Has anyone done an access course?

[WBWIFE]

I'm a palliative healthcare worker and really want to become a nurse. Im looking at doing a course called HEALTH & SOCIAL ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION DIPLOMA LEVEL 3, im 24, married have a large mortgage and a 1 year old.

Am I going to be able to do this?it's 15 hours at college and 20 hours at home. I currently work 25 hours a week doing palliative health care and 28 hours a week in an office. I would have to drop my office job I think.. will I be able to live? I am so worried money wise.

Has anyone become a nurse recently? Was it worth it? It's always been my passion but I decided to buy house and get pregnant and get married first and now it's like an itch I just can't forget about.

What sort of salary is a newly qualified nurse on? I'm currently on 31k a year combined so am worried about the drop in money of being newly qualified.

I did it. I worked a 9-5 then did the course after work 6-9. You don't have to stop working, you could do it via Distance Learning so can do it in times to suit you.

I love nursing. Now I'm in the job I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I wouldn't encourage anyone to do acute ward nursing though because as much as I love it and I love the patients, that doesn't pay my bills and the money we earn nowhere near matches the stress and responsibility. No-one has any idea what it's like until they do it. But there are some lovely nursing jobs available that allow for a much better balance.

If you're going to get into uni you will need to do a lot of research into nursing, and that includes finding out the salary. Its around 23k for a newly qualified and you will stay at that wage for a minimum of 2 years under the new pay scheme. But if you do unsocial hours, this will work out at more like 26k. Deductions in wages are quite a lot though. When I was NQ I would get about 1300 after deductions. With unsocial hours, about 1600.

Good luck!!

@Prequelle maybe I'm better off sticking as
A palliative health care assistant, I'm on 16k doing 25 hours (I get paid in blocks so although I'm paid 25 hours, usually I do probably about 14-17 actual hours a week where I'm physically at work)

I did see it was 23-29k for band 5 but couldn't find why there was such a difference and how its banded. I just love my job and wanted to take it to the next level I suppose but maybe it's not feasible for me right now.

Nurses most definitely do not get paid enough! How I can sit in an office full time (before I fell pregnant) and be on 23k working 8-4 Monday - Friday is just wrong on so many levels. Xx

I live near a university which is extremely specific about which access courses they'll accept, which colleges they'll take access course graduates from and what grades are acceptable.

If you have a specific degree course in mind, have a word with the university to see what their Access course entrance criteria they'll accept, or else you could be borrowing thousands and spending a year of your life doing a course which will lead to nothing.

The banding right now is pretty... ambiguous. Before it went up pretty quickly and didn't take all that long to reach the top. The government weren't happy with this though and the new pay deal now means there's more hoops to jump through. It takes minimum 2 years to get from the bottom, to the middle. Then another minimum 2 years to get to the top. There used to be many more bands but now there's just top middle and bottom. The key word is also MINIMUM, it doesn't inspire much hope

People may think that's fine but going up bands were never supposed to be a pay rise. They were supposed to be seen as us being trainee nurses on starting our jobs, working our way up to the wage a nurse should be on once they're competent.

The landscape of nursing is changing pretty rapidly at the moment and with the introduction of Nursing Associates (not nurses, they're in between a HCA and an RN) I don't think RNs will be as needed and utilised and we will end up being managers shoved away doing desk work oh and the IVs. Actually the Nursing Associate might be a good route for you if you want to see if it's worth doing nursing? It's a 2 year work as you learn course. 1 day a week uni. You get paid band 3 whilst training. At the end you're a Nursing Associate on band 4. You can then 'top up' to be an RN if you think it's worth it.

Hi OP

I'm starting my Access course in September. I'll be applying for Uni this year! I can't believe that.

I must be mental. I've always been a well paid PA but my dream is to be a Midwife. I absolutely think it's my calling and something I'm desperate to do.

I also have a little one aged 16 months. I'm a little worried about starting my Access in September due to the independent study at home. DC is very clingy to me and still glued to my boobs.

I've made the leap of getting some experience that would help my Midwifery application. I'm starting a job of 21 hours a week at a fertility clinic. It's all very exciting times and a complete change.

I'd advise getting some work experience relating to nursing to strengthen your application further for university.

I'd also suggest getting a copy of Ross and Wilson. Get to grips with things such as homeostasis and negative/positive feedback. It'll help a lot when you start your Access.

Money is also a worry... especially once uni starts.

I'll also have to juggle DC, part time job at the clinic and studying. Luckily my college has an on-site crèche. Check if you have a local college that does, it'll be very handy.

Best of luck

@prequelle thank you I will have a look at that. I just worry I'll do all this training and at the end not afford to be able to pay my.mortgage really. I absolutely love my job but just want to better myself I guess and stay in my line of work with I love

@MidwifeyForLifey I have worked in healthcare since I was 17, in the community and in nursing home. I'm currently a palliative healthcare assistant in the community caring for adults, which is where I'd like to go into adult care nursing.

I will look into the creche, thank you!

Thanks for replying. X

I did an access to HE aged 39 before I went to Uni age 40 to do a 3yr Primary Education course.
It was a one year, 3hr a week evening class, once a week in Human Biology (it was the most interesting!) I decided to do the course before I applied to different universities which was a mistake because two out of 3 wouldn't recognise it. I ended up going to the only Uni which did!
The only good thing about the A to HE course (apart from getting back into the mindset of studying and learning to reference correctly ) was that if you then went on to do a degree it was written off your student loan.