![\"\"](\"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Vanessa-Pinnock-1-778x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n“I qualified from nursing with a Higher Diploma and it was always my goal to complete a degree qualification. Working in healthcare has had its challenges and I felt that I was often overlooked despite my vast clinical experience to climb up the ranks due to not having a bachelor\u2019s degree. I enjoy my current role in nursing but felt that I had hit a wall with my progression. I then decided to revitalise my knowledge by returning to university and pursue a course in supporting new parents, therefore I started the University of Worcester\u2019s foundation degree in Birth and Beyond in affiliation with the National Childbirth Trust. I completed this foundation degree part time alongside my current working commitments and balancing family life and qualified as both an antenatal practitioner and breastfeeding counsellor. However, I really wanted to complete my bachelor\u2019s degree and stayed on fulltime with the university to study the Integrated Working with Children and Families<\/a> pathway (IWCF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am overpleased that I have not only completed my studies but received a FIRST-CLASS honours! All my hard work, commitment and dedication has paid off and I feel personally accomplished! The IWCF degree was really interesting in learning about the relevant childhood theories and also understanding how I could apply this in my current practice of antenatal teaching. My dissertation was based upon mother\u2019s experiences of breastfeeding support in the community, and I can use my research to champion local breastfeeding support services. I also feel I am in a good position to apply for more senior roles within nursing and\/or consider other roles within health and social care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve really enjoyed studying at the University of Worcester and the FDL route of learning was ideal for my situation being London based I was still able to commit to my studies via online learning and the teaching support was really good to enable me to reach my full potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My advice to any mature student undertaking the FDL route is to be disciplined with your time, read, read, read! There is a lot of cross over between the modules for IWCF so if you have read for one module likely it will be useful for another module too! And above all YOU CAN DO IT!!!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you would like to find out more about the BA (Hons) Integrated Working with Children and Families, please visit our webpage: https:\/\/www.worcester.ac.uk\/courses\/integrated-working-with-children-families-ba-hons-top-up-degree<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vanessa Pinnock shares her experiences of studying at the University of Worcester. “I qualified from nursing with a Higher Diploma and it was always my goal to complete a degree qualification. Working in healthcare has had its challenges and I felt that I was often overlooked despite my vast clinical experience to climb up the… Continue reading Graduate Stories: Vanessa Pinnock, BA (Hons) IWCF<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graduatestories","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}