Alexandra Parker describes how the coronavirus situation has affected her student experience

When I first started my mental health nursing degree in 2018, I did not think that I would be going out to work in a pandemic a year and a half down the line.

I was already on placement in the community just before the UK went into lockdown. I got the chance to work alongside nurses as they prepared their service to run through the pandemic and ensure that they would still have the ability to provide their services to their patients.

For our safety, my university pulled student nurses from their placement and we went back to doing our theory modules online. My university decided against the 80/20 split between placement and theory and kept us on the stream we were on, but they did give us options regarding our placements. We could either start in

April or June, whichever one suited our personal circumstances best. I decided to start in April - at that point - but I had no idea what I was heading into.

We were allocated our placements a week before we went out. We were given numerous question and answer sessions, a preparation for practice session and offered a one-on-one with our personal tutors should we have needed it.

Our preparation for practice session covered a lot of important detail in relation to coronavirus and what we should expect regarding personal protective equipment, the new strategy for giving CPR to patients and various other components that are important for our safety as well as the safety of everyone we interact with. It was a lot to take in.