Any healthcare lecturers happy to share your staff/student ratio

[WorriedAcademic]

Nursing lecturer with just under 70 students per cohort. We currently have 8 lecturers and have been told we’re going down to 6.

I’m currently working flat out, 10 hours a day. I’m at my desk for 7am. I actually think it would be impossible to do anymore.

We’re in a Very rural area and when on placement some of the students I have to visit are a 90 min drive away and others are a 60 min drive in the opposite direction. It’s not unusual for me to visit students on one site in the morning and then drive for over 2 hours to see students in another area. We have times when 2 cohorts are out at the same time and I have visits 5 days a week, plus all the usual admin stuff, meetings, assignment tutorials, personal tutor stuff, prepping, teaching the other cohort, etc.

It’s hell with 8. I will have a breakdown with 6. Course leader reckons it’s “doable”. Anyone with similar numbers who can reassure me?

[damekindness]

Fellow healthcare academic here. Always hard to calculate our SSR as we cover so many different programmes - pre reg, apprentices and CPD etc. But you're right it's HARD work because we work a 50 week year, need to cover clinical placements, deal with often less academically able students ( not that I think this is a bad thing, working with students often from non traditional backgrounds to develop their confidence and ability is one of the rewarding parts of my role) and trying to maintain own scholarly profile is utterly exhausting. We are finding that the team is being cut by not replacing staff when hours reduce or they leave - but we are of course expected to still deliver excellence and sterling NSS scores We, unsurprisingly have a lot of sickness in the team due to stress - which then further compounds the problem.

I think in general HEIs don't understand (or choose to ignore) the pressures of delivering regulated healthcare programmes. I think the reduction in staffing means in the end students get a Primark experience and academics become at best resentful and at worst unwell

[WorriedAcademic]

Thank you. Yes, this is what I'm finding frustrating. Seems like a lack of understanding of the uniqueness of health courses.

I have a degree in sociology as well as nursing and so sometimes think about trying to get a job as a sociology lecturer. 😄

I'm worried about the students having a poor experience but attitude seems to be that's not an issue because we can fill the places 3x over. But God forbid we get a poor NSS!

[damekindness]

I'm surprised you can fill places that easily - we really struggle to recruit (Home Counties - high living costs and low HE engagement area)

[WorriedAcademic]

Definitely not struggling to fill places.