Nursing Diploma Vs Nursing Degree. What is the difference ?

[NOMurDErousPLUME]

They both last 3 years (full time)

They are both taught in a University environment.

Both feature placements as a large part of the curriculum.

Both lead to RN/RGN status

I know one is funded differently to the other, and in some Uni's you can do the Diploma without an access certificate or a-levels (you can get on with just a few good GCSEs), but this is the case nationally (the uni where I hope to do the DipHE insists on good post GCSE qualifications).

What's the difference ?

Is a nurse with a degree better qualified than his/her colleague who took the Diploma route ? How and why ?

Oh and entrance for degree seems to be A'Levels or accsess, the people with AVCE health and social care are doing diploma. I was offered degree because I already have a degree.

Oooh NP I am doing a leg ulcer care plan for tomorrow actually using R.L.T but using is exatly how they meant takes about 3 hours just to do the ADLs!

am almost with nostalgia at the thought of a RLT care plan

smurf, are you a nurse in scotland?

I think you are right there NP.

very specialised units DO take newly qualified nurses ndp and dont let anyone tell you otherwise

If there are any jobs left...

Hopefully the political situation will have sorted itself by the time I'm thinking about applying for post-grad jobs.

No I am in Hull (bahh)

Oh come and do my care plan for me please! Am completely lost, have only used orem in the community so not too sure about R.L.T in that context, am placing my patient on the independence/dependence continum as we speak.

NDP - its funny being a student nurse, its a difficult role I find because you are not quiet anything, find it very demoralising sometimes, welcome to nursing I guess. I would like to maybe do HDU nursing, but love wards, until you get into placement its hard to know what you will enjoy.

RLT is much easier than orem

i find it more practical and realistic

i would THOROUGHLY recommend hdu/itu as a career

and people will say "oh get a job in a medical ward, get to know nursing, find your feet"

PISH

if you get a job in a boring ward you will end up not moving from there, getting fed up, losing confidence and getting rooted to that ward

go to a speciality straight from college and you will be so glad you did

speciality wards have more money/budget/enthusiastic staff, you will be encouraged more (some even have specialist teaching staff) the morale is generally higher

er THATS JUST IMO BTW

I am on medical elderly at the moment (yawn) v.good learning but could not do it as a career. Was on acute medical, I adore looking after very sick patients (does that sound bad? have had good feedback on my care of the acutely ill), I hope to get a placement on an acute renal unit and in ICU or maybe CCU. But no jobs so will prob end up in a nursing home etc.

R.L.T is v.thorough and i do like it, we use it in the hospital to care plan, just a weird scenario we have to plan for.

good luck smurfgirl

youll be fine

(why did i htink you lived in scotland?)

God this all seams so far away to me, I have just started a 2 year access course so that I can go on to do a nursing degree or diploma. I haven't decided which one yet either.

Talk to the uni about the difference - thats my advice.

Thanks NP

In wales it's the degree for nursing, we don't have the diploma option. I am doing access at the moment.

just a bump here

smurf girl you say the difference is the bursary and you wish you'd started on the degree due to being better off

I'm leaning towards diploma as it has a better bursary - it's not means tested and seems much higher - is this not the case??

kiki81 - it depends on where you study. Generally if you do the diploma then you get a full non means-tested bursary. If you do the degree, you get a means tested bursary, but you can also access student loans and other student hardship funds via the university. Some places now allow you to start on the diploma, thus enabling you to get the full bursary from the start, and you change to the degree half way through if academically you feel up to it. Not sure what happens to the funding at this point.

You have to do the same hours in nursing practice / placement either way, but on the degree course you do a few extra modules and usually a dissertation at the end (which is equal to about 2 extra modules). It is quite alot of extra work. You both qualify with a registered nurse qualification, but with the degree you get the additional bachelor of nursing or bachelor of science qualification (or whichever award your university is accredited for).

As the others said, it may be difficult to get senior positions in the future if you do not hold a degree, but lots of people do the diploma and then convert to the degree at a later date. It is worth bearing in mind though that a) you would probably have to pay to do this extra study, or find a sponsor and you would need to arrange study leave to attend lectures; and b) it can be quite hard taking this on on top of working full-time (or even part time!) and family commitments etc. I personally did the degree straight away and found it the hardest thing I have ever done, but I am glad to have done it and gotton it out of the way. As a student nurse you do get a certain amount of slack when working on placements when you have coursework and exams due, which you may not get when working for real and putting the hours in as a qualified nurse.

HTH!