the press! Student Deborah is a guest editor for national nursing news

The pen is mightier than the needle for one health student who is writing articles about what it’s like to become a nurse.

Third-year Adult Nursing student at University of Northampton (UON) Deborah Amu will add to her busy daily schedule of lectures, seminars and placements with a journalistic job – she’s one of a team of students from across the UK who are Nursing Times Student Editors.

The Nursing Times officially announced their eight new Student Editors last week. Each one will create blogs (at least one post a month) that explore the issues that matter to those studying to become nurses.

Deborah has already written her first blog post about transition ‘shock’, due to be published soon. She says: “I want to share my experiences as a way of speaking up for other students in a relatable and informative way. My first blog is about something hugely important for all new nursing students because learning something in class and putting it into practice are very different experiences!

Deborah was first bitten by the nursing ‘bug’ when back home in her home country of Nigeria. She says: “I worked as a receptionist at a Non-Governmental Organisation that supports mothers and children from underprivileged backgrounds. I saw what the nurses and other healthcare professionals did, and it was truly inspirational.

“From that moment, I started to put extra effort into my science courses as you need to have a good grounding in biology to enrol on nursing degrees in the UK.

“The course has been great; the lecturers and my Personal Academic Tutor have all been so good. What attracted me to studying at UON and in Northampton was how inclusive everything felt, the many different cultures on campus and in the town. I expected it to be an engaging place to study that would inspire me to become a nurse the way I was inspired back home…and that’s what’s happened.”

If you want to follow in Deborah’s footsteps, see our Adult Nursing course page or find out more by registering for our next Open Day on Saturday 18 January.