Is nursing really that hard to get into?

[LavenderWashes]

The job is bloody tough. And I don't think it's good enough how a lot of nurses are spoken to, abused even! Poor pay for the excellent care they put in

But AIBU to think it's not that difficult to get a place at uni for? Or is it area dependant? My two local unis have it in clearing every single year for the last 5 years.

I got into midwifery last year but that doesn't really make a good comparison because there are so fewer spaces. I very almost didn't get what I needed to take the offer from conditional to unconditional. However, a friend of mine on the same Access course got onto the nursing degree without meeting the minimum entry requirements. When we had a nurse speaker at college, we were encouraged to go for it if we didn't quite make the grade, because they 'might' allow us anyway.

Most local uni is Beds if that's any help

I think it is area dependant, I’m a nurse and trained in London so there were lots of available spaces therefore perhaps easier to get into. However I’m Paeds trained and it’s definitely much much harder to get into than adult nursing - it’s not so much about grades but more about what kind of person you are. We had 15 students in my cohort compared to 80+ for adult nursing. Also remember a good amount of nursing students drop out during the course so they need to ensure the students they take on are likely to stick to it. Bloody hard job though, I’ve been doing it for 7 years now and have run out of steam so have done a postgrad course in something relevant but very different.

Some schools are, some schools aren't...depends on the university. And different guides will give you slightly different results, as well. Somewhere like Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, yes, they're competitive. Somewhere like Bolton or Solent, not so much. You can find lots of general stats at www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-releases/applicant-releases-2019-cycle/2019-cycle-applicant-figures-january-deadline - there's a whole section on nursing.

I recruit student nurses. Adult nursing, provided you appear to genuinely want to do it, is not particularly difficult to get into. They're crying out for LD nurses, so again not particularly difficult.

Childrens nursing and Midwifery is a lot more popular so it is more competitive.