Any nurses or nursing students on here? Especially open university students?

[Nefney14]

Shamelessly posting for traffic.
I’m currently a HCA with a level 3 diploma in health and social care and I’m looking to start my nursing degree. I don’t have my maths and English gcse’s but do have City and Guilds equivalents and planned to do an access to nursing course and then apply to university but they won’t take my equivilent qualifications.

I’ve been looking and found that open university will accept them but I’m not sure if this is suitable if you don’t work in a hospital? I currently work in a nursing home so would have access to mentors and would contact my local hospitals for placements.

Does anyone know if this is possible? Or do I need to go back to basics and sit my GCSE’s?

Thanks for any help :)

My sister's at a similar stage and she's just done a functional skills course in English that is equivalent to GCSE. They definitely accept it where she's hoping to go. It was free as well.
She's just about to start an OU course which will then allow her to start uni, like an access course. I think it is K101.

I’ve got functional skills too as I had to do that for my diploma and they’ve still told me no even with the access on top. :(

Can I ask what university has accepted it?

I feel for you, you sound really motivated which is what we need in nursing!

What does the OU course material say? I only know one nurse who qualified via the OU but she is an RMN. She has done brilliantly well and progressed to an 8a.

I don’t know anyone who had become an adult nurse (i assume this is what you want?) via this route - what does the course say about placements?

If you’re planning to do an access course isn’t that adequate to get into uni?

Nurse here. Personally I wouldn't recommend anyone doing nursing via the uni route anymore, the fees are too expensive and little help with living costs etc.

Have you heard of nursing associates? Might be another idea, you can top it up to a nursing qualification, but get paid while training and don't need to do an access course either. Good luck!

@arrierttyborrower thank you :) honestly I’m so motivated I REALLY want this and so if I have to I will go back and sit the gcse’s It just seems silly that I have 2 different equivilant qualifications that apparently now don’t count for anything. The open university doesn’t actually give much information it says you need to be working in a healthcare setting with access to nurses to mentor you, it doesn’t give any examples of what type of environment is suitable.

The access course I applied for was at my local college and they declined my application due to not having GCSEs, they said they would reconsider if the university I want to go to (Brighton) put it in writing that they’ll accept the qualifications I already have. I contacted the university and they said they weren’t able to accept anything other than GCSE.

Thank you @popcOrn I have heard of them but haven’t looked into it much I’ll have a look now.

Nurse here - second Popcorn's suggestion to look at nursing associate route. If that's not for you I would recommend doing the required GCSE's to get you into Uni rather than OU- I did my Adv Dip (shows age...) alongsidean OU student who often lamented that Uni students had a wider range of placements.

Just to say, Nursing Associates are now available via a degree apprenticeship route (that is, you earn whilst you study and, I believe but you should check, don't pay tuition fees as the employer pays). You still get a University qualification. You wouldn't be qualified as a Registered Nurse but could later top up your qualification to become so.

www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/nursing-adult-2018-19
This is the one she's looking at.

Looks like Kingston accept it as well
www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate-course/adult-nursing/entry-requirements.html

Thank you everyone.
I’ve had a look at the nursing associate and your employer has to pay for it. There is absolutely zero chance of mine agreeing to that they don’t offer anything more than legally required training at the moment. I’m still going to try my luck and ask my matron tomorrow tho so wish me luck 😂😂

And this one as well
www.uel.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/bsc-hons-adult-nursing

I just think you might not have as much choice, but it doesnt mean it's a no at all

Thank you for the link, my problem with going to a further away uni is that I’m married with 2 really young kids (I should have probably put that in my OP) so much a bit more limited on how far I can travel out for placements etc. I really appreciate the help tho :)

nefney It sounds like your placement would be your current work place whilst training through the OU? If that’s so it doesn’t feel very rounded and limited exposure to a wide variety of nursing issues/experiences.

Where would you like to work when qualified?

Nursing associate could be a route for you, our TNA’s need C or above at GCSE in English and maths or equivalent. The route for them has been to work as clinical support workers on the wards then apply for the course, we are currently on our second cohort and interviewing for the third.

Is it possible to do the access course elsewhere/online? Does the uni want the access course plus GCSE’s? Sorry if I’m being a bit dim - I presume they do in lieu of a levels and not accepting your equivalent quals?

This must be so frustrating for you, I really think making the course degree only has excluded some great candidates.

@arriettyborrower that’s what I was hoping that I could start it at my current place of work and then contact my local hospital for placements but wasn’t sure if that was possible if that makes sense.

The contacted Brighton university and they won’t accept the access without the gcse’s So I can’t do it anywhere else unfortunately.
I have been looking for vacancies at my local hospital but there’s only been one for me to apply for and I didn’t hear back (it was for A&E so I’m guessing my lack of clinical experience held me back).

I’d ideally like to work in a learning disability setting but I know that them positions are harde to come by so would be happy with any adult nursing setting.

It honestly is so frustrating because I am really good at my job, I really enjoy it and all of my feedback from nurses and my matron is always positive I’m constantly told I’d make a really good nurse but it’s so hard to get someone to give you a chance.

Thank you so much for your help I guess I need to keep trying to get into the hospital or at least a workplace that offers some progression and forget open uni for a while

Actually I disagree, if you want LD the OU may well work for you. I think it would be really helpful for you to make contact with your local LD team via hospital or social services and speak to them for advice. LD is quite niche so the type of placements you would have would limited the OU route may suit that?

Thanks so much for your help!
I spoke to my matron yesterday about the nursing associate qualification and she’s agreed to look into it and put it to the owners (she started looking of the NMC website while I was in the office which hopefully is a good sign) so fingers crossed for me and thank you everyone for all of your help it’s been great to see that there are other avenues I can take that I hadn’t thought about/didn’t know. Hopefully I’ll be back with a positive update ❤️

I have done an access course and a module of OU but I do not have my GCSEs either.

I would like to be a RMN. I am starting the foundation degree in MH tomorrow and then I will be able to find a job as an Assistant Practitioner. After that I plan to do the (18 months) nursing degree whilst working.

We will see how that plan works out. It's a long way of going about it but due to financial reasons going to uni for 3 years isn't an option right now.

Good luck OP.