Help me train as a NHS Physician Associate

I’m Martha, a Healthcare Support Worker working in community sexual and reproductive health, and I’ve recently been offered a place on a competitive postgraduate training course to become a Physician Associate - a relatively new healthcare professional role within the NHS who work alongside doctors to diagnose and care for patients. The course is 2 years and unfortunately very financially inaccessible - due to intensive clinical placements starting from the first weeks it’s not possible to work much alongside, and the course has a cost of £10,000 for each of the 2 years in addition to living costs. The postgraduate student loan and Health Education England grant of £5,000 for the whole 2 years is obviously very inadequate for this, and there are no other scholarship or personal funding options available to me.

 I’ve put an incredible amount of work and passion into getting onto this course - studying for independent undergraduate modules in Anatomy and Physiology alongside 40 hour work weeks to meet the entry requirements (Physician Associate courses don’t traditionally accept humanities/social science backgrounds like my Sociology&Psychology degree) and working for the NHS and British Pregnancy Advisory Service throughout the pandemic to gain clinical skills and experience. Despite these obstacles, I was made an unconditional offer on the very competitive (200+ applicants for around 20 places) course, and being unable to take up that place I've worked so hard for due to lack of funding would be devastating - especially when I see first hand every day in my clinics how desperately understaffed the NHS is and the effect of this on the quality of care it is able to offer patients. Given this situation, the financial obstacles that stand in the way of passionate, patient-care experienced people entering desperately needed professional healthcare roles is a serious problem.

I had full intentions of self-funding this training through saving, but the pandemic job market has unfortunately made this already daunting task impossible. I was immediately made redundant when the first lockdown was announced and since then have swung between various poorly paid and precarious agency contracts (including frontline NHS roles), constantly losing hours and pay on no notice due to last minute restriction changes and bad agency practices during the pandemic. I’ve finally found 2 amazing secure jobs in the area of health I’m passionate about - community sexual health and reproductive health - and have started to save myself but the 2 preceding years of instability have left it unfeasible for me to save the high amount I need before September 2022.

It feels difficult asking for money, but in these circumstances anything you can offer to help me achieve this goal would be incredible. I am still working and saving for my living costs alongside the course, but need to cover the fees themselves at least. I plan to use the SFE loan of just over £10,000 on one year of the fees and the HEE grant of £5,000 towards my living costs, so I’ve set the target to £12,000 which is the full remaining fee amount in addition to some additional costs, such as travel to placements and the £600 cost for the National Exam to qualify at the end of the course - this is obviously a high target, but every bit I reach towards it will make a huge difference to my ability to take up my place and spend the rest of my career caring for NHS patients.

Thanks so much for reading and for any donation at all you are able to make! <3

The course I've been offered a place on can be found here: https://www.bsms.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught-degrees/physician-associate-studies.aspx