I'm a newly qualified nurse at 52

[DeeDimer]

I thought I'd start this thread to help anyone who is thinking of a major career change slightly later than most.

I'm really lucky as given my age and that my DC's are (allegedly) grown up I was able to be relatively selfish in that it was only me and DH to worry about. Many on my course have very young children and have my absolute respect how they've managed it. I think good family support is crucial. And sleep!
I actually like nights even though I was dreading them. The wards feel very different and I have the ability to sleep anywhere at any time.
Up until 4 years ago I had no formal care experience. I took redundancy and got a job in a nursing home. I think you should have a little experience as personal care can be overwhelming if you've never done it. On my first day in the nursing home I went home, cried all night then told the manager I'd made a big mistake. In fairness she told me to have the day off and come in the next.

Oh and sepsis. I absolutely agree it's a challenge to diagnose and treat. What I meant was that as a dissertation topic although it's done a lot there is a lot of good, relevant and recent research so it makes a straightforward topic.

Thank you for the sepsis tip. I had been looking into person centred care and it’s too vague and not quantifiable enough I don’t think. I’d like to explore the barriers to care that nurses face- time, staffing etc...but again struggling to get to the specifics. I think it’s harder as I don’t have a love yet- like a favourite area.
Weirdly I like Quality stuff and clinical governance... 🤔

I’m excited to see the positive comments here about older nursing students. I’m thankful for the masks just now as I’m sure not many people realise I’m quite as old as I am on my current placement!!! 😂
I’m very fortunate in Scotland that we get £10000 bursary per year plus no fees. (It was £7000 the first year) so it’s affordable for my family as it hasn’t cost us anything and I’m bringing something into the household.

Congratulations! I think it's absolutely brilliant. You are never too old and we need nurses from all walks of life. There are so many different jobs in nursing, there's something to suit everyone. I've been qualified nearly 20 years and it's still my passion.

Some areas are better paid than others. For example theatres uses a lot of agency staff and some of them make very good money, one girl I knew would work all winter and spend all summer in Ibiza. Likewise A&E, Neonates and ICU have good opportunities to become an Advanced Nurse Practitioner. In my local trust those are paid at Band 8a so starting salary £45,000 + your unsociable hours. Education can bring in a decent wage too.

This is inspiring, thank you for posting

Congratulations OP and welcome to the world of nursing. I'm working in Wales too. I qualified in 2005 and luckily had a bursary too. So sad to think of newly qualified nurses coming out with so much debt. I saw in a forum last week a student had 70k in debt from her nursing training- absolutely shocking. Wishing you well in your career! 🥳

Hi op I'm 44 and a hcsw and have always thought I couldn't afford to do the degree but am finally thinking it might be doable.
My questions; were there a mix of ages on the course ? I'm worried I'd be the oldest and feel like the odd one out with lots of young students !
Did you do adult nursing?
Where I live there is a graduate course I've enquired about and they say it's basically the three year course crammed into two years with the expectation being that as a graduate you'd cope with the academic stuff and you have to have experience in health so I guess you whizz through a lot of the mandatory training type stuff I've done through work - but my question is do you think the two year course sounds doable and would you have chosen this route if you could have done it? Obviously as a mature applicant the shorter training time is very appealing

Nothing to ask, I finished training in 2007 in my early 20's and so admired those who started the course in their Late 40's early 50's. I hope you enjoy your career and the health service will appreciate you being on board. Congrats!

Sorry one more- how many placements do you do each year and do you get any choice in which area you are placed in ?

@Thirtyrock39

Sorry one more- how many placements do you do each year and do you get any choice in which area you are placed in ?

Hi. The NMC have set a minimum of 2300 placement hours so that is usually spread over the 3 years in blocks of 6-8 weeks. Placements in the 1st year are very much aimed at the fundamentals of care which you obviously wouldn't need but the theory is very much A&P, introductions to Evidence Based Practice etc. My bestie at uni was an experienced HCSW and had done the Access to nursing. I suppose it's up to whether you think you could manage a very intense 2 years without little holidays? We got 6-8 weeks every year which was much needed!

What is a usual week of uni like on this course? As in hours of study/lectures. when do the placements start?

Congratulations OP. I qualified at 39. I’m now late 40’s and doing a Masters in a new specialty. Never too old to learn new skills 😊

If you want to work in A&E then just go for it. Don’t get stuck thinking you don’t know enough yet, because you’ll never know enough until you’re there doing it.
Follow your dream.

@jamestowno

What is a usual week of uni like on this course? As in hours of study/lectures. when do the placements start?

In my uni we had set blocks of each. So 6/8 weeks of theory with us in 3-4 days of various length then 6/8 weeks of placements with 37.5 hours. First placement was after about 10 weeks.

Just wanted to say well done OP for chasing your dreams. Really impressive.

This is great to read. I am in a European country and trying to learn the language so I can retrain as a nurse - I'm 45 this year. It's a paid course here as they are in dire need of nurses, so I will be earning as soon as I get onto the course.

Like you I have had a lot of contact with health care workers in the last ten years and feel like it would be a challenging but varied and active job and I am really looking forward to retraining.

There's a hospital across the road from my house and I rang to ask about placements, the man said yes, and it doesn't matter how old you are - you can be 18 or 60, when you are ready we will give you a job! So great to hear. Good luck!

This is a great thread, nursing was a change of career for me too, although I was 29 when I qualified but there were people on my cohort who were in their 50s.

I think what's great now is there are options for people to also go through an "apprenticeship" type route - lots of trusts offer nursing associate foundation degree and then top up to RN so you can train without the salary drop and have your fees covered - it has really encouraged some great HCSW to go for it and be great RNs because they haven't had to worry about getting in to student debt. And they have the benefit of a lot of relevant experience so they know what they are getting into.

@Thirtyrock39

Sorry one more- how many placements do you do each year and do you get any choice in which area you are placed in ?

I've nearly finished my first year and I'm just about to go on my 3rd placement. So it's around 3 a year and a 4th if you fail or need more practice to meet the hours requirement.

You don't get any choice as there tends to be a shortage of placements. In year 2 or 3 you can choose your own elective placement.

I'm 28 and just nearly finished my first year well done to you!!!
It's a long slog my whole life is just uni at the minute I was so supposed to be doing the masters and dual qualified but I'm not sure I want to spend an extra year in uni.