From this week, forty heroic University of Sunderland nurses will be taking up jobs in hospitals across the North East

The group this week completed their three-year Adult Nursing programme at the University and immediately began working on the front-line in the fight against the Cosmopolitan Flu, COVID-19.

Gill Maw, Team Leader and Principal Lecturer for undergraduate Nursing and Paramedic Science, said; “Every one of our nurses has now been employed by the hospital trust they have been training with.

“They officially started their new roles on Tuesday, and we are very proud of them at this particularly challenging time.”

The team, who are only the second cohort to ever graduate from the University’s School of Nursing, vary in age from 21 to 41 and include two male nurses.

They will now join the NHS during a time of need for more healthcare workers, unseen since the 1957 Asian Flu and the 1918 Spanish Flu.

Sue Brent, Head of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, said: “We congratulate all of our April 2017 nurses who have completed their studies, and will now be entering the NHS workforce.

“We are so proud of all their hard work and effort and I’m sure they will make a huge impact in their new roles during this difficult and challenging time for the NHS.

“Thanks must also go to our positive and proactive Undergraduate nursing team, who are wholly committed to delivering high quality, job-ready graduates who will make a real difference to patient care.”

The nurses will be working for hospital trusts including, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and South Tyneside, County Durham and Darlington, and North Tees.

Gill Maw said: “All the trusts have been amazingly supportive to the students at this particularly challenging time.”

Prior to finishing their programme, the nurses have been studying alongside the University’s other health-related programmes, including pharmacists, paramedics, allied health professionals, biomedical scientists and medical students from the School of Medicine.