For being furious at DH telling DSD that my degree isn't a real degree?

[TooFarGone]

So DH is sat down with his DD taking about careers etc. He says to her "these days, you need a job that pays at least £20k a year but at the same time, you don't want to be stressing yourself out with difficult degrees and stuff. You want to enjoy your time at uni. That's why I think nursing would be ideal for you! you get to go to uni, you don't have to do a difficult degree and you get a well paid job at the end of it!".

So DSD says "But isn't a degree in nursing going to be just as difficult?" and he replied "no course not, they call it a degree but its not like a real degree".

I'm furious as I worked bloody hard to get my degree and he knows this. It isn't an "easy option" at all. I had it out with him and he apologised for upsetting me but still maintains that nursing is an easy alternative to doing a "real" degree.

mippy I know someone who studied 'Football Studies' at Southampton Solent. Usless course, useless instituiton, and a waste of his time and money.

GetOrf - Cambridge wasn't particularly for what I wanted to study and specialise in. If I wanted to do law or pre-1850 literature it would have been great. That said, my sixth-form friend is now a research fellow there, specialising in beat literature, so perhaps that was just my poor impression.

Looks like Football Studies is a vocational course - I looked it up as I find some of the issues around football fascinating (fan culture, relationship with nationalism etc) but not sure how it would translate into a BA.

LeQueen... I think an awful lot of courses have been 'dumbed down', more's the pity. I was talking to one of my former lecturers a while ago and he said that the universities have become all about business - and money - and having to compete. If they refuse to take the courses or start up certain 'lesser ones', they lose funding.

I don't know whose stupid idea it was to get rid of Polytechnics but it was truly the wrong thing to do. Vocational courses are essential.

I'd add a disclaimer to my last post having just seen 'Football Studies' being offered.... some vocational courses are essential.

... and why, if such crazy options are available, isn't there one on "The Life and times and inside leg measurement of Alan Rickman".... ? Bizarre.

I think people are getting confused between harder, as in: there are more lectures you need to go to; and harder, as in: you will be working at a high intellectual level.

Nursing is not as intellectually demanding as Classics.

As for politics and philosophy not being demanding, tell that to my Oxford friends who had perfect As in A levels (very hard 28 years ago), and went on to Harvard Business School, or to be chairmen of FTSE companies, senior journalists at the BBC, etc!

Have been reading this thread with interest, as I am hoping to start the nursing degree in 2012. So far I have been to 2 open days, both universities have stated that they have 10 applicants for each place; so not at all easy to get on the course. Obviously this will vary from uni to uni though.
What I would say is that nursing is not the sort of job you should be doing if you are not completely sure that you want to do it, and if you are not completely sure of what is involved. I have been doing health care jobs within the nhs, working with nurses for the past few years. There can be a lot of shit, death, blood, unbelievably horrible sights tbh, the sort of thing most people are not really aware of. It is also the only job I have ever cared about. I have met so many amazing people who are going through such hard, hard times. I have met their families. We have made a difference to their lives. I want to be a nurse.
Whether it is a hard degree or a soft degree (I really couldn't comment yet, but hopefully will be able to let you know in about 4 years) no-one should be doing it unless that is what they really want to do, and that is why your dh is talking out of his arse.

Is it possible, Toofargone, that this is not the true belief of your dh -in which case, all the debating here is a bit of a waste of time- but just something he knows you have a bit of a bee in your bonnet about and he is using this to wind you up?

If so, he sounds a real creep to be using your children to have a go at you and you've got a bigger problem on your hands rather than if nursing is a hard degree or not.

My own opinion is that nursing at basic qualification should not involve a degree, but have nothing at all against nurses pursuing degrees in nursing-related topics post registration. Nothing wrong with those who are academically-inclined carrying out research and so on.

The thing that worries me is when posters say "AND they have to study on their own..."

Those of you who hear about students who have eight hours a week of lectures really shouldn't think that means they do eight hours work per week. That's like saying the lawyer is only working when she/he's in court.

In my university days, time with tutors or in seminars or lectures didn't amount to more than perhaps three or four hours a day.

The rest of the time you were on your own. In the library, doing research. Or writing essays. Just because it wasn't formally structured didn't mean it wasn't (very) academically stretching. And you'd be found out if you delivered an essay that your tutor didn't think much of.

I had four hours of lectures a week and four hours of tutorials in my first degree. I never went to a single lecture in my 2nd or 3rd year. I did 4 hours of work a week (going to tutorials). The only marked work we had to do was one 3000 word essay per class each semester - so eight assignments a year. I could write an assignment in a day no problem.

I came out with a 2:2

If I'd tried that in my midwifery degree I'd have been chucked out after a month.

Look, surely nursing and classics (for instance) are equally hard, in different ways?

A nursing degree will have a lower academic requirement to get on the course (probably), and you will be stretched to the limit, emotionally and otherwise, by combining studying and practice. But you will be taught stuff, actual quantifiable things you can learn and pass a test on.

A classics degree will be for those with very high academic achievement, and you will then have to be incredibly self-motivated and read and study vast quantities of material on your own. You will learn to think very hard, but you won't deal with dying children.

Doesn't mean one is 'better' than the other.

Anyway, TooFarGone your DH needs to (a) stop belittling your achievements and (b) encourage his DD to set her sights high (whether nursing, or physics!)

I certaily think the OPs husband came over on the last banana boat, it sounds like advice from 1974

Nothing like a bit of casual racism to back up a point that has nothing to do with anything

YANBU. Imperial? was that sarcastic about a Philosophy degree? :) They ARE easy! Nursing I imagine isn't and probalby involves more hours than a lot of degrees.

However - agree with other posters that he is also being unreasonable by suggesting she limit herself by aiming for a £20k a year low paid job instead of enocuraging her to stretch herself, for not encouraging her to try something a bit harder (in his mind anyway). I imagine nursing is an extremely difficult job and while it may be rewarding it is not well paid. I suppose maybe he doesnt want to put too much pressure on her but a) he should be encouraging her and b) he seems to be confused if he thinks nursing is an easy optoin as a degree or a career.

Out of interest - what is his degree in?

Peoplecallmetricky - Yes! Just, yes! How the hell anyone could nurse if they weren't truly passionate about it is beyond me.

Wamster What do you think the 'basic' registration should consist of? Avanced handholding?

I did a traditional academic degree, and I'd be prepared to bet that a nursing degree would be more work with more challenging exams than my degree, for me, at least. Just tell your daughter what the real deal is.

Are you fucking kidding me?!

If my mother saw this, she'd go apoplectic with rage. She's an NHS nurse and is sick to the back teeth of people not taking her degree seriously. I would absolutely LOVE to see someone try and do her job without being given the right amount of training. It's harrowing, stressful and she's inevitably on her feet for the full duration of her shift.

militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/2009/04/research-into-survival-rates-of.html

That blog right there is the best blog I think I've ever read in my life - read her article about protected mealtimes too. Nurses have a hard enough time runnig around and doing seven-million things at once without twunts like your DP belittling their profession, and without every single national newspaper tearing their throats out every time somebody does something wrong. Shock horror: It isn't always the nurses fault.

This is the reason why I'd both love and hate to be a nurse. It's a career I'm seriously considering once I have the time to do the degree, but people like this just make me so angry because it makes me feel like the hard work they do isn't appreciated at all.

Bottom line is: if you want a fucking easy job, go fuck off and work for a call centre somewhere, asking if people want double glazing. Because I promise you, the abuse you get on the phones is going to be nowhere near the amount opf abuse you have to endure as a nurse.

I have not read everyone's comments but am outraged by the original post in terms of your DH's comments, as others say he is wrong on so many levels.

My DH is an A&E Nurse, yes he does earn more than £20,000 but he has been qualified for about 14 years now and teaches. There are many avenues Nurses can take but my DH is still studying as next on the list is his Masters as he always wants to better himself, his career and his salary - because let's face it considering the responsibility Nurses have the salary is shit.

I feel upset that your DH thinks it is an easy degree and that he seems to think it is just for women too, there are male midwives too, does he realise that.
I hope you show him this thread :)

Academic standards for any qualification are decided and maintained through a constant process of comparison, external assessment and so on. It is fashionable nowadays to talk of 'dumbing down'; every year the exam results are rubbished because 'hardly anybody got an A* GCE beause they were harder', for example. They were marked on different criteria altogether - the top 5% got grade A, whereas now, if a candidate scores 85% (eg), they will get an A no matter how many other candidates got 85%. It doesn't follow that the exams are harder or easier, just marked bya different system. The only people who say modern A levels and degrees are too easy are people who haven't done them, ime. Likewise those who believe state education is of a low standard. Hard to believe they've been in a school recently. (I'm not a teacher, btw)

LeQueen, your friend is right.

MummyTigger, when all is said and done, as a patient I do not care if my nurse has a degree (unless in a really, really specialised subject where it actually fucking matters). A recent stay in hospital left me without water for hours on end and thirsty-I didn't have energy to ask. There was NO reason why I should have been denied water- I was allowed it.
Was this the staff nurses fault? Damned right it was. But that is a lot of nurses for you; they want the 'glory' of being a profession without the actual responsibility. It is RIGHT that the papers blame them for things like this!!
Not all like this, I must add.

And, yeah, forgive me if I think a bit of 'hand-holding' wouldn't go amiss, either, or are they too busy reading nonsense about 'self-actualisation' for an essay to 'top up' their diploma to degree? Grrr.