Hannah Travers spent a couple of years modelling as a student before giving it up for her first love – nursing. The 27-year-old from Nottingham became interested in nursing at 16 when she started working as a part-time care assistant in an old people’s home.

The only child of a surveyor and a special needs teacher, she studied for a BA in psychology and dance. After university she continued with modelling for a while.

“I enjoyed it but it is not fulfilling like nursing,’’ she says. “It felt a bit pointless and I just thought, what am I doing?”

Turning her back on the catwalk in March 2005, she enrolled on a postgraduate diploma in nursing at Nottingham University. During the two-and-a-half year course, she acquired basic nursing skills and the specialised skills of a mental health nurse. (Nottingham is offering newly designed two-year graduate entry nursing diploma courses in mental health and adult nursing at its Derby campus this autumn.)

Her practice-based placements included spells in an acute ward for patients with psychological disorders, a trauma centre for refugees who had been tortured and a period spent helping to rehabilitate people recovering from psychotic disorders.

After completing the diploma she obtained a job as a staff nurse in a centre helping people to recover from psychotic disorders. In this role, she used movement and dance therapy to help to rehabilitate patients. Three months ago, she was promoted and now works as a community-based nurse looking after people with eating disorders. Her ambition is to become a movement therapist and she intends to study for a masters degree in movement psychotherapy.

Travers loves nursing because she enjoys working with people and thrives on the diversity of its daily challenges. However, she says, it is emotionally, physically and mentally exhausting. “You are on the go all the time. Mental health patients can project emotions on to you if they are angry, upset or frustrated, so you have to be on your toes all the time.

“You have to love it. You would not do it for the money because there are things you could do for more money that are a lot easier.”

What advice would she give graduates considering nursing? “Remain focused and have a long-term plan. Retraining for two-and-a-half years was a big commitment but it was worth it. You have to find your niche – the bit of the job you are really interested in – and run with that.

“You also have to fight for what you believe in and be aware that there are very different roles within the same profession.”

Another option

While most people entering nursing train at undergraduate level, an increasing number are opting for postgraduate entry.

The average age of a student nurse is 29. People often enter the profession after pursuing different careers, after bringing up children or having studied first degrees in subjects other than nursing. In England 80 per cent of undergraduate trainees study for a three-year nursing diploma and 20 per cent for a nursing degree.

A small number of students, however, undertake postgraduate nurse training. www.ucas.ac.uk www.nhscareers.nhs.uk

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