To think Nursing is one of the hardest degrees?

[UndertheCedartree]

I did a nursing degree as a 2nd degree as a mature student. I actually felt sorry for the 18 year olds starting it as they didn't get the usual Uni experience. No Freshers - as we'd already started a few weeks before and were in back to back lectures/classes. Social life was limited due to work load and placements with early starts and long hours.

I found it very stressful. Long hours in Uni due to hours needed to pass the professional qualification. Half the time spent working full time while having to write assignments and study for exams. Also the OSCEs (practical exam) and VIVAs (oral exam) that were so different to anything I'd done before.

So AIBU than Nursing is one of the hardest degrees?

My DD is half way through a social work degree and has just finished her first placement which has been demanding along with writing up reports and further essays, so from what I see nursing is hard due to placements but you aren’t the only ones doing it. Good luck with the rest

As well as the academic aspect of the course, they are learning how to communicate with and care for, often frightened, confused and vulnerable patients and their families.
That’s tough and demanding.
They are required to be professional.

Which could be said about many vocational courses. As well as the academic side teachers are learning to teach 30 children, meet their individual needs, deal with parents, and meet the standards for Ofsted while, build productive relationships etc etc. As well as the academic side social workers are learning to make complex assessments, communicate concerns to parents and family members, support end of life care, assess support needs for daily living, present their arguments in court, work constructively with vulnerable and chaotic clients, while knowing their assessment could result in life of death decisions for which they’ll be held publicly accountable.

Nursing doesn’t remotely have the monopoly on remaining professional under extreme pressure. These professions are tough, and while I think nurses are vastly underrated they’re generally held in good public esteem unlike teachers and social workers.

Milly I think social work would be even more stressful to be honest. Some horrendous situations and decisions to be made. I have so much respect for them.

Jellycat, totally agree. I had no idea there was so much animosity towards teachers until I started reading teacher bashing threads on here. It is shocking!

Personally I think Electronic Engineering is really hard - academic as well as lots of labs. It was far harder than either of the 2 postgrad degrees I did.

I was one of the lucky ones. I did my SRN back in late 70s /early 80s and then went on to do my degree. There were Nursing degrees around but I was advised by one School of Nursing that if I wanted the academic clout of a degree behind me, to study for any other degree than Nursing. Things may have changed but from what I hear, I don’t think so. Judging by the poor quality of the Nursing students on the ward I was admitted to a while ago, I don’t think that has changed. In studying separately I had the benefit of a fantastic nursing social life and the university one. We all (the public, nurses, all healthcare professionals) were sold a pup when hospital based apprenticeship style nurse training was dropped in favour of degree only qualification route. We were told Nursing would be a degree only, yet most Nursing care is delivered by unqualified staff. But that’s a different soap box....

I don’t know, I only have experience of my own degree which is generally considered one of the hardest ones with pretty much the highest entry requirements. Nursing certainly sounds hard work and very demanding but I know plenty of people who have done it who wouldn’t have the academic credentials required to do my degree.

@Guacamole - I was younger, yes! But nursing is very much about problem solving as well as learning facts.

All jobs have there own stressors. Nurses and midwives often act as counsellors/social workers as well as dealing with life and death situations, and Midwives are also often regarded with animosity... however it’s not a competition as to which profession is the most difficult to train for or which is the most difficult to work within.

Absolutely - there are many careers I wouldn’t do and many people who wouldn’t want my job for all the world, good job really that we can choose what suits us, challenges and all.

I’m not sure really why you posted this. You seem convinced that your degree is harder than anyone else’s no matter what they say in response.

@DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon 'Look how much harder I worked than you!' I'm sorry I've said nothing of the sort. It is those crying 'it's not a competition!' that are actually turning it into a competition and getting on the defensive. This is not about 'I worked harder than you!' Why on earth would it be?! That all sounds very childish. I have also answered many times 'what I hope to achieve' - the interesting discussion I am having with many people. If my thread makes you worry about whether I think you worked less hard than me - then perhaps it is not the thread for you.

I think it’s hard to compare. I did a chemistry degree at a RG uni and it was full on - that and Medicine had the highest rate of mental health issues (don’t think my uni does/did nursing even though it has 7 teaching hospitals!) Some weeks we had over 30 hours of teaching/lab time plus all of the studying for exams, homework etc plus it was very competitive. However, my friend read Philosophy at one of the Cambridge colleges - hardly any contact hours yet many of his peers would do 13+ hours a day self study in exam season and the pressure sounded absolutely immense.

I’m sure low contact, high contact and work placement degrees all have their own challenges. It’s also hard to compare similar degrees across unis - law at an ex Poly won’t be comparable to the level of competition/pressure/rigour of an Oxbridge course.

@UndertheCedartree so do you have Absolute final responsibility or do you have an overseeing consultant? And by that I mean the patients you care for will still be under a named medical consultant (doctor)?Just interested as when I used to work in hospital, even nurse consultants etc where overseen by doctors - for example the advanced cardiac practitioners or nurse prescribers, their patients would still have a named medical consultant who the buck truly stops with.

@FormerlyFrikadela01 - our placements were pass or fail and didn't go towards the classification.

Re: masters - I will say my cohort was small. But not sure anyone has self-funded?

There was very much an expectation set on the batchelors degree that you would go on to Masters and many have reached that.

It's hard because you have the stress of professional responsibility on top of all the usual student stresses. You also have much shorter holidays. A degree may be academically demanding but there is something easier about a less intensive time table and sitting at a desk studying. That's not even mentioning the emotional and physical toll it takes. FWIW I'm not a nurse but can HCP and can see why you think this...

Re: masters - I will say my cohort was small. But not sure anyone has self-funded?

Perhaps it's because mental health is generally shit on from a great height by all and sundry.
I still find it astounding that so many nurses are apparently educated to a masters level, its certainly not my experience. Post grad.modules are common but not the full masters programmes.
I wonder what the official stats are on it?

I don't think labelling it as one of the "hardest" degrees is useful or particularly clear... It depends on your criteria and the calibre of student, surely?

Personally I studied multiple STEM degrees at a massive detriment to my mental health - I barely survived them despite good university academic support, an aptitude for the subject and fairly lightweight term time paid working commitments (10-15 hrs per week). Yet the university was keen to support where necessary because it was generally perceived as an intense, rigorous degree route with the usual lack of female/diversity students. It nearly broke my enthusiasm for a STEM career before I'd even started work!

So many people seem to find university so stressful (not to mention expensive), and I wonder if there’s actually a need for so many people to be getting Masters, not just nurses, but in all kinds of subjects.

Nameofchanges...i do agree to a certain extent but if you want to be a nurse then youbhave to do a degree and often people do a masters as they want to progress and/ or extend knowledge.

The criteria for academic vigour seems to be quite snobby ( and geared towards masculine traits such as Maths and sciences) whereas arty or socoal science sibjects are trafitionally seen as less academic. Having done both arts and sciences, i find it harder to write a good English essay than do an OSCE science exam as the English essay is so subjective.

Sorry for typos.

@millymoo1202 - no, not the only ones! As I said before I imagine a social work degree to be very difficult. Do you know how much time they do on placement?

@DPotter - a clever way to cut pay.

@PointlessAddict - the point I am making is that the whole qualification is tough not just the academics.