A DOCTORS surgery in Calne has been awarded an Oxford Brookes University Placement of the Year Award after two of its nurses dedicated hundreds of hours to mentoring two of its students.

Patford House Partnership won the GP Practice award at a ceremony at Oxford Brooke's Harcourt Hill Campus in June after practice nurses Sue White and Lisa Gray were nominated by one of their students.

Helen Strevens, practice manager at Patford House Partnership, said: "Oxford Brookes contacted us to see if we would like to mentor some students and two of our practice nurses, Lisa and Sue, have been training the students in all aspects of practice nursing in Primary Care.

"Considering this was our very first student, we were so pleased. The patients have been really good with the both of them and they have done very well."

Head of practice education at Oxford Brookes University, Netta Lloyd-Jones, added: “High quality placement learning is essential for health and social care pre-registration education. Our placement colleagues, who have years of experience within their discipline and in facilitating practice learning, provide rich and varied student learning experiences, and have a significant impact in role-modelling best practice.

"We take this opportunity to demonstrate how much we value their input to our professional programmes. Students gain their experience in a variety of settings including NHS, private and voluntary, and independent sector and social care. The Placement of the Year Awards allows the students an opportunity to recognise and praise those who have supported them."