To go into nursing

[Freshstarts22]

I know the NHS is in a bad state (I’m already in the nhs) but would I be crazy to complete a nursing degree with the end goal of becoming a health visitor?

I would really love to hear from people that have done it recently. What’s the workload like and how often are you on placement? I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a degree in either social work, teaching or nursing for the last 5 years but instead focused on training and work experience. If I’m going to do it it’s now or never as I’d really like it to be before I’m 40 or it doesn’t seem ‘worth it’ (silly I know)

Im a single parent and what worries me the most is how I’d manage placements with childcare. How many days would I be in uni? The actual coursework doesn’t scare me, it’s hard, but I can be at home at least. But I need to know how many weeks/how often/ placements run for.

My sister did a fast-track HV training some years ago when there was a government drive to recruit and train more HVs. She went from A&E nursing so a massive change, and she absolutely loves it!

Absolutely not a chance I would go back to the NHS! Why get yourself into thousands in debt to be treated like shit, work awful hours and get paid shitty wages? Madness

I intend to do health visiting or school nursing so it’s a really different type of community working. The team I’m in are definitely not extremely stressed and over worked.

The health visitors I work with do 9-5 and definitely aren’t on shit pay.

I'm a Band 7 nurse (working clinically in acute care) and I absolutely love it! Almost every day is interesting and makes me laugh and cry. Best job ever.

I also manage the student placements for my ward and I'm very sympathetic around childcare responsibilities, second jobs and social lives! However, I do expect my students to work 12.5 hours and childcare can be difficult to find in the evenings.

Not sure why you're asking when you're disagreeing with those saying no! But anyway, university will be intense, even if you get onto a blended course you will have to attend uni sometimes for practicals. Placement areas can be huge as well, I had to travel 1.5 hours each way to one of mine and that was deemed reasonable. Unis do try and place people according to their requirements but you need to be aware that it's possible and you can't always contest it. Placements are also brutal and unless you have childcare that's super flexible it will be challenging. Whether you do adults or children's you'll be spending time on wards for placement, entrance onto post qual course for HV isn't guaranteed either. School nurse jobs are like hens teeth here, unless you'd be willing to consider other nursing roles I'd pursue a different avenue to reach HV if possible.

I wouldn't recommend my worst enemy go into anything to do with nursing (I was a HV too but left).

Because I was asking more about the uni course than the job and was trying trying to explain that the stress of ward nursing wasn’t really relevant.
I don’t know that there is another route into HV? I am worried that I won’t cope with the demands of the nursing course, mainly placements but then if placements are only 6 weeks it shouldn’t be too bad?

I was never a ward nurse. I was community initially with appalling lack of support. The entire team were miserable and stressed. I then went into practice nursing at a gp surgery. Supposedly the more 'civilised' end of nursing, but the pressure increased, the time alloted to each appointment reduced and reduced. I saw unsafe, really crap care, raised this but no one wants to hear, least of all the GPs. I knew a woman who provided counselling to health care workers and she said her most stressed group and the ones who left the job most were health visitors who have effectively become social workers these days, safeguarding is the largest aspect of the job and they are under resourced to the extreme. This means vulnerable children are not protected. Honestly I really wouldn't wish nursing as a career in my worst enemy.

As a previous poster said, why are you asking if you are just disagreeing with all who say no, don't go for it? Take it from somebody who has experienced this first hand and is now desperate to get out. You also cannot choose where you are put on placement at uni, you will be expected to work gruelling 12 hour shifts in areas such as wards, critical care, ED etc, doing full working weeks for no pay. You will be expected to be at placement, often for the 12 hour shift patterns your mentors work whatever your childcare needs are. There is a reason the drop out rate at uni is so high.

There’s an irony about the advert that popped up while I was looking at this thread!
I’ve been a nurse for over 15 years. it sounds like you have a good idea of what your long term career objectives are.

I think the biggest difficulty you will have with your training is the expectation to fit around the shifts. Certainly my experience (although it depends on where you are) is that you will work all shifts, including nights. That’s a lot of pressure for the person providing childcare for you. I remember one time I finished nights in the morning, slept for a few hours, then got up and drove 2 hours to a hen party weekend! They will probably be a bit more understanding with you being a single parent. You will have to do a certain amount of practice hours so if you can’t attend due to your children being ill, you’ll have to make it up elsewhere. That’ll be the challenge really.

Could you look at doing the nurse associate training and then going on to complete the degree?
My thinking is because your based on one ward (then do some placements) most of the time you'll probably get a bit more flexibility with your shift pattern. You'll also get paid and come out with no debt. It's two years long gives you a good idea and you may even find a community roll as your main base (not sure if they do but worth asking).
What I'm saying is don't assume the only route is a degree. Go and speak to a nursing manager where you work now they may know what's coming up and put you forward.

Something to take into consideration is that even once qualified you will have to undertake a preceptorship rotating around all different areas before you will be able to go up to a band 6. Infact my trust was 18 months. So thats 4 nearly 5 years if shift work in areas you don't necessarily want to work in. It's all well and good having an end goal of a 9-5 job but it isn't something you can obtain as soon as you've qualified either.
I left due to being a single parent as I couldn't possibly do shift work anymore due to childcare for unsociable hours, it was impossible. The expectations are too much if you don't have robust 24 hour childcare on tap. Sad but true.

I'd love to train as a nurse too OP, I'm almost 40 with two young children. I just can't see how I could ever afford to just take years out of work.

That’s interesting, I didn’t know this. So I couldn’t just finish the nursing degree and go straight in to being a HV student?
Im actually going to be looking at closer to 5 years as I’ll probably need to do an access course or foundation year unfortunately.

I like my job, in part time, it’s flexible, but I can’t move above band 4 and I like to keep learning.

With the max loan and bursaries I could just about make it work. I also get DLA for my son so that helps. I think I’d also get a small amount of UC.

No you're misunderstanding, you can go straight into student HV if it works out that way.
For me, I qualified as a children's nurse in Jan 2021, and the HV course started in Sept 2021 so I needed to bridge that gap for a while.

Also, the PP mentioned rotation working through preceptorship, not in my experience.
Perhaps adult nurses do but certainly not for any of us paediatric nurses.
We went where there was jobs.

Do you have a precious degree or A-levels?

If you have a previous degree, you don't need to do an access course. You could apply for the degree.

I’m in my first year as a student nurse. It is split 50/50 between academic time and placement. We have two 8 week placements this year, second year is similar but third year are longer placements of 10 weeks and 14 weeks. I think though it depends on the university how they arrange placements.

university weeks are okay, some weeks we have been in 5 days a week all day and other weeks only in for two days. The actual coursework I find manageable at the moment.

I have a two year old but have excellent family support who will look after him whenever I need around placement hours etc. I’m very lucky though and if I didn’t have this there is zero chance I would be able to complete this course.

You need to do a nursing degree first. It's not easy and placements are 13 hour shifts on wards. Lots of achedemic work.
To become a health visitor that is a post grad masters degree. You also have to be accepted onto the course.
It is highly competitive and as a newly qualified with no experience nurse be aware you will be up against highly experienced ward sisters going for it to escape the shifts. You may not actually get on the course.
Basically be prepared to actually work on a ward before being accepted onto the course. It would actually be better for you to have some actual experience so not a negative really.
You also seem to think health visitors are well paid? are you in Scotland as they are very underpaid in England for the responsibility and level of safeguarding that job involves.

Same here- 30 years of it wrecked my mental and physical health ! Have never been happier since getting out. I think people get stuck in it and don't always realize there are a lot of transferrable skills, or they stick it out for the pension. To me it wasn't worth it. I think it's fine if you can work your way up to a specialist nursing position or do something like Health visiting or practice nursing but the ongoing horror of years on an understaffed toxic ward doing shift work, Christmas, bank holidays etc takes it's toll.

I don’t. I’ve been looking into it and I’m pretty sure I’d need to do an access course. There’s a uni on my doorstep but the entry requirements are quite high.

In that case you would definitely need to do an access course.

The bonus of that is that they prepare you very very well for a nursing degree.

All the students on our course who had done an access course were far more prepared for the work load and work expectations than those of us who hadn't.

I have to second the person upthread who said HV's are not well paid.

As a student nurse with two kids I was loaded.
I worked as a carer for a disabled child and was doing great.

In comparison I have been a qualified HV for 7 months and have been the most broke I ever have been in my life.
I've had to use a food bank and ask the RCN for a grant to help me because we were so broke.

It will get easier for me when our youngest DC is in school in September but it shouldn't be that tough in the first place.

I’ve been a nurse for thirty years. Have worked in primary care for a long time.

You need to be less rigid in your thinking; whilst having a goal of health visiting is good, remember you’ll need to complete your training across all areas and as @Masterofcats has said, when applying for the specialist public health degree you’ll be up against very well qualified and experienced nurses who will have a ton more experience than you. IME NHS recruitment likes well rounded nurses with experience when they’re investing a lot of time and money into postgraduate studies.

The training is tough, practically and emotionally. You’ll need cast iron childcare, and make sure you’re financially sorted. Travel is expected and unsocial hours are the norm, no exceptions for parents.

I love nursing, it’s a privilege and a challenging and intellectually interesting career, but it’s bloody hard and the money is shit.

HV posts in my area all start at 40k which sounds good to me.

My thinking is also that an access course would be good for me to consider if I can manage the workload at least. Then would have to think about placements on top of that.

I would double check the HV pay scales as they are band 6 up here in north east starting at £33,706.

NHS careers state that also.
It's competitive course to get on and they like experienced nurses. So you may have to have another plan before going into health visiting.