any student nurses/midwives here??

[sassybabee]

hi im currently on an access to nursing course and hopefully going onto midwiferey. just wanted to know how mums cope with the kids , in respect to them being off sick?? ive heard that as a student nurse you get 6 weeks holiday per year , and they allow 5 days for sickness /compassionate leave. what happens if you have no family and rely on childminders( who wont accept your child if they are sick?understandably!!)
you need to be at home with the kids if they are ill, so if you go over these 5 days , do they kick you off the course??
sorry major panic, as im going have to rely on childminders as i have no family to help!!
should be really worrying bout my exams on mon and fri thou,lol!! just cant get it all to stick in me brain!
had no time to revise properly, but even when i stick down and start revising i get a whopping headache, so have to quit!!
anyone else on an access course doing exams this week???
sammie xx

just had results from maths ...got distinctions on my exam and coursework!
got a merit for my term 1 in biology! so im happy as punch!!! just telling everyone as im over the monn,lol!!

thanxs

Thanks sally - and good luck in your applications. It is frustrating, but with so many applying and so many good candidates it has to come down to a bit of luck as well, I guess.

It does seem crazy though, when you realise what a crisis maternity services are in, that potentially good and very dedicated students (if I may blow my own trumpet for a moment!) are getting turned away. Oh well...

Well, all is not lost! I found out today that, as well as my interview at King's, I am also going to be interviewed at Kingston and Greenwich! So I've managed to get shortlisted for everywhere I've applied to, which I am pretty proud of, whatever happens...

Hi, I'm a lecturer and just incase it's useful for you to know, our mature parent students are usually our better students.

Good luck nomoon

That is good to hear mrs doobaubles.. kinda of hard juggling everything

Firstly, that poem also made me cry and I've sent it onto my friends.

Secondly, don't worry about the elderly not being your cup of tea. 'One man's meat is another man's poison' meaning that if you don't want to work with the elderly someone else will get great satisfaction from that job.

Thirdly, childcare. I too have no-one but my dh so when ds is ill we do a split shift ie. he stays with him morning and I take over pm. He's in a senior position, so if he has an imovable meeting, he takes precedent and I just make the time up when I can.

These things happen. Kids get ill. At the end of the day, they are the priority. It's just stressful making up the time. Apparently, they're quite tight on absence because of the Beverley Allitt case a few years back. On looking into her background, they found that she had loads of time off during her training I assume when she was suffering her mental problems so they just want to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Your realationship with tutors and mentors are also pretty close and they get to know whether you're a shirker or not anyway.

Don't worry. Be happy.

Now I really must get on with my public health essay. Any other students use mumsnet as a distraction tactic?

ALSO, anyone else hate reflective essays as much as me?!

ha you just made me laugh!im in the proccess of writing my reflexion of practice and im here! add to that im arranging something for the tsunami appeal at the pub i work at... well and truely multi tasking. Must be a sad sod because normally i enjoy reflection, done my drugs research and diary is up to date....so just a 3000 word communications thing to do! oh joys......back to the fundraising.....

Hi everyone - I'm asking (yet again) if you can keep everything crossed for me tomorrow - midwifery interview at King's College London. Still not my first choice - that's next week at Kingston! - but even so....eeek!

lol are we all doing reflection essays?? I have been avoiding it so so much.

Good luck Moomina

x

now are you using Gibbs or another reflective cycle???

I use Gibbs cos it's easiest.

Let us know how you get on moomina!

hi, im interested in becoming a midwife, and i was just after a bit of advice from those of you that are doing the course?

can you tell me how long the course is, do you do a course at college forst then go to uni? Can you do the course prt time or does it have to be full time? what kind of help do you get with money/grants etc? can you start the course at any time of year, or is it one that starts in spetember?

sorry these are probably really stupid questions, but i honestly havent got a clue and havent managed to find out all that much yet, its just something i have been thinking about lately.

im 22 got 9 gcse;s, 2 a-levels and a 4 month old baby! any info much appreciated xx

Hi fairycakes - I'm in the middle of applying so maybe I can help a bit.

There are two types of midwifery course - degree and diploma. Both lead to qualification as a midwife but the degree is probably more challenging academically and includes a research dissertation. They are both 3 years full-time (I believe some unis have some part-time places but not many) and the basic entry qualifications for the diploma are 5 GCSEs A-C grade with Maths, English and a science subject, although obviously the more qualifications you have, the better - your A levels would be an advantage.

Funding-wise, for the diploma you receive a non-means-tested bursary of around £5-6000 depending on where you live and if you have dependents etc. For the degree you get a means-tested bursary the amount of which depends on your circumstances. You don't pay tuition fees for degree or diploma.

The majority of courses start in September although some unis do have intakes at different times of the year (e.g. Greenwich has a diploma intake in May). Unfortunately you've missed the deadline for applications for Sept 2005 but later this year you could apply for 06. Check out NMAS for diploma info and Student Midwives Sanctuary for lots of useful info. HTH!

if you're not already a qualified nurse, direct entry to the midwifery profession is 3 yars.

If you do the diploma route, you get a bursary all the way through - I think I get about £6k but would get a bit extra if I was studying in the london weighting area (crazy as I live in the london weighting area yet can't claim for that!).

Depending on your circumstances, you'll also get help towards childcare.

You could do the degree route in the final year, having claimed a bursery for year one and year two, but claim bugger all for the third year, apart from the childcare help.

This is just my uni. Depends whether your uni offers the diploma route, or purely just the BSc route.

I didn't think the degree route was bursary - means tested or not. certainly none of the girls on my course will get any money if they do the degree route in the final year...?

Oh well. Definitely off to bed now.

I'm sure degree students can apply for a bursary but I thought it is means-tested and a lot smaller than the diploma one. link to NHS careers site here - but I could be wrong

thank you both for your advice, thats been really helfpul, thanks xxxx