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?

Most of my cohort have their Masters but are still damn good hands-on nurses.

Also some universities now offer nursing apprenticeships which i personally think is brilliant as offers a alternative route into nursing!
A university in the midlands I know offers the apprenticeship which I honestly think is a brilliant option now for people to get into nursing through a less degree type route.

I think the money nurses get at the end of the degree is very poor. if nurses need a degree then they should get paid as well as any other industry that require degrees.

I couldn't say if it was more difficult than other degrees, but I think a student should expect it to be pretty full on with not as much down time as students that just attend lectures. So in that way it's harder psychically than the purely academic degrees.

Sorry, but the people I knew who did nursing weren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer...aerospace engineering when your graduation thesis has to be writing a publishable scientific article on the use of lightweight polymers for wing creation...that's hard.

I reckon is much harder in the first 2 years but 3rd year is pretty similar with the amount of coursework. First 2 undergraduate years of an arts degree was definitely much easier than my midwifery degree.

@spied - obviously Unis vary enormously.
@Seventygood - I did find it hard but passed with a first and have a good career. It was hard at Uni and it is hard now - still lots of work and lots of studying. It is just my experience/opinion. Obviously most disagree and some agree. But sugesting if you find it is hard you are not suited to the career, I don't believe is true - it probably prepares you for the career more.

I think one of the things I found hard was the huge responsibility if you got it wrong someone could die. And it affected me a lot when patients died especially when I'd been treating them right before. With Maths noone died if I got it wrong!

There is no way that students do full time placement. They are normally allowed to go earlier particularly on nights etc. Defo on my ward, we know it's hard and try to support them a little

I think OP, unless you are a Nurse then you really couldn't accurately say how hard the course is.
I am a Nurse, it was hard, it is hard and for the past 20 years I have been in and out of Uni adding to my original qualification .
Quite frankly I'm so dissapointed that in this day and age people still think Nurses are no more than Doctors handmaidens and that the course couldn't possibly be academic .

Holdingtherope

Not sure where you work, my DD gets away maybe 15 minutes early after a 13 hour night shift.

the easiest degrees are those where you get long holidays, fewer lectures/assignments/exams etc. and plenty of time to balance study and fun/relaxing, imo.

Those with fewer lectures/contact hours tend to have a lot more reading/research/self study assigned. Some people prefer this, and others prefer to be told/shown things. I still think it largely depends on your aptitude.

I dont think anyone is saying that Nurses are little more than handmaidens ,and obviously the course is academic .However the OP was saying that she thought Nursing to be one of the hardest degrees ,which as we can see here is up for some discussion ! Many degrees may be harder academically, but obviously with the workload and practical care is also very demanding . STEM subjects are also demanding and medicine as well .Surely Doctors would have the final say in a patients care though? They have studied for a long time and have a great deal of responsibility when on a hospital ward.

@ThunderboltandLightning - which was why I didn't say it was the most difficult degree.

Maybe I should have said qualification rather than degree to emphasise I'm not just talking about the academic work but all the rest.

@Nameofchanges - it's a bit wider than that - but, yes you're correct. However the point I'm making is it is much more than just academics. If it was just that I wouldn't have found it hard atall.

@bobbypinseverywhere - no that's not my point which I have been at pains to point out!! I am talking about the qualification as a whole not just the academics!

@peaceanddove - research shows degree level nurses keep patients safer. It is a shame about your experience - what exactly did you dislike?

The skill set required for a nursing degree is somewhat different to other degrees.
Academic and practical skills go hand in hand with empathy, compassion and emotional intelligence.

While other 18 -21 year olds are studying Maths, Engineering or English Lit, nursing students will be having their first experiences of critically ill patients, including children.

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.

Is it as academically rigorous as PPE at Oxford or Astrophysics at Durham?
I guess not, but a good nurse working as part of a team with fellow medical professionals, has a skill set to be admired and respected.

Two of the least academic people I know qualified as nurses (about 10 years ago), I dont know much about the route to qualification and whether its changed though.

OP, you're confusing academic workload with academic content.

Sure, the workload is demanding at times due to placements.

But the academic content is really not that challenging, especially at level 4-6.

@savethecat - and it is about the nature of the work.

@FormerlyFrikadela01 - we did the same research papers on my nursing course too

@Nameofchanges - no they don't get Wed afternoon off. I think some of the younger ones felt isolated from those on other courses. They didn't get to go to a lot of the social things and they couldn't party all night as they had to get up early for a shift. The other students would often disturb them so they didn't get as much sleep as they needed.

Load of sexist trope on this thread.
I’m a nurse and have a first in chemistry. The nursing course was a lot more work and demanding of time, we totally missed out on typical university experience. It was less academically demanding than the chemistry degree. But the nursing job I do is academically very hard and I say that with nearly 30 years experience.

My English and Education Masters via distance learning is less taxing than my nursing degree.

Plenty of health careers do full clinical placements .