St John's Ambulance volunteering

[Anatoli32]

DD starting Year 12 wants to go into nursing/medicine (still not made her mind up yet!). She's been looking at volunteering oppurtunies alongside her A Levels to put on UCAS and has come across St John's amublance. She has also emailed a few hospitals in our local NHS trust but hasn't heard back yet.

As she's not 17 until January she would be doing SJA as a cadet (age 11-16). My worry is the cadet programme might be a bit young for her?

If anybody's DC's have done it then I'd love feedback. Thank you

Hi @Anatoli32, we're just bumping this thread for you in case anyone's around to give you (and your DD) some advice.

I have two kids in SJA Cadets. Those who are older have access to additional training in first aid, leadership, and other skills - there are some they have to be 13-14+, other for 16+, some of those include qualifications recognized elsewhere rather than just within SJA.

Also, SJA Cadets do field duties alongside other SJA staff and many of those they have to be either 14+ (football matches or other large events), or 16+ for extended or evening work.

Really, we've had a few hiccups along the way, but in general, they're very good at getting hands-on and community experience for all ages and dividing work for different kids and teens ability levels. At my kids' group, we see a lot of people coming in at 16-17 for similar reasons - wanting that experience for university - so she's unlikely to be an odd person out.

Hey
I work in the NHS (and wider family too). You'd really struggle to get work in a local hospital as a volunteer dealing with patients. They're very strict about these things. St Johns are likely ideal for now. All experience is good experience really with this. So much of dealing with patients is about communication and she'd learn loads

Regards

John