International Nurses Day 2023 – Alice’s Story

Alice Welby is a qualified nurse, working as a pre-hospital practitioner within the Trust.

My name is Alice and I work as a pre-hospital practitioner (PHP) for East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST).

I’ve been working with EEAST since November 2022. I am a registered nurse and I previously worked in the emergency department for two and a half years.

Being a PHP entails working on a frontline ambulance attending

emergencies, caring for seriously ill or injured patients before they reach hospital.

What a typical day as a PHP looks like:

• Working as a double staffed ambulance alongside paramedics and other pre-hospital clinicians.
• Being responsible for the assessment, treatment, diagnosis, supplying and administering of medicines, managing, discharging, and referring patients in a range of urgent, emergency, critical or out of hospital settings for people of all ages.
• Providing effective leadership and working as part of a team. This also includes sometimes incorporating other healthcare professionals depending on the patient and situation, e.g. critical care, hazardous area response team (HART).
• Taking it in turns driving the ambulance and driving on blue lights.

What drew me to this role was being able to work autonomously and being able to provide a high standard care to patients in a pre-hospital setting.

I loved working in the emergency department, but working for the ambulance service gives me a different type of fulfilment that I never knew it could and I really look forward to going to work now.

At first, I was quite apprehensive, but six months later I’m glad I made the transition to join. The thrill of working for the ambulance service is something I have never experienced before. I never feel alone as there is access to 24/7 clinical advice, critical care desk and an operational commander.

Since joining EEAST they have been extremely supportive, and the team have been very welcoming. I have had lots of protected hours working with experienced senior clinicians which has helped my confidence grow tremendously!

I am really excited to see what future opportunities present.  I am very proud to be working for EEAST!

Does this role sound like it could be for you? We are hiring pre-hospital practitioners now!

Visit the 'our vacancies' section of our website to apply today.