Graduating with a degree in Mental Health Nursing from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) last year, 28-year-old Molly Kiltie has now embarked on a new career as a Mental Health Practitioner with the Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team at Leicester Glenfield Hospital’s Bradgate Mental Health Unit. From her first day to new experiences and reflecting on her time during her degree, we caught up with her to find out more:
“On my first day I woke up the freshest I have ever felt. I had that feeling, like when you start a new school and you want everything to be perfect: the excitement was unreal.
“I still get it now, nearly six months in, I take a step back and think ‘wow this is what I do for a living’.”
It’s hard to know if you are doing what you were born to do but maybe waking up each day and feeling like that about work is a good indication.
It is for Molly Kiltie, at least. It’s how she feels every day since she landed her first role as a Mental Health Practitioner with the Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team at Leicester’s Bradgate Mental Health Unit.
Getting the job was the culmination of a desire which began when she first walked through the doors of The Bradgate in 2020, on her university placement. It was then she could see the life path she needed to take.
She said: “It’s all thanks to DMU, I had a placement with them. It’s a place I had been really interested in working before but I didn’t know much about the role, if I am honest.
“But after spending three months there, I loved it, I really fitted in. You know when you go somewhere and you think ‘yes, this is where I am meant to be’.”
When Molly’s three-month placement came to an end she was gutted to leave. There were no jobs going at the time and its not always a job role offered to newly qualified nurses, Molly explained.
But one day while out on another placement, all Molly’s stars aligned. She saw a job offer with the Home Crisis team at the Bradgate Mental Health Unit and knew what she had to do; nothing and no one was going to get in her way.
She said: “I remember being on a placement and seeing a job advert come up for the Crisis team, so I applied, not expecting to get it because I was still finishing my degree. But I wanted it, I really wanted it.
“Then I got an offer for an interview, I couldn’t believe that in itself, then the same day I had the interview they called me and offered me the job.
“It was amazing, it was like all my years of training came down to that moment, my parents were so proud.”
Having been in the role since October 2021, Molly spends her day out in the community working with patients and feels well integrated into the team already.
Molly said: “I am a people person, I love speaking to people, I am out in the community on a daily basis helping people and it’s the best feeling in the world.
“The job is so rewarding, I am a safe space for patients to discuss their mental health needs.
“I can arrive at a patient’s house and they can be distressed but by the time I leave they can be laughing and smiling.
“It’s a job I have wanted since forever, and I have finally got it.”
While reflecting on her time at university, Molly said: “I am a girl from Caerphilly in Wales. If you think Gavin and Stacey, that’s what it’s like where I am from. It still amazes me shops are open on a Sunday in Leicester!
“Moving to Leicester was such a shock to the system, but the day I arrived I knew I wouldn’t leave. I just needed to root myself somewhere and thanks to DMU it’s all been possible.
“My lecturers were amazing, they all went above and beyond for me. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be where I am today and because of them I finished my degree with a job lined up to walk straight into.”
Molly’s path into nursing was neither easy or straightforward, with no A-levels to her name and average GCSE grades Molly didn’t think she would ever go to university or get to where she is today, but in her words:
“You can achieve anything you want, if you want it enough, there is always a way.”
Posted on Thursday 3 March 2022