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?

‘I do think it is probably more stressful than a lot of degrees but not 'harder' as such. When I hear people say they have 12 contact hours or whatever a week I am like huh???’

Twelve hours a week contact is normal on many degree courses because you’re supposed to be capable of organising most of your work and learning yourself.

I'm a mental health nurse with a prior degree from a Russel group uni... my first degree was far more academic than my nursing degree however my nursing degree was relentless in terms of time at uni and on placement and I felt far more pressured to succeed.

I personally dont think nursing should be a degree subject, I've seen lots of amazingingly academic student nurses come through who just dont cut it with the actual nursing skills.

bobbypinseverywhere of course nurses have gaps in our knowledge and cant manage complex medical cases alone... that's not what our profession does. I think theres been an awful lot of muddying up of what nurses do in recent years. You often hear the old "nurses are doing what junior doctors used to" and I think it creates this expectation that we should have the same level of knowledge and skills of a junior doctor... we dont because our professions are different and should never be expected to have the same knowledge and skillset. I would never expect our fy1 to sit and complete an in depth risk assessment with a patient in the same way they wouldn't expect me to complete their yearly physical review.

My first degree was European Politics and International Relations.

Any healthcare degree is hard because you are learning both academic knowledge and hands on skills at the same time, you need a very broad knowledge base and you can't allow any gaps in this. OSCEs and VIVAs are just part of healthcare degrees. Personally I much prefer these to written exams.

I did dentistry, this was hard because you are treating patients on a pretty fulltime basis, learning completely new skills plus a lot of academic knowledge, medical knowledge, ethics, law etc. Much shorter holidays than other courses and a lot of work.

I have friends who did much more traditionally academic subjects, like english , philosophy and the amount of essays and obscure knowledge they needed is insane, I think I wouldn't be able to do 2-3 essays a week even with reduced contact hours. Lots of degrees are hard.

I'm not going to sit here and compare my course to others, there are plenty of courses that are difficult in many ways. And everyone will find different things difficult. Just because you found it harder than maths doesn't mean it is.

@dottiedodah - I am not saying it is the hardest - there are lots of hard degrees. My Maths degree was hard - Nursing was harder in my opinion but in a different way.

Our Uni days were 9-4 4 days a week (reduced in 3rd year when doing disertation) but we had no long holidays. It was hard going!

Nameofchanges, absolutely, but during my degree, I had classes Mon to Fri 9-5 but also had about 12 hours of reading to do outside of that. More contact hours doesn't mean you don't still have a lot of independent reading to do

That is pretty stressful when you have 3 kids too juggle too and no time to work and therefore no money for childcare. Again I didn't find it hard, just very stressful.

^ exactly. Totally agree with @dishranawaywiththespoon

'Hardness' as a concept is totally individual. Its pointless arguing that it IS hard as an absolute concept as everyones experiences differ.

Its not really a competition is it? Many people will say their degree was harder ,but its horses for courses .A doctor will be stretched when in training, but will have far more responsiblity than a Nurse once trained .A hospital Doctor on A and E will be busier than a GP etc .No disrespect to Librarians everywhere ,but how on earth can it be one of the most stressful jobs FFS ! Issuing Books and fines occasionally, is hardly the same as a firefighter !

I’ve done a biology degree and a nursing degree. Academically the biology degree was harder however I did that at a much better university. I got top grades in the academic part of my course with very little effort. However a Nursing degree is tough though as nurses eat their young. It can be 3 years of sucking up big time in order to pass. I did almost fail a placement as the mentor hated me.

OP having a day off a week would have made a massive difference to me. Nurses in my uni had the same hours as you, but for some reason us midwifery students had to go in 5 days a week. Meaning I had to do all my study in the evening after the kids went to bed, looking back I honestly don't know how I did it!

bobbypinseverywhere your post was patronising about nurse practitioners, they are nice, they have a good bedside manner but obviously can't know what doctors know.

I think it was a huge mistake to change nursing training over from being primarily vocational to pseudo academic and requiring a degree. All that has done is take away the emphasis and importance of actually caring for patients in the traditional, hands on way. Instead it's created a generation of nurses who actually aren't that academic in reality, thinking that because they're graduates they're too clever to do many of the traditional nursing roles.

Nursing cannot be one of the 'hardest' degrees judging by some of the fools who passed when I was at Uni. Sorry

Strangers, but if you’re in classes being taught 9-5 every day then the independent work will be much easier for you to complete because someone has taught you!

Someone with only 12 hours of contact time is having to be much more independent.

That’s why when people get to PhD level by the end of it they are getting one contact hour a month. It’s assumed you don’t need to be taught.

It’s a bit like saying that the most difficult jobs are the ones where you have a supervisor watching what you do all day.

I think it was a huge mistake to change nursing training over from being primarily vocational to pseudo academic and requiring a degree. All that has done is take away the emphasis and importance of actually caring for patients in the traditional, hands on way. Instead it's created a generation of nurses who actually aren't that academic in reality, thinking that because they're graduates they're too clever to do many of the traditional nursing roles.

What absolute bullshit.

No one goes to university , and gets saddled with a shit load of debt (DS2 had a bursary but still has debt), to become a nurse unless they want to care for people and do the traditional hands on roles.

This rubbish has been being spouted since I started my nursing diploma in 1992, btw.

Peaceabdove find this attitude perplexing. The reason why nursing is now a degree in every single country is because we know better educated nurses save lives. At the same time people don’t want better educated nurses as they think we won’t care anymore!

How can pps compare? Unless they have done multiple degrees? And anyway, it's purely subjective- based on ability, resilience, academic background etc etc...
for what it's worth, I did a dental degree. It was tough. 5 years, first two were pretty much the same as the medical degree, then we were thrown into clinics, placements etc. Pretty much a full time 9-5 job with very little holidays. We did not observe the university terms and only had a short break of a few weeks during the summer break.
It was very academically challenging, and the workload was immense. There were a fair few drop out especially in first few years.
In saying that we still managed to socialise as it was a good stress reliever.
I think if you are finding your degree "one of the hardest ever" and you are stressing unnecessarily, you might need to question if it is the right one for you? Or perhaps take measures in order to make the workload more manageable.
At the end of the day, if you can't handle the course then you may struggle with the actual professional challenges of the role.
And I mean that of any profession, not just nursing....

Thefairycaravan I completely agree, I rolled my eyes as soon as I saw that comment. I also started my training in 92 and listened to that shite on a daily basis.

As for the is uni a 3 year piss up question, well it is for both my kids.

But then I don’t think having a partying social life is anywhere near as time consuming and stressful as trying to complete a degree and care for young children.

I think it was a huge mistake to change nursing training over from being primarily vocational to pseudo academic and requiring a degree. All that has done is take away the emphasis and importance of actually caring for patients in the traditional, hands on way. Instead it's created a generation of nurses who actually aren't that academic in reality, thinking that because they're graduates they're too clever to do many of the traditional nursing roles.

Please head over to any one of the threads that discuss this, so we can keep on track of the title of the thread.

Then you can generalise all you like, and bash all nurses with a degree until your hearts content.

Someone might find physics, maths or philosophy really easy and nursing really difficult. It depends on the level of interest in the subject, natural ability for it, commitment etc etc. An ex work colleague had a philosophy and something else I can't remember degree. He wasn't able to fathom nursing for the life of him!

No one goes to university , and gets saddled with a shit load of debt (DS2 had a bursary but still has debt), to become a nurse unless they want to care for people and do the traditional hands on roles.
You must be lucky in your area then. I've certainly seen an increase in the too posh to wash type on the wards... especially since the loss of the bursary. Only last month I had a student astounded that I, a band 6, was cleaning up the shit and piss someone had left in the seclusion room becasue surely that's the domestics job.

@1forsorrow my post wasn’t patronising, you’ve either misinterpreted it or are overly offended. I said that I value ANPs and listed those among their good qualities, but said that their training is different, and that due to that they will have different strengths and weaknesses. They aren’t trained to the same depth as knowledge as a medical degree, that’s just a fact, not patronising, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be brilliant practitioners. It’s a different role. They aren’t doctors- that’s not saying they have less value, but no they aren’t trained the same way. That’s not patronising. It’s fact. It’s also NOT undervaluing them. It’s like saying an electrician is trained differently to a plumber.

Hmm. Veterinary medicine. Hugely academically demanding to get into, 5 year minimum degree with very long days of lectures and practicals, dealing with owners as well as patients who can't talk across a range of species with different anatomy and physiology, let alone diseases. Animal husbandry as well as medicine to learn about. Almost no holidays, as either taken up by extramural rotations or other compulsory activities like lambing or other farm work. And unpaid while doing that work.

Whilst I don't doubt that nursing is challenging and stressful, I think it is overegging it to say it is the most difficult degree.