"The best thing about the course is the placements." - Emily, Public Health

Having grown up around a family of nurses, Emily admits that caring for people was always part of her career plan, even though she didn't realise it at first.

In 2019, after discounting midwifery as a long-term career choice, she joined the BSc (Hons) Public Health and Community Wellbeing course at Bradford to "broaden her options."

Learning journey
I loved learning about health trends in communities, why people become unwell, and how we improve health and access to health services for different communities. Before university, I'd already worked for the NHS in commissioning, in a role that was all about ensuring better quality care in care homes. That experience and knowledge definitely helped.

Placement options enhance learning
The best thing about the course is the placements. One of my placements was in a recovery care home from hospital, setting up a nightingale response to prevent people from going back into care homes with Covid.

Another was with St Augustine's in Halifax, which is a refugee charity. My role was to improve health outcomes for refugees and asylum seekers in the area. I got to work on some really interesting projects, such as setting up a befriending scheme between asylum seekers new to the UK and ones that had been here longer.

Learning experience at the university
The way the course is structured is very well thought through and consists mainly of 3,000-word essays where you can delve into topics that really interest you, so it makes them easier to write.

There aren't many exams and there's no long dissertation at the end, which suited me, and I liked how much group work there was. We got to work on research projects such as looking at people's worries around vaccines, or how we can make the experience of entering the UK better for refugees. It was all fascinating.

Personal development and growth
My lecturers were incredibly supportive. Everyone knew me; you definitely don't feel like you're just a number at Bradford, and considering I'd had a bit of a gap between finishing college and starting University, I found the transition easy because of the support you get from Bradford.

You get to do a lot of personal and professional development work and reflection, which is a great skill to have. It's quite a small class, so you benefit from a lot of one-to-one tuition.

On the right path
I'm now at Imperial College in London studying for a Master's in global public health.

I balance my Master's with a part-time role in the NHS. It's quite intense but I know it's worth it.

I'm still working out what I want to do after my Master's, but I know that the skills and experience I gained at Bradford will serve me well in whatever career route I choose to go down.

Interested in Public Health and Community Wellbeing? Find more info here :smile: