BSc (Hons) Health and Wellbeing Practitioner

The good thing about the clinics is that they if you wanted to specialise in a particular area, it allows you to specialise but if you're not sure and you want to dip your toe in, you can kind of, you know, try the different clinics and see how they how they work with you. It gives you I think it gives you quite a few opportunities to clinics, because essentially I think you go into health and well-being to help people and so right from the get go from year one, you're given the opportunity to go into the clinics, which I was amazed by. I didn't I didn't expect it for year one being involved in the clinics but as a student, you come to the clinics to gain experience and you come out with that clinical experience but at the end of it, it was really lovely, is how thankful the patients were or, you know, uses of the clinic, if you like were for having had that in place. You get such a variety of things that you do in the clinic. So they don't just come along and you kind of give a program and, you know, that's what you go away with. It's about helping people to try out different things, to become more physically active, and have the confidence to be active. And they get to try a range of different things, so we're not saying, okay, do all of this and this is what's going to work for you it's try this and see what works for you. See what tools you can put into your toolbox to help you moving forward. So I was really impressed with the kind of variety this in the clinics. I think it does give you confidence for your future, even as a mature student. I've come to university, not exactly knowing the direction that I want to go in. So having the opportunity to work in the clinics not only gives you confidence that you've had practical experience, but also, you know, it's going to help along the way to help decide where you want to go with the degree. So it has these kind of two benefits, really. That was another big win for me, the Marjon was a small community,a small university. I think it's really helped me. I don't know what it's like in other universities, but we've had like a really personal connection with each one of our lecturers. I felt that's been really, really helpful and great. I think you can there is very much a family feel to the university, and it does feel like a close knit family. People that are kind of in year three, they don't want to leave. And people say that how special it is and a special is nice and you do get that nice close knit feel from it.

During my third year, I was involved in a placement that basically exposed me to a whole aspect of health care that I hadn't even thought about before and by working on a placement at the clinics, I kind of really discovered a passion for working with people, looking after their health, long term managing conditions such as diabetes, Venous leg ulcers chronic pain and cancer, back pain as well. The clinics have a very hands-off approach so it's quite independent to work with people, but with that kind of safety net in the background so it gives you a chance to find your own style, to try and apply the knowledge that you learned through your degree in a kind of practical way, but without somebody kind of, you know, hovering over the top of you but you always felt like there was somebody around to ask for help if you needed it and that really built my confidence, particularly working with people and building the communication skills that I think are really necessary for this kind of role.

What I will say that I think is the most awesome thing about this course is that there are so many things that you learn is very, very diverse so not only are you learning about the clinical application, but you're learning about public health. So it really brings a broad area from which you can kind of start from and branch out from and then, you know, there's so many different things that you can learn and try so that you can really get onto your path. So I would say absolutely go for it. Yeah, it's a brilliant course. Great lecturers, lovely people. Definitely recommend it.