A “shocked” student from High Wycombe is celebrating after being named apprentice of the year.

Adam Cramp, who is part of the first cohort of nursing students at Bucks New University, collected the award for his work with Broadmoor Hospital and the university.

The Skills for Health ‘Our Health Heroes Awards’ are a celebration of the healthcare workforce and the 27-year-old has praised the awards for showing healthcare professionals that they are appreciated.

He said: “This award is affirmation that I have chosen the right career for me. I feel completely honoured and humbled, especially with the other great nursing apprentices on my course.

“I felt this way even when the nomination came through, and now that I have won it, I’m almost lost for words.”

He works at the West London NHS Trust hospital and was a pupil at Sir William Ramsey, in Hazlemere.

From there, he started working in a shop and but said he “wanted more”.

He secured a job on reception at Broadmoor Hospital, and, after almost a year, moved on to working on the wards.

He said he knew after his first shift on the wards watching colleagues that nursing was something he wanted to do.

He added: “The Nursing Degree Apprenticeship training scheme has been excellent and has given me invaluable skills. I would recommend it to anyone.

“Awards like these make you feel appreciated in the work that we do. It’s quite easy to be bogged down by the workload and become quite despondent.

“Whether it be winning an award yourself or seeing a colleague win, it reminds you that we are appreciated for the work we do, especially at times when all you hear about are cuts to various services or opportunities.

“I think we should always be looking at different ways that we can recognise our colleagues for the work that they do.”

Bucks New University was one of the first institutions to launch the nursing degree apprenticeship programme in April this year.