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?

Yes OP, nursing is one of the hardest degrees ever.

As is the degree I did, because I found it hard. And my sister found hers hard so hers must also be one of the hardest. And my best friend... etc etc.

The point being - hard is subjective. Your hard is someone else's OK, is someone else's impossible. It's completely pointless to ask other people whether you're being unreasonable to think your experience was difficult.

I did my first degree at a Russell Group and my second was a vocational law course full time whilst working 30 hours p/w. The latter was tougher for me. But it means nothing - someone else who'd done both might well say the opposite.

Yes OP, nursing is one of the hardest degrees ever

This.

Op that’s what you want to hear, so there it is.

Stranger, I haven’t contradicted anything you have said about what happened on your degree.

Nobody who has been in a twentieth century school or university thinks that teaching involves merely standing in front of a room full of people and spoon feeding them information.

Every teacher and lecturer knows that you teach through a wide range of different methods.

I have never been on a nursing degree, but I would assume that it is similar to many other applied sciences. Because on such a degree you are applying knowledge, in this case through hospital placements, there would not be the same requirement for original work, because in effect applying knowledge is a kind of original work.

But on degrees which are not applied, the basis of it being degree level is that you have original thought in your work.

@Nameofchanges - the reason nursing has such high contact time is because as well as a degree it is a professional qualification and you have to learn all the practical side alongside the academic. There are regulated hours you have to be in Uni. Then you go home and spend all the time doing your studying like any other degree.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene - I'm just saying I understand academia. Did I find my nursing degree academically challenging? No. Did most people? Yes. Can I see that objectively it was academic? Yes. Just because you didn't find it academically challenging doesn't mean much. As I said Unis vary. But what I am saying it is hard in many ways. At the end of the day the people at my Uni needed 3 BBBs to get on the course. It makes sense that Unis expecting DDD are not going to expect so much. If you are just aiming for a pass rather than a first I guess you experience it a bit different.

You are working part time as part of the degree but still only up to full time hours max on the timetable /placements. Yes, you may have to do reading around a subject, essays, etc (same as any degree) but you will never be timetabled more than 37.5 hrs a week and I suspect in most theory blocks you won’t be there that much.

I’ve done a midwifery degree so I get that it’s tiring. Dd currently doing architecture and she’s pretty much doing 60 hour weeks every week...in year 1! So expected to be in studio or lectures 5 days a week 9-5, and then working overnight, weekends on projects.

Cedar tree, I would assume that one of the reasons it has many contact hours is that there a major practical element, and you require more contact hours to acquire practical skills. That applies to nonprofessional degrees in many Science subjects.

But the learning hours for each university module are supposed to be the same. So a course with more contact hours should require less hours of independent study.

@FormerlyFrikadela01 - it is quite right that nursing and medicine are different specialisms and we come from thinfs from a different perspective. It is true also that nurses are expected to do jobs that would have been considered an FY1/2 job. I agree that there should be different routes into nursing so less academic people that would be fantastic nurses can take the less academic route. However, my Uni actually expected a lot of us academically and technically. A lot of my fellow students have gone onto Masters and PhD and are great nurses doing really well in their career. I have progressed up the bands but I am still in a role where I am very hands on. I have needed to study a lot but also need to be able to relate to my patients and their families.

@DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon - I'm not sure why people keep pointing out just because it is my opinion doesn't mean it's true! I'm fully aware of that. I didn't say nursing was harder than maths just that I think nursing is one of the hardest degrees. I think all healthcare degrees are hard but am more familiar with nursing.

I loved OSCEs but I got very nervous in VIVAs - you just didn't know what was going to happen next in the scenario!!

A lot of this is just life isn’t it?

School - 5 days a week 9-3.30 with 10-15 hours a week independent study at GCSE and A level.

Work - 35-40 hours a week full time job, and people usually have other commitments too.

I would expect that nursing as a career is harder than most other jobs, for a whole host of reasons. I’m sure a lot of the stresses of it become apparent in training, and surely the timetabling of it could be organised so that students could interact more with their peers.

@stairway - a bad mentor is awful - I remember feeling so low when I had bad mentors.

When I did my training we worked 3 shifts a week on the ward/placement, had one day at uni and one study day. We had similar holidays to school pupils - basically school holidays we had off (this was 1999-2002). I worked as a nursing auxiliary both weekend days to earn money to top up my bursary.
It really wasn't academically that challenging in my opinion and we really should have studied more science based topics than we did.
I have since done a Masters which was far more challenging academically.
I did my nurse prescribing module which was 6 months long - I found it very challenging but by the end of it my level of knowledge of pharmacology and pharmacokinetics is nothing compared to my husbands who is a doctor.
I can't really say I think it was a very hard degree. I'm glad I did it and I wouldn't want to do any other job but I'm sure there are academically far harder courses out there.

OP the reason people are reacting like you think it's true that nursing is one of the hardest degrees is because you're posting asking if it's one of the hardest degrees.

You can't be asking if your experience that it's hard is unreasonable, surely, as nobody can possibly form a view on that except you.

Like I said - I don't really understand the point of the post. Was it hard for you? Yeah. Job done.

I found the Social Work MA really hard. Not academically, but in terms of the demands placed on you. When you're doing a qualification like nursing or social work, you have the academic essays to do, you're working full time in placement, you have the portfolio evidencing your practise to complete, and the last bit when you're doing all that and the dissertation... it's absolutely bloody exhausting.

@1forsorrow why is it patronising to say their bedside manner is good? That’s a compliment? I don’t doubt that some ANPs are better than some GPs, as we know, like any profession you get good and bad and some GPs are terrible. I’ve never said doctors are better than nurses, I said their training is different, and has a different focus, which is true. Sorry but I’m not letting this go - as you’re being unfair and your allegations over what I said are not true. Go back and read my posts properly.

Not difficult academically in the slightest, I sailed through doing the bare minimum. Agree is shite for your personal life though. I feel like I missed out on the typical university experience.

I was going to say social work is hard going too - another where you have a significant chunk on placement (which can and often does involve shift work), while producing essays and other written assignments while keeping up with reading etc. It also covers a broad knowledge base so you find yourself studying across a variety of disciplines. Teaching is very hard going too so are disciplines like ophthalmology and audiology which require a high level of clinical knowledge.

I don’t think it’s possible to say X degree is one of the hardest, they all have their challenges and so much depends on you aptitude and how much you’re juggling at the time not to mention the particular university and course structure.

bobbypinseverywhere it is because you are making out what they are good at is being "nice" it doesn't matter if a NP is nicer than a doctor, there is no reason why a doctor can't be nice or have a good bedside manner. Your attitude comes across as these are lesser than your superior academic studies. Try being nice yourself.

I know you think you are some sort of God like figure as you are a, holds breath, a doctor but how about I say no, I'm not going back to read your posts properly. Again with the patronising attitude.

And I've got news for you, I'm letting it go so you are dismissed. Next patient.

I have done biology as a degree and worked part time in a shop to feed and house myself. Then paramedic science as an inhouse training course within a trust. Biology was much much harder academically but paramedic science was tougher overall due to working and placements. I could be on a shift scheduled to finish at midnight then be sat in an exam room at 0900 in the morning. Seeing as shifts always over run by at least an hour then you need to get home you basically would do a 12-15 hr shift, eat shower, nap if you can for an hour then go sit your exam, so I can see where you are coming from, but it's the work and placements with crazy shift patterns on top of the course that makes it hard not the course itself.

@1forsorrow In the nicest possible way, you're projecting from your experience. I went through something similar - a junior doctor and a ANP diagnosed something which 4 GPs had dismissed and which turned out to be life-threatening. So I get where you're coming from. But bobbypins is right in that although you can get good and bad GPs, stories like ours are unusual, due to the different academic and vocational training that exists between doctors and nurses.

@MrsStrangerThing - in 1st year we were in 5 days for the first 2 terms. After that we had one day off (occasionally had to go in) and I agree it made a massive difference - although a lot of us worked then a lot of the time. But at least we could use it for study some of the time. I found the studying so hard when on placement. It's good practice for being qualified bevause you're always studying then too!
@Nameofchanges - a lot of the contact time is practical classes - you still have all the academic stuff to do after lectures like any degree.

@Nameofchanges - as I explained as nursing is a professional qualification and a degree on top so that doesn't really apply.

It’s also the emotional aspect of nursing which is like no other degree, when you can spend hours with a dying patient.

Depends what you use to judge hardest..

Academically with concepts and theories then no it's not academically the hardest and theres plenty that are considerably harder academically.

Hardest by considering the pure workload, intensity, long hours, lack of down time then yes it may be one of the harder degrees due to the exhaustion and constant mental load many student nurses are under, although medical degrees (and some higher degrees in other subjects) are just as intense and medical doctor is most definately harder then nursing on multiple fronts, as it has similar time demands and intensity but also considerably more complex academic requirements and ability needed.

But I would say in many ways nursing is a hard degree, purely due to the exhaustion and constant juggling workload, placements, costs, and very little down time, if not due to the academic content difficulty.

I also agree with what bobbypinseverywhere has said. She is right in that the training is completely different and the knowledge gained will not be equal particularly in primary care. There are good and bad in both roles.

@peaceanddove - I completely disagree. It is possible to be academic and caring. Any good nurse knows the importance of basic care. Of course there are bad nurses too.