Has anyone done nurse training when you already have kids?

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And is it terrible?

I guess it depends how many hours your DH/DP works?

I really want to do this but the thought of full time college/placements along with studying every minute of "free time" and also still being a mother makes me wonder if it is at all possible?

I would love to hear about anyone's experience.

In my dreams, DH would be a SAHD but presumably you are not allowed to do that? Would we get benefits for that?

Thanks anyone and everyone.

bump.
This is something I would like to do aswell.
I looked into it and there are bursaries awarded but they are means tested.

I trained before I had the children. I imagine it would be very hard because of the shift work requirements, but if you have childcare and a partner with a 9-5 type job it would be doable.

A supportive DP probably quite important too, as you will be working on weekends and evenings/nights some of the time, so they will likely find they are doing more of the housework/childcare than previously.

And social life, if any, takes a battering with the shift work IMHO. Is fab though, very glad I did it

This grabbed my attention, i'm afraid i have no advice but am very interested in the responses. I am about to take on a PT access to higher education, with the hope of nurse training afterwards. My LO's are 6 and almost 2 at the moment, and i think even the pre nursing course will be a struggle, mainly due to finances. Im not entiteled to any help what so ever because i have a partner, even though we dont earn a lot, we are just above the threshold. My main concern is how i'm going to pay for the childcare for my youngest while i'm at college 2 days a week. Im less concerned once i actually start the nursing course because i think you can get a bursarry??
Also interested in resposes about workload, i know there is a lot, but how possible is it with 2 kids and a partner that works away Mon - Fri??

Lots of people do these days, it seems to be unusual when we have have a student without childcare issues these days.
Student placments are expected to bend over backwards to accomadate students work/life balance.
Don't know anything about benefits, sorry!

Go for it - Good luck!

Good to know there are a few of us in the same boat . Unfitmother's post is encouraging.

Twinkle - you are even more ambitious than me having a partner who works away Mon-Fri.

One of my problems is that my DH would like to swap roles and become the SAHD while I work. However, I want to do this training. Tricky.

Let's hope some more people come up with some more info soon.

I did a couple of years of paeds training a few years ago, I'm now in radiography as the placements are 9-5 Monday to Friday.

this forum might be helpful

I did it as a single parent and a fair few others on my course did the same . It was defiantely harder as a parent ,but depending on your childcare , there are lots of ways round it ,although i wouldnt reccomend doing one night on ,one night off which is how i finished my final placement ,whilst also looking after my friends children during the day ,so no sleep after the night shilft until at least 8pm !!

My mum began her nurse training when I was 10 and sister was 3 (approx). My dad was away most of the time (army) so she was mainly a single parent with no other support as we lived away from family etc. It was VERY hard but she managed it and did vey well. My sister had a great CM and I was at school in the days' and then sometimes went to the CM's for a bit. She studied when we were in bed every night e.g 8pm-1am. It is possible with lots of motivation!

I would totally agree with Super. I did social work degree, but we had placements as with nursing. Have 4 children, 14, 8, 7 and 1 and it was a hell of struggle somedays but when I qualified the sense of achievement was amazing. The high lasted for weeks!! Not sure I agree with a mums comments placements have to bend over backwards to fit in but maybe that was just my experience. Not sure I would have been so motivated without kids, as I did it to give us all a better life and it has. I always think its amazing what people are capable of when they have the motivation and there are lots on Mums on here who are truly inspirational!!

I am so glad to hear this I have always wanted to be a mw and some of the stories here have given me hope.

Hi, not quite the same, I know but I have just graduated with English and teaching, while also being a single parent to an 11 and 6 year old. I've had placements all over the countryside, worked some ridiculous hours to get assignments, revision etc done but boy when I found out recently that I'd done it, got my degree, me and my 2 wonderful,inspiring, fantastic children whooped for joy. Now I cant wait for the actual ceremony and my grad pics with my 2 children. They really have given me the strength to keep going, to prove to them that I can do it and I can build us all a better future. I promise that you will find the time to be a great mum and a great student and in the future a great nurse.
Best wishes for all of you embarking on nursing and student life, I promise in 3 years you will not regret it xxx

Hi. i'm heading into my final year of nursing and I have DH (works FT) DS (13), DD (3), 2 DSD (18&15)and SDGS (1). It takes a lot of organisation and trying to get studying done during whatever free time ( been so long I for get what that means ) is available. In fact I'm supposed to be doing an assignment...... Placements are hard because DH works 12hr shifts but generally speaking the placements have helped to organise my shifts depending on DH's shifts. I've found that explaining from the 1st day of any placement that he works 12hr shifts and that i have to work around those to accomodate childcare helps. I have a lot of help from ILs and friends for the odd day that we are both working and my CM is fab! The uni hasn't been too bad re. placements but I did have to fill in an extenuating circs from so that I wouldn't be placed too far away (3 of my 1st yr placements were over 50miles away with shifts starting at 7am and ending at 8-8:30pm)and my 2nd & 3rd yr placements are all at my local hospital

If you really want to do it, then be prepared that you have to be super organised and that the kids will always get sick when an assignment is due . My uni only does 4wks off in summer compared to another uni nearby that does the 6wks class 6wks placement thing so it might be worth lookig into how the teaching is broken up. We tend to do 8-12wks theory then big block of 3 or more placements. I'll be starting a block of placements in the 2nd wk of Aug (same wk as an exam... thanks very much )which will be 6wks rehab, 6wks a&e then 6wks public health, christmas then back in for 8wks theory, 6wks continuing care and 12wks management so I have to be really organised re childcare etc.

If I haven't put you off then good luck! btw AFAIK bursary doesn't get counted into tax credits so if you can find the time to squeeze in 16hrs to qualify for the childcre element, it would be worth it. What a lot of us have done is register with an agency and then do shifts when it suits us. Most of the girls do wkend nights and holidays to average the 16hrs.

I trained to be a nurse with 2 small children and it was the best thing I ever did. Yes it was at times difficult to juggle child care and after school playschemes but my family have a better life now because of it. They also saw how if you are really determined you can acheive your goals. Also you get great job satisfaction helping others...go for it!

I think that it depends also which university you go to. I studied at a very well-respected one, which rejects many more potential students than it accepts, but I found that during course weeks I didn't have to be in University more than 4 hours per week, because all the lectures were added on to the intranet. So I only had to be in University for the tutorials. Of course it was helpful to actually attend the lectures sometimes.

It all boils down to teaching style. In my University that I did my first Degree (I did Nursing as a shortened post-grad course), lectures were more like tutorials, we got taught but could interrupt and ask questions, take the teaching off to an interesting tangetial subject, expand, and so on. If you didn't attend the lectures, you really were missing out.

In my Nursing lectures, you sat, and listened, and did not speak. All that the lecturer was talking about was well backed with a power-point presentation, so you really didn't need to be there physically.

Studying, again, was down to personal preference. Some students were plod and prepare, so studying at University each day, in the library or a study room. Others were cram and cluster, so did little during the term, but were there every hour the Uni was open in the few weeks leading up to an essay/exam. Yet more were consistent studiers, but due to family life organised themselves with all the material they needed so that they could study at home in the evenings.

If you want to do it, you will fit it in somehow. It is very doable.

WRT placements, do your best to be keen, motivated and interested, rather than 'clock watching' (even if you are on the inside!) and then it is amazing how flexible they will be. Students who moan about outside committments and how they need to be away by this time, or can't do this and that, tend to be given the worst shifts, because there is a perception that they are a bit slack, or have an attitude problem. Certainly my experience is that students with childcare committments who came on shift keen and eager, then mentioned the childcare hours and asked if there was a way to accomodate them, got to pretty much dictate their hours, because they ameliorated the concerns about their committment by showing a good working attitude early on.