Nursing degree. Crazy?

[boredandrestless]

All being well I will be starting a 1 year access course in September, and plan to do a nursing degree after that.

I feel very positive about it all with the odd wobble.

My main worries are juggling the placement shifts and childcare, and the financial aspect.

Anyone doing or who has recently done the degree, can you share with me how dire your finances were? I'm a single parent. What benefits, grants, and loans will I be receiving???

Also - how is the placement time was worked out. For example did you do a bit of placement as a chunk each term?? I'm not sure when you would be IN uni, and when you would be on placement.

I'm heading to bed soon but will check back in tomorrow - I'd really appreciate any replies!

I am a single parent. I wanted to do another nursing course this September at Uni, but with a 5yr old I can't. There is help available for funds etc, and you can get loans. The issue I had was that you are expected to do a certain amount of evenings/weekends/nights and I had nobody to help with DS. An hour or two is easy, evenings and overnight is another matter entirely.

Sorry, that's just my experience. Good luck if you have help with DC.

Thanks for replying. DS's dad has him two nights a week, from 5pm til 8am, and I have a child minder who works a standard 8-6 type of day so I'm hoping that with his nights at his dad's there are 2 twelve hour shifts there. My mum has offered to help out too but I do think I will also scope out any childminders that work shift patterns.

I suppose i'm thinking that with the nights at his dads twice a week there are 2 opportunities for shifts, then I could ask my mum to do a third one? I do need to be sure I could get the childcare aspect covered though.

Hi boredandrestless, I mentor nurse students in placement so I think I might be able to answer some of your questions about placements, although obviously this will be specific to the NHS Trusts/Universities I have worked in.

Placements are usually completed in chunks, although that can be anything from 4 weeks to a few months. You will generally have the pattern of uni time vs placement time given to you in a timetable at the start of the year. What you have little control over is which placement you are allocated at any one time. I do not know your geographical area or whether you are looking into adult/child/mental health nursing, but usually a University covers a large geographical area and you can be allocated placements anywhere within that area. Therefore, you need to also factor travel time into your child care arrangements. For example, the student nurse currently working with me has to travel over an hour each way to her placement with me. You may not have much advance warning of where your placements will be either, certainly not set out at the beginning of the year.

Additionally, you will be allocated a mentor (like me!) in each placement, and there will be a requirement on you to work a certain percentage of time with that mentor. This will mean working whatever shift patterns your mentor is working, and that will include the full 24 hour shift system if you are on inpatient placement. However, there is usually only a minimum number of nights you will need to work over your 3 years training i.e. I had to to 10 nights over 3 years minimum, current students I work with have to do 14 nights over 3 years.

It sounds like your childcare issues will arise from being in inpatient settings requiring late/early shifts and so you will need a flexible childminder who can accommodate that. I personally do try to be very flexible re: shifts with my student nurses, but you will not find this everywhere and you need to be prepared to be told that is when you are expected to attend and that childcare is your own issue, particularly as when you are qualified this will continue to be the case unless you manage to secure a community 9-5 job straight off.

Also bear in mind that you will be doing academic work around your placements and also you will need to prepare a portfolio of work within your placement too.

That said, you get fantastic holidays when you are a student nurse so it is likely you will be around most of the summer holidays and Christmas holidays. It is also a great job, so as long as you feel you can work around all this, go for it!

Thanks for your reply it's really helpful. Can you tell me, if I were working say in a hospital doing a night shift, what is the duration of the shift? How many hours?

I'm going to be spending the next year doing an access course and getting my bloody driving test passed, so plenty of time to get childcare and back up childcare in place.

Those minimum amount of night shifts is a lot less than I thought. I will be going to the next uni open day but until then I'm just kind of trying to find out what I can generally from people in the know.

I'm currently entering timesheets for student nurses and alot of the shifts are 12.5 hours... there are also some 6-8.5 hours so it can vary.

When you go to the Uni open day ask about what arrangements are in place for those with dependants and childcare obligations. They may have special plans in place.

Thanks that's great. I'd assumed shifts were somewhere around 12 hours. I'm thinking, even if I did a long night shift, with DS at his dad's or my mums, and a child minder that works days, that I could make it work. I'm really hoping so!