Good qualification as preparation for Nursing application?

[Cabrinha]

I have often thought about retraining and studying Nursing, and I now know that my team will be restructured in 2 years time, likely leading to a location that I can't work in. This might be a good opportunity for me, a natural end to one job and possibly some redundancy payment.

Any other mature applicant reading this... (or nurses!)

What part time theory only qualification would you recommend? My reasons are as follows:

• check I'm really interested!
• help my application through my knowledge
• show that I have commitment and genuine interest to the career, not just a whim on being made redundant!

I have a BSc degree in Psychology (20 years ago!)

I am thinking the first modules from OU in Health Science, or a Biology A Level...

Any ideas? Thank you!

No, definitely what you did for your mum was home healthcare. It means you know the gritty side and still feel it's right for you.

Basically they don't want to bring people onto courses who run screaming away after 1 day on the wards during training. A lecturer told me that on average they lose 2 or 3 of the school leavers per intake after the ward training starts and they see shit 'n suffering. So they try to mitigate against that with the mature students at least.

I had no previous paid caring experience and very little volunteering experience, only a couple of hours a week for just a couple of months by the time I had the interview - hadn't actually started the volunteering when I did my personal statement. So please don't be too put off.

Thank you both, your posts are really helpful.

Hi I am not a student nurse but a mature student of an allied health course. I know several people who got into nursing and allied (mostly OT/physio/radiography) from Access courses, Btec national and OU courses (mostly K101 types).

A large number of my cohort (over 50 percent) already have a degree and average age is about 30 with a wide range. Some have no experience at all in caring roles but have worked in sales/business and have transferable skills and life experience. The trick is to relate your skills, work or otherwise, to the job. It is the potential and caring personality that counts often, of course varies by uni.

My uni prefers actual experience but they realise this is difficult for some so this can involve just a meeting with relevant health professionals, tour of department, coffee and chat with someone in the job, open days etc. This is so you can show an understanding of the job. So if you can do any of those then all the better.

It is competitive entry and I am not sure what will happen when the bursary goes. To be honest it is a very small amount for most people (most have to work too) but it is a huge draw of the course having fees paid and also contributes to feeling part of the NHS, if that doesn't sound ridiculous.

Lots of the student nurses I meet work 3 long days a week on placement but this depends. I did look into MH nursing originally but there is no way I could be out of town and at a hospital by 7am. I have 5 children and a shift working husband.
Good luck if you decide to apply

Thanks jellybeans. That all sounds more achievable. I am actually now looking at whether I could go to 4 days a week at work, which would give me time for volunteering and would be affordable once dd is at school and we are not paying huge nursery fees.

Looking into the student loan they are making an exception for nursing students so if you are studying nursing you can take a second loan if you have a first degree. This means I would get more with the loan than the bursary. As I am already paying off a student loan from my first degree it won't make any difference to the money going out after either. Oddly getting rid of the bursary has made it far more affordable for me to go study nursing than it was. So much so I am putting it off for a year until the loans come in.