Nursing Degree Interview

[bishbashboshjobsagoodun]

As the title suggests, I have an interview on Saturday for Nursing degree at uni and just wondered if anyone could offer any tips/advice for nailing it?! I'm 42 so a mature student and currently half way through completing Access to Higher Education Diploma in Nursing and Midwifery. I'm so so nervous! I've waited for long to be able to do this and really want to get it right!

Bumping for you.

Though I’m certain that at this stage you’ve already undertaken every possible bit of preparation.

Nursing academic here. The sort of questions we ask at our place are, what exactly does a nurse do (surprisingly poorly answered - as few get beyond 'they care for people') what qualities do you bring to nursing, why team work is important, a bit about safeguarding vulnerable people, what does it mean to be a professional The NMC website is invaluable for information about nursing with loads of resources

Being in your 40's won't make you anywhere near the oldest applicant. The other thing is that universities really really need to recruit students because we need your course fees and the NHS really needs nurses - and there's been a reduction in nursing applicants so the bar isn't set uncomfortably high to get a place. Good luck - despite what people will tell you it's a great career choice

At mine we had a panel thing where different lecturers sat at separate tables and we prospective students went round them and did different things with each-

one was like a “match the emotions” picture test of people’s faces, one asked “what would you do if you found an old man in the street outside your home with no jacket or shoes on who was clearly confused”… one gave a set of statements and asked you to choose which was most interesting to you and why- like “the love of money is the root of all evil”, or “love is all you need”…and one had a map and locations and you were asked to explain to the person how to get from a to b…

It was all a bit weird to be honest. We then had a group discussion that was overseen by 3 other lecturer types… I think that was something about NMC stuff that we were set to discuss.

No interview and nothing really about Nursing. It sounds like you will already be well prepared @bishbashboshjobsagoodun just be yourself and be honest. Your age will be an advantage in many ways, your caring experiences as a mum will also be relevant. I often feel like nursing is like being a mum- taking care of people, using communication skills, knowing when things aren’t quite right- a nurses instinct and a mums one aren’t miles apart… cleaning bums… encouraging but supporting… it’s all part of nursing. Person centred care is also a big passion of mine and is integral to nursing- and includes patients and their families at the heart of the work and also treating your colleagues in a person-centred way too- compassion is also a hot topic- as it is often expected that we as nurses are compassionate to everyone else but within nursing we aren’t shown compassion to ourselves or for each other… and we should improve on that.
Good luck- I was a “later in life” nurse and I LOVE it… hard work, yes… especially the degree and family/study/work/life balance (spoiler alert there is NO balancing it all!!!)but there isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think to myself how lucky I am to be in my profession. ❤️

Thank you all for your helpful replies!! I went for the interview this morning and it went okay I think 🤞 they told us adult and MH nursing applicants will receive their decision by Wednesday so not too long to wait. I have applied to do adult nursing however they told us that for children's nursing there was 750+ applicants and just 18 places!! Thankfully more places available for adult nurses!

I've got a place!!!

Well done

Thank you!!! I'm absolutely over the moon