The King celebrates the 1000th King's Nursing Cadet

Inspired by The then Prince of Wales’ idea to help cadets acquire new skills and assist in areas such as healthcare, The Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) King’s Nursing Cadet Scheme aims to help young people develop essential skills needed to start a career in nursing.

During his time at the College, The King met cadets from across the United Kingdom who are undertaking or have completed the programme, which allows cadets to carry out 40 hours of teaching and learning experience plus 20 hours of clinical observation in a healthcare environment. 

The cadets demonstrated some of the skills they have acquired in practical learning scenarios - and even encouraged His Majesty to have a go himself!

To date, 1,156 young people have progressed through the programme since its launch in 2019. In a new survey, 56% of those who responded confirmed they have gone on to further education or now work in nursing or health related fields. 88% reported that the programme had a positive or extremely positive impact on their perception of the nursing profession.

Before departing, His Majesty presented the 1000th Cadet, Harrison Rigby from Colchester, with his certificate and told cadets: 

I’m very proud of you all, hope you have great success. We’ll be relying on you more and more to keep everything going.