NHS Graduate Management Trainee Hannah tells us all about her experience

When I began the application process, knowing that upwards of 17,000 people had expressed an interest in the scheme for circa 200 places, made me somewhat apprehensive of my chances of being successful, however I had a keen interest in the NHS and had always wanted to play my part in making a difference to patients, so thought I would give it a go!

Each stage of the recruitment process is intense, and I would recommend that you carve out a good amount of time to dedicate to it and ensure that you are relaxed and in a good frame of mind before you begin. The process consists of three stages and if I’m honest, I didn’t think that I had done enough at any stage but was always pleasantly surprised when I received my feedback.  After a really comprehensive and interesting application process (although I would add it takes a long time, but keep going it is worth it), I was delighted to hear back to find out that I had been successful in receiving a place on the scheme. You get notification that you have been successful with the Virtual assessment centre, then have to wait a week or so before you hear from your region, and which trust you are to be placed within. I was really lucky to be offered the hospital closest to my home address (along with a few other options), so this was a really easy decision to proceed.

Over the summer you begin to hear from your programme and placement managers from your trust, which is a really useful insight as to what you will be doing and starting to find out a little more about what orientation and your role will consist of. I am on the general management stream, with my first placement being operational, assisting the surgery and critical care team. You also learn about orientation, which takes place during the first five weeks. This is basically spending time in different departments around the hospital and your Integrated Care Board (ICB) to gain a greater understanding of the inner workings. I have found orientation incredibly useful given that I had not previously worked within the NHS. I have spent days on wards, in theatres as well as with senior leaders within the trust.

One of the nicest things about it, is that now whenever I walk around the hospital, I bump into staff that I have met/ shadowed, and it really makes you feel a part of the wider NHS team.  A day that really sticks out for me is the day that I spent in ED, shadowing a junior doctor and getting to engage with the patients that she was treating. This provides you with a good hands-on experience of the front line and why things are done and the issues that doctors experience (and lots of things to reflect on as a service manager that we could look to do differently to improve clinicians experience). 

The scheme is 24 months and throughout this time you also study towards a postgraduate master’s level qualification in Healthcare Leadership with the University of Birmingham and Manchester. I am really interested to see what I will be exposed to through my two placements as well as the flexi placement that I am yet to organise.

The ability to get a real hand on insight into the different departments and whether you would prefer an operational or strategic role within the NHS trust is really exciting. Being able to experience different roles as well as learning more about the NHS more generally, I hope will really springboard my career once I graduate from the scheme. At the moment, I believe that the operational hands-on side of hospital management (with the thrill of faced paced ED really standing out), but let’s see what I think at the end!