Student nursing as a single parent

[flowersintheshade]

I originally posted in work but decided to post here instead for traffic. Will get the other one taken down.

I am a single parent to two kids, one school aged and one preschool. I really want to retrain as a nurse with the goal of becoming a health visitor.

I do have family nearby who are able to provide some childcare but their dad can't have them much/overnight due to long work hours and unsuitable housing.

Aibu to think this is it doable? Has anyone got any experience of being a student nurse as a parent of young kids?

@Duanphen I’ve been qualified 15 years and whilst I’ve seen some awful things I am lucky to work within an amazing unit and I feel I make a difference and I actually really enjoy my job, I don’t want to work in call centres or find something with more money. I do feel nurses are underpaid for their responsibility and what we put up with but if we all had that attitude who would look after your newborn If they were sick, or your child when they need their appendix removed, your mum if she was poorly?.. someone has to do the job and I’d rather work with people who enjoy and do their job well than people who just want more money and power, whilst you do get that in nursing the majority of us want to do a good job and get our patients home feeling better and positive about the care they received and not frightened to come back if they need to.

Just to put my input in, you don't have to do children's nursing to be a health visitor. A lot of HV I know are adult nursing by background.
Im a nurse practitioner and my HV asked me if I fancied doing to HV role but I found it was non clinical and you don't get to know your families etc the way they used too (even from doing my training 13 years ago and do a health visitor placement).

Adult nursing has some wonderful opportunities and I find a lot of people who come into nursing with certain ideals of what they fancy go into a completely different job role!

As others have said, have a look into how you local university sets out a course as I know at ours it has recently changed, so 1-2 days at uni per week and the rest of the week on placement. You will have to have a good network around you to help with childcare as shifts vary a lot!

Nursing's a good career! I don't know what else I would do!

We go to work for money, so seek good money, not wholesome warm feelings

Many people do go to work for warm wholesome feelings though, and don't give a stuff about how much they earn. Some people are money-grabbing bastards who are happy to sell their soul to the devil as long as the price is right.

People are all different - isn't that great!

@Duanphen I know it's a hard job that should be paid more but that doesn't mean it's a "shite job". Money is not the only consideration when choosing a career. I have worked in call centres before and it wasn't for me.

I find a lot of people who come into nursing with certain ideals of what they fancy go into a completely different job role!

@Metallicalover I'm sure this is true!

I think nursing does have great rewards.
My DD tells me little snippets of ward life, this week a toddler with bad scalds was having a hard time- students can be very useful in giving children attention. She was singing lullabies to the little child at 3am when he was distressed. She saw him smile for the first time since being admitted and he fell asleep while she was stroking his head.
Such profound meaning to these things.

@speakout

flowersintheshade

Be prepared for a tough application- particularly for child nursing.
My DDs Uni has 70 places a year for child nursing- and usually has around 900 qualified applicants.

That's a lot of places. My uni takes about 25 per year, it's really competitive. It took me a couple of goes to get in.

[quote Hobnobsandbroomstick]@CovidStoleTheRainbow

So can you apply directly to unis for health visiting now, or do you need to find an employer who will sponsor you first? Just curious how it works now.[/quote]
You apply to the university, it's up to them to find you the placement(s).
It's also really tough to get into.

@VestaTilley

My sister did a nursing degree when my DNephew was 8. She’s a single mum though has a fiancé who she was living with with DN for the last year of her studies.

It is very hard. My DSis lives in the same town as my parents and they were able to have DN lots of weekends and evenings if she had funny shift patterns at hospital - lots of placements mean you won’t know what days and nights you need childcare until a few weeks before.

It is doable, but you need trustworthy, reliable childcare at all hours.

Maybe ask the uni if doing it part time is easier? Don’t give up though - it’ll transform your life prospects and set a brilliant example to your kids- but go in to it with eyes open and proper childcare in place, else you may struggle and end up dropping out.

You can’t do a pre-registration Nursing degree in many places. For example, it’s not possible in Scotland.

@Duanphen

Why though?

It's well known the pay is shit, the hours are long and the support is nil.

People have to stop taking these shite jobs or conditions will never improve.

Look for roles that pay well. We go to work for money, so seek good money, not wholesome warm feelings. Our sales team at work are still doing well even during Covid, with a base salary plus commission. Call centre work - I did it for years - is fairly easy money, and they're not all "awful". Two of mine, for smaller banks, were lovely places to work, with no stress at all and encouragement to progress and get pay rises. Management isn't thrilling, but it's an easy good wage. I career-switched into tech - they're very welcoming and keen to train enthusiastic newcomers. £28k starting salary.

Chase money, not a job you'll just end up hating because you'll still have no money, and be exhausted, and stressed, and you get paid in claps and platitutdes.

And this is why you are not a nurse.

Mad isn't it? That people are so different. 🙄

OP @flowersintheshade - where (roughly) in the UK are you? The routes are different. For example, in Scotland you need a 1st degree in nursing, and be sponsored by a health board to enter the Masters in HV. At my institution we currently have about 120 UG adult nursing students, and 40 M level HV.

@HollaHolla I'm in the south east

@CovidStoleTheRainbow

"That's a lot of places. My uni takes about 25 per year, it's really competitive. It took me a couple of goes to get in."

Is this true for all nursing or just children's nursing?

Is this true for all nursing or just children's nursing?

No, there are far more adult nursing places than child-branch. I'd go adult nursing route, in your position, as once graduated, there are more job opportunities.

*And you can still become an HV with further study.

It's just for children's nursing.

But don't let that put you off PLEASE.

The uni's are crying out for people with life experience. Since they cut the bursary their intake is mainly 18-19 year olds and then the drop out is even bigger.

Also I know a lot of adult nurses who went for adult over child because it was less competitive and regretted it.
3 years is a long time to dislike your job for....

Don't make the mistake that adult nursing is equivalent to the old RGN. It isn't. If you want to do paeds apply for a paeds course. I made that mistake nearly 30
Years ago when P2000 started. I had to leave adults to swap to paeds as I held that misconception.
If you want to do anything children's. neonates, health visiting related, paeds is a better training