GETTING to work in your ideal job when you leave university is something not everyone can say they’ve done, but Jen Lynch is doing just that before she even graduates.

And not only that, she was also one of the first people to work in the brand new Emergency Department at the first major hospital to be built in Wales in the past 20 years - The Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran.

Ms Lynch, a final year adult nursing student at the University of South Wales (USW), who’s on placement as part of her course at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB), was on shift at the new hospital when it first opened on November 17.

Now providing emergency and urgent care for the Gwent region, The Grange University Hospital has brought together services that were previously provided at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport and Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny.

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The move into the new hospital has overlapped with Ms Lynch's placement in A&E, where she is learning all about the job she hopes to take up full time when she finishes her adult nursing degree next summer.

“I was working at Nevill Hall as the transfer was taking place, so some of the services in Abergavenny were scaling down,” she said.

“It was great to be involved in that process, and to see what was going on, and moving down to work in the new hospital was a great experience.

“Being on shift when the new department actually first opened was brilliant, and it was also a little bit scary too. There was a whole new team of people who had to start working together and getting things done, and a whole new set of people for me to meet. But it was done perfectly and professionally, and was ready to provide the best care for all the patients from the first second.”

Being one of the first to work in the new Emergency Department was great experience for Ms Lynch, and has given her a first-hand taste of what she can expect if she goes to work at The Grange when she graduates. And it’s an opportunity she keen to grasp with both hands.

“You never know what’s coming through the doors of an emergency department, every single day is different. So many different challenges – you don’t know what you’re walking into,” she said.

“And you need to be able to relate to every single person, because you’re dealing with people of every age.”

Being able to deal with people of various ages and background is just one of the main skills that nurses need, but, Ms Lynch says, being resilient is also vital.

“At times people who come through the doors of A&E may not be the nicest, which is understandable as it’s a place of high emotions,” Jen said.

“The people who work there get that, and have the resilience to deal with it.

“This has obviously been even more noticeable during covid, because families have not been allowed to see their loved ones. It’s something I totally understand because I would be the same if it was one my family members.

“But that’s the role I have chosen and one I hope to carry on doing when I graduate, and, like all nurses, no matter what department you work in, you have to be caring and you have to be compassionate – these are the things that ground everyone in the profession.”