From Bermuda to Northampton…all for good mental health

From the gorgeous beaches and azure seas of her home and now to England, one intrepid nurse is enhancing her clinical skills in landlocked Northampton.

Regina Dill has made the East Midlands town her home-from-home for three years, one member of a small but select group of Bermudians who come here to learn about the best in mental health care to take back home.

With a dearth of mental health-trained nursing professionals in Bermuda, an agreement was signed in 2018 between University of Northampton (UON), Bermuda College and the Bermuda Hospitals Board, whereby General (or Adult) Nursing practitioners from the island come to study Mental Health Nursing at UON.

Next month marks the seventh anniversary of students from Bermuda coming to Northampton to ‘pay it back’ for their community and UON’s current Bermuda partnership student is Regina Dill.

Regina talks about what led her to come to UON, how things are going and what she hopes to do with her mental health nursing qualification when she graduates later this year: “My journey to Northampton is quite a complicated one! Some time ago, I completed a general nursing qualification that in Bermuda is called an Associate of Science in Nursing programme.

“I had some experience working with people who had learning disabilities and disorders such as schizophrenia, but my work was largely non-mental health, even though that is what I saw myself doing.

“I have a son and paused that aspiration so I could get him through high school, but I saw the UON opportunity and, now he has grown up, I thought ‘This is my time’.

“I was excited and nervous, I didn’t know what to expect, especially with moving to another country. I’ve been here for three years and, academically, it has been much different to what I’m used to. I had to work on my writing skills because this is on a whole other level and there’s a lot of reflective work.

“My first assessment was an oral presentation and that made me very nervous, although I was quite prepared! But my tutor was so helpful, she got me to calm down, take my time and get through it, and I did it well. I’ve also utilised the Learning Development team here, who’ve helped me get the most out of digital platforms. I must be doing the right things, because the Nursing Team gave me a ‘resilience award’, which was so surprising to receive!

Now at the end of her UON course – Regina has one more module to complete – she looks set to graduate in November but doesn’t see herself moving back to Bermuda straightaway. She concluded: “Bermuda is a small place so things like mental health care are done on a smaller scale and perhaps not always with the most up-to-date ways of thinking.

“But my time in England has been about absorbing modern concepts and fresh perspectives to take back home and implement.

“Here in the UK, being on different wards and going into different facilities, has exposed me to so many new things, like eating disorders, but I still feel like have so much to learn. I’ll more than likely stay in the UK for a little while longer and gain those extra experiences and vital insights before heading back home. My family and friends are all very proud of me, but most importantly I know my son is OK with me staying here as he is now standing on his own two feet.”

Find out more about Nursing courses at University of Northampton.