Scholarship awarded to nurse studying with London’s Air Ambulance Charity

Mariana, who lives in East London, has been granted a prestigious award through The Company of Nurses Scholarship Programme to assist with her studies on the Masters degree run by the Institute of Pre-Hospital Care (IoPHC), a department within with London’s Air Ambulance Charity. The course is delivered in partnership with Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The scholarship recognizes the outstanding contribution Mariana has made to the nursing profession and represents an investment in the future of patient care, as she embarks on the three-year course.

Mariana Campilho said: “I applied for The Company of Nurses Scholarship as I wanted the opportunity of being able to study in an area that I am truly passionate about, and to be one of the first nurses doing so made it even more special.

“I was delighted and felt it an enormous privilege to be awarded the Scholarship, especially as I am aware of the high standard of the other applicants. I am looking forward to being able to study along different professionals all equally dedicated to the area of prehospital care and to be able to learn from different experts in the field.”

Joining the first cohort to include nurses

Mariana began the MSc course in January 2021, the first cohort to include nurses, and she also works as a nurse in the emergency department at the Royal London Hospital. Before this, Mariana completed a secondment with the Physician Response Unit (PRU), a community emergency medicine service that attends emergency calls in people’s homes. The PRU is a joint collaboration between London’s Air Ambulance, the London Ambulance Service (LAS) and Barts Health NHS Trust. The PRU responds to 999 calls, taking the Emergency Department to the patient, and reduces risks for vulnerable patients by helping them avoid a trip to hospital.

Raising the standards of nursing care

Brenda Griffiths, Chair of the Company of Nurses Charitable Trust said: “The Trustees are delighted to be able to support London’s Air Ambulance and this MSc programme with a Company of Nurses Scholarship. Emergency out of hospital care is critical, specialist and complex. We know that Mariana and those in her care will benefit greatly and look forward to hearing all about it as the course progresses.”

The Company of Nurses, which aims to raise standards of nursing care, encourage health and wellbeing, and save lives, has offered the scholarship through its Ann Campbell RBNA Memorial. Fund which supports a student with the payment of their tuition fees for the MSc in Pre-Hospital Medicine over the next three years.

To further honor nurses, nominations are now open for the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing’s 2021 awards for flight and ground transport nurses.