The role Keele University employees play in the NHS is being celebrated with a new campaign.
More than 200 of the university’s heathcare academics can also be found working on the NHS frontline in roles ranging from paramedics and GPs to doctors delivering babies.
To celebrate the positive impact they have looking after local lives as well as preparing students for future careers, a series of videos have been produced to showcase some of the academics.
They will be shared on social media and promoted on billboards on the A34 around Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Some of those celebrated include Dr Pensée Wu, a senior lecturer and researcher at the University, who is also a senior doctor at Royal Stoke University Hospital where she has delivered more than 500 babies – including performing emergency caesareans;
Also in the spotlight is Kevin Armstrong, Keele’s Director of Paramedic Services, who also works part-time as a paramedic for West Midlands Ambulance Service, where he has attended almost 10,000 callouts;
And Professor Jo Protheroe, Keele’s Director of General Practice Education, who has also been a GP for more than 20 years, and looks after patients at a surgery in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Dr Pensée Wu, whose research into risks associated with infertility treatment made international headlines last year, said: “It is important to know what happens day-to-day in hospitals, so that what I do with my research, or what I teach my students, reflects what happens on the ground.
I take all the day-to-day experience of working in a hospital back to Keele with me, so on my research days I can think about what the problems are we see in the NHS, and how we can use research to tackle them.”
More than 5,000 Keele-trained nurses and midwives work in the NHS, with many of them staying locally in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent after they graduate. The University has also trained more than 1,300 doctors and has partnerships with more than 100 GP practices in the area – directly benefitting students.
Keele’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Trevor McMillan OBE, said: “We’re rightly proud that Keele has trained thousands of students for careers in the NHS, from doctors and nurses, to physiotherapists, midwives, and more.
“But what some people might not realise is that many of our healthcare academics are also working on the frontline of the NHS in our local area, directly helping and caring for people in Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme on a daily basis.
Through their different roles, they are training the next generation whilst also looking after our local communities.”
