I have a disability- will nursing degree be made accessible for me?

I’m a nursing lecturer and would agree with pp about the flexibility available to you. The accelerated MSc programme is pretty full on and even though you have less hours to do they are packed in to two years. Don’t forget the academic stress of working at level 7/MSc on top of clinical hours.

I find that whilst universities are keen to make adjustments for disabilities the placement areas have a different definition of reasonable.

It would be great if you could complete the programme but it can be punishing even for the fit and healthy. The risk of not being able to complete the programme is quite high - yet you will potentially still have a debt with nothing to show.

What sort of nursing do your see yourself doing?

I ask because community is often seen as a slightly easier role when it really isn't. Lots and lots of travelling, twilight's etc

If you are already Band 6 then dont underestimate the drop in salary and the additional stress.

If your condition flares under stress then you are almost guaranteed to suffer poor health by doing this.

Placements are not particularly flexible and require you to follow shift patterns of mentors etc.

But do definitely talk to the specific university you’re interested in,they will all have different rules possibly.

They couldn’t reduce clinical hours. There is no opportunity for part time study at all. Afaik courses are validated as either a full time or part time course and the university has to stick to what they’ve been validated as. The other issue is finance, you receive money on the understanding you’d be full time.

the other issue is you say you’d catch up the following year but you have no way of knowing if you could. If you’re too ill one year to do all your hours then how could you know you’d be well enough the following year to do extra? My uni is very lenient (more than others I’ve worked at) and we will let students carry a small number of hours over each year (around 100). Ime though students that do this the deficit usually increases the next year. They “finish” year 3 unable to qualify as they haven’t done all their hours. We then try to get them extra weeks placement into Sept/oct after they should have finished but there is no guarantee we can do that as other cohorts are out.

if someone becomes unwell it depends how long they’re unwell for. They can be signed off sick for 2-3 weeks. Any longer than that and they’d really have to be interrupting for a year. They couldn’t be signed off for say 6 weeks and come back after 6 weeks. They’d have missed too much theory or too much placement and the course would have moved on to the next block.

One in law and one in psychology.

What is it that you would want to do if you qualified as a nurse? Depending on this, the OT pathway maybe a better option for your personal circumstances.

If it’s about wanting to prescribe a wider formulary, remember that you will need to redo the prescribing course to be an independent nurse prescriber with the NMC.

Talk to the course provider, it’s a case of can you split the hours over twice as long. What they will need you to do is the full breadth of placements that will include nights, would that be an issue health wise

Hello OP. It sounds like a nursing apprenticeship would work well for you. Does your Trust have them? Talk to your education team in the first instance as you usually access the registered nurse degree apprenticeship RNDA through your employer. It can be done part time so that you are working and learning at the same time.

I think you should be able to train with ‘reasonable adjustments’ such as not doing nights, or having shorter shifts (as long as you can do a mix of early, lates and twilights).

The Open University does the RNDA - have a look there.

In answer to the above, you can pause your studies if you become unwell. On an apprenticeship you can have up to a month off before having to take a break.

Sorry but I don’t think your condition and your career plans are compatible
long hours and stressful working environments are the bread and butter of the job

I’m a senior lecturer for a nursing program and at my university we would not accommodate part time hours. We are validated by the nmc as a full time course, there is no part time option. You’d also receive your tuition fees and maintenance loan and LSF grant for a full time course. You’d have a deadline for your practice document and you’d need to submit by that date or you’d fail the module. If you were too unwell for placement you’d have to interrupt for a year.

we could make other adjustments such as no nights, limit placement travel time. Keep in mind that the course is stressful.

I thought the OP said she was an AHP, not an HCA? Confused.

What area are you thinking of going into OP

You mentioned that stress can trigger your health condition to flare. It’s worth taking into consideration that the responsibilities of being a registered nurse are far greater than those of an HCA, and that this alone might be detrimental to your health. Another thing to consider is that doing a degree while raising children is a massive undertaking even when you’re well (I did it), the coursework is considerable on top of the placements and uni lectures, even if you do manage to get a part time placement.

Hi, I'm not a nurse but an OT with various health conditions (including my username one). I did a PGDip in OT (I sensibly dropped the MSc dissertation module as this would have been an extra 400 hours on top of everything else...). Placements were full-time and very intense. I did find it a slog and that was even without the nights / shift work that you would get with nursing. I would advise you to contact some universities to discuss your possible reasonable adjustments. Also, there may be posts on TheStudentRoom where this has been discussed. Good luck x

The accelerated courses are intense. I did one (albeit 25 years ago) and we didn't get the holidays the other students got because we had to cram in our practice hours. To get 1800 hours and 1800 theory into 2 years, you have to complete 24 full weeks of placement into each year, plus 24 full weeks of theory. I can't see how you could compress that further.

Try and do a few experience days in your local trust and see where or how you see yourself working..

if you’re determined to to be a nurse, community care can be more manageable, as you see people 1 by 1.. the nurse associate apprenticeship would enable you to bypass the fees but you would need an NHS employer to sponsor you..

Consider if you think nursing would be viable for you with your condition, not simply the degree.

Become an OT, no nights no weekends, better work life balance.. daytime hours.. reasonably predictable work.. nursing attitudes and values can run through many professions.. I think nurses carry too much responsibility at the moment in this era of nursing shortages.. your responsible for nurse associates, student nurses and HCPs…they might be brilliant but your practice will be questioned if you’re their senior and something goes wrong. don’t romanticise it.. I’ve done it for 25 years and can’t stick those 14 hr shifts anymore… at 51

To the best of my knowledge, where I work we wouldn’t be able to make an accelerated course part time - it sort of goes against the point of it and the timings for the boards etc.

Im also not sure how our admissions tutors would view someone already working in a closely related field wanting to swap.

Open days are coming up soon - can I strongly recommend going along and having an in person chat with the nursing school of your preferred uni?

Youd also want to ask questions around how far you’d be expected to travel to placement