We are UHB: Trishanya Hyman

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust runs Good Hope, Heartlands, Queen Elizabeth and Solihull hospitals, the Birmingham Chest Clinic, and Solihull community services.

I joined UHB one year ago as an oncology nurse. Before that I worked as an orthopaedic nurse at a hospital in Cambridge when I moved to the UK in 2021. I’m originally from Jamaica – I grew up in Jamaica and studied there and was a nurse for two-and-a-half years before I made the big decision to migrate to the UK as a nurse.

I always wanted to be a nurse since I was young, and growing up I loved the British accent. I just loved to hear the accent – I never thought of going to the United States of America or Canada, it has always been the UK! So, when I got the opportunity, I knew I had to come.

When I first came to the UK I worked in Cambridge, but I wanted a new experience. I decided to transition and move to Birmingham and work in a new speciality. Birmingham is much more diverse than Cambridge, I am always meeting people from different backgrounds and sometimes from countries I had never even heard of before. Most importantly, I can finally find food from my home country! There’s a lot to do here in Birmingham, there are always events, which is great.

Nursing in the UK is so different to in Jamaica – it was a big culture shock for me, particularly in terms of resources. I don’t think the UK knows what it has – there are things here that we didn’t have in Jamaica. Small things like the remote controls to recline the beds. In Jamaica, we would have to prop them up with boxes. The way nurses work is also different. Here, you have nurses who specialise in their area, but in Jamaica you are just a general nurse, and you would work in A&E, orthopaedics, the medical units, wherever you were needed. There is also more opportunity to learn here. People are willing to share their knowledge, and there are a lot of teaching sessions, which I love. It is harder to learn in Jamaica, and harder to progress – but here it is encouraged.

I love being a nurse. My favourite thing is just helping people. I feel that I have been gifted with this ability to help people, and it brings me a sense of peace and gratitude. It is important for my beliefs, too. It really is a miracle, especially when you see a patient who is poorly, and they get better – that is a miracle!

As an oncology nurse we treat patients who have been diagnosed with cancer and are undergoing treatment. I work on a ward where haematology and oncology patients are treated, and that includes adults and young adults. As nurses we carry out nursing diagnosis, create care plans and do the interventions. Essentially, we carry out the care for patients and help treat them for their cancer. We hope that we are treating them, and they will recover, but that sometimes isn’t the case. When that happens, we look after them until the end of their life and support their loved ones.

I love working at UHB because each day you learn something new – I am always expanding my knowledge, especially in oncology. Whether it’s a new medication, new treatment or a new way of doing things, I am constantly learning and I love that.

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