to be wondering if I could train to be a nurse?

[Quietpastures]

I am currently a home care assistant so linked experience.

I love my job but the pay isn't good and working conditions well they're pretty much non existent.

So I have been toying with training as a nurse, but am worried I'd just find the training impossible. Anyone who can help?

Really? I'm not too bad at mental maths - times tables and addition and subtract ions but anything else and I am like a PP and get a bit panicky.

Oh and I forgot to mention, I may have a diploma in nursing and an honours degree in midwifery but I have still only got a D in gcse maths

Because I know that I am shit at maths I am extra, extra careful and get everything triple checked.

Or

This thread is making me sad

Sorry for hijacking, Quiet.

Good luck, I'm sure you will be brilliant.

Good god I got an E in maths at school and passed my training no problems

I have a degree in Health Studies and a diploma in Nursing and I only got a B for O grade Arithmetic, I didn't even do maths (Scottish system). The maths isn't a huge part of the job. A big part of the job is remaining professional under enormous stress.

I don't have a background in nursing at all but spent 5 months getting to know nurses in different settings after my Dad had a heart attack. Sadly he died 2 months after complications during surgery. He was in ITU for most of those 2 months and as a relative you get to know the nurses pretty well. I'm always fascinated by career paths and without exception, the ITU nurses I asked said they went into that particular aspect of nursing because it allowed them the focus on individual patients in a quite unique way. More than one said it was not for everyone because it's very intense but they all felt they had found the right place for them.
Good luck.

I think it's time for me to go to bed. I thought your thread was 'AIBU to be wondering if I could train to be a horse?'

The 'maths' side of nursing is more arithmetic than maths, and it's something that gets easier with practice. You can get workbooks to go through - doing that before you even apply might help your confidence. Look for something like 'Calculations for Nurses' or 'Maths for Nurses'. And, though it's important in nursing to be able to count accurately, as others have said, it's not a huge part of the job really.

You sound like you'd make a cracking nurse. You care, you've got people skills, you're obviously bright. That's what you need to be a nurse (plus the degree )

Go for it. It's hard bloody work getting though Uni, but you'll be in it together just like all the other student nurses, we dragged each other through!

I love nursing, I feel privileged to be able to say I am one. You see the highs and the lows of multitudes of peoples lives and you have the chance to affect their lives for the better. It's amazing.

how is the dissertation for nursing? that's what's putting me off retraining currently

Also, I know a few midwives who started off as health care support workers, went and did their training and are awesome midwives now.

I started as a bank nursing auxiliary at our local community hospital, many, many years ago (1992)

You can do it OP! Have faith in yourself and get applying.

If you have a degree and maths you will be fine academically its degree level now as I,msure your aware I,m a nurse qualified nearly twenty years ago what area do you wish to train in? I,ma mental health nurse?

By the way on the maths issue I failed GCSE three times! In my day however we only needed maths or a science and I had biology and chemistry ! In all my years my primary school mental arithmetic has got me through having said that I,m a RMN So not loads of maths!

Dear OP,

I am a nurse and a teacher in a London university. If you feel that nursing is what you want to do, that you have a passion for it then go for it. I love my job as I get to work daily with excellent, enthusiastic and caring students that remind me every day why it is I chose to be a nurse. It is an absolute privilege to care for people when they are at their most vulnerable or to help them move towards health and independence. But and this is a big but, it demands so much from you and at times the rewards are hard to see, like at the end of a shift when all you can think about are the things you haven't done. So (and I'm sure you're not) don't go into it thinking it is easy or all lovely because at times it is impossibly hard but the rewards when they come, a smile from a frightened patient, the chance to relieve someone's pain (whether it is physical or mental), to see a patient you helped care for get better and go home are amazing.

In terms of a choice of course you have a range of options as you have a degree (even in an unrelated subject) and relevant clinical experience. You could therefore do the standard 3 year BSc or you could do a shortened (2year) masters level course leading to a post graduate diploma or you could do a full Masters. What I would suggest is that you have a look at the websites of the universities that you are interested in and maybe give the admissions tutor a call to discuss your particular situation. The other thing is to have a detailed look at the finances and make sure you have thought carefully about how you will afford to train.

The very best of luck and I hope in a few years you join me on huge register.

Do it! You've got the background and the academic ability.

Training is hard. Some placements are definitely better then others and some of the nurse lecturers are arses, but stick with it and you can have an amazing career.

Thank you so very much :)

So much to think about!

One more question; how do those of you with DCs manage?

I am doing an access course and GCSE's to get into Uni to train as a MH nurse.

I am crap at maths, really crap.

I will work through it though I am sure.

Hi, I am currently a Clinical support worker, I have a previous degree. I am strating my nurse training in 4 weeks (eekk). I am doing a Post Graduate Diploma in Adult Nursing which is a 2 year course. I am getting the last minute nerves at the moment. The requirements for the course i am doing are a previous degree at at leat a 2ii, you do have to relate it but you can stretch most things to relate somehow after all nursing is a pretty universal occupation, plus at least 650 hours experience, I had to write a reflective type piece on the experience I have before the interview to show that I have got everything i would have from a placement from my experience.

You can also obviously do adult, child or mental health nursing as an undergraduate degree. I chose my course as it is very highly thought of. There was apparently a lot of competition for my course but then I got on so anyone could ;). I also got offered a place on the undergraduate adult nursing course at the other local university. The competition for this course was less.
Sorry rambling, what I am trying to say is if you have the experience and you already know what nursing involves then go for it.

I have 2 dc, both school age, they will go to a childminder around my husbands work times although I am hoping I will often be able to drop them off and pick them up earlier. Due to this we have a bursary based around the child care costs which are constant, although we may be paying a lot more doing it this way it is better for us to have constant financial commitments rather than a fluctuating one. Also dd1 doesnt cope too well with changes in routine so this works for us.

The bursary is not a lot but I have also registered with NHSp so hope to be able to top up our income when needed that way.

HTH

I'm a nursing student, studying mental health nursing, I'm a little over halfway through the course.

1st thing is I'd highly recommend it . I absolutely love what I'm doing and get to meet lots of fantastic, knowledgeable and interesting people.

There is some maths involved but it's not terribly complicated and (certainly at my uni) there's a lot of support with it, including extra sessions and even 1:1 courses for those who need it and ask for help.

We do a patchwork dissertation, so several smaller pieces of work which are then pulled together rather than one huge piece.

The hardest thing for me is the hours required. The course is 50/50 placement and study but we'll often have academic work to do over placement too. The hours in uni aren't bad though so it's maybe swings and roundabouts. We get 6 weeks off a year + bank holidays. I'm a March intake student so my 6 weeks are a bit randomly spread out - 2 in February, 2 in June and 2 in October, I'm usually on placement over Christmas which isn't great but I guess it's good preparation for after qualifying.

I have 2 children (15 yr and 18mths old) and financially there's good help with childcare costs. I also overall see them more than when I was working as a support worker. Childcare is a bit awkward because of not knowing what shifts you'll be doing on placement until a week or so before you start it, I'm lucky that my DH can work flexibly around me but I know lots and lots of students with children so I'm sure there are many ways to make it work.

Good luck with everything - exciting times ahead .

Do it :) I'm an auxiliary nurse and also a 3rd year nursing student meaning I should be qualified by this time next year.

I'm not at all academic and it's difficult but do-able if you apply yourself.

I did the access course first.

Do it! I am on an access course and we have an range of ages on the course. Hoping to get into university next year and I am a single mother to a 2 year old.