She wants to be a nurse - Science isn't important??

[Fujji]

My brother is a single parent bringing up his teen daughter alone. She's 14 and has just taken her options. She apparantly wants to be a nurse but only because DB has drummed it into her that she needs a job that pays at least £20k a year and nursing is "easy" to get into
I'm concerned he's setting her up for a fall.
She's struggling with maths (currently on level 5c), not brilliant with English (Level 5b) and her science is pretty poor (level 4b).
DB has told her not to worry as Maths and Science is not important for nursing. He then pushed her onto a 'health and social care diploma' which he believed was worth 4 GCSEs and would therefore see her get into Uni. I've tried telling him that Unis look for GCSES in different subjects but he won't listen. Not only that, but he's told DN that once she's left school, she doesn't need to bother with a-levels etc, she just needs to do the higher health and social care diploma at sixth form which will see her straight into uni.
I'm really worried for her because for one thing, she's only trying to be a nurse because her dad says its good money, secondly my brother blatently isn't clued up on the qualification side of things and IMO is making the wrong choices for her.
Tell me I'm wrong and worrying over nothing?

Does her school not have a careers advisor? (do they exist anymore?)

Nursing will be an all degree profession by the time your DN is ready to enter so it is certainly not an 'easy' option!At present, you can study at diploma level but this won't be available so she'll need good A levels to get in!

They do and my neice was apparantly told that she would be ok doing the diploma. Her other options include drama and art.
I'm just wondering if they're pushing her towards this as she's academically struggling and they're maybe thinking she wouldn't get good grades in traditional GCSEs?

Not sure what they need now, but when I started my training in 1986, we needed at least 5 O Levels, these had to include, Maths, English, and a science.

If nursing is not her own chice, then this may turn out to be a non-problem as she may head spontaneously in another direction over the next few years.

I'd be concerned at the moment, though, as an interest and competency in biology strike me as necessary, as does maths ( less obvious, but I don't see how someone would cope with hitech monitoring, charts/graphs, and aspects of dose administration if not adequately numerate).

Having knonw many nursing students at one uni, they all had to get 100% on first maths, then drug calculation tests. Ditto what madamy says re: graduate-only profession (unless this government changes that, but unlikely).

Here is the current guidance

She will be doing Science in some form by the way.

If your maths is crap you could end up killing a patient - huge numbers of drugs errors are down to miscalculation. People forget how many noughts they're dealing with and accidentally dole out 10 times the dose.

And if she doesn't have a decent understanding of basic science, she'll be buggered, quite frankly. I had to explain everything from the structure of an atom to the periodic table to chemical equations to electromagnetism, to a nursing student friend. She'd done none of it in school and was utterly foxed by some of her lectures.

And nursing is fucking hard and often thankless work in shite conditions for not nearly enough pay. And it's a vocation - there's no point in going into it for money because a) there's none and b) money isn't the be all and end all, anyway, is it?

I think a good grounding in office skills is a much better bet.

Has she got any idea what nursing is about? Tell her to talk to connexions, there is almost certainly an adviser linked to her school. Does she have a strong stomach, cope with blood and other bodily products, verbal abuse (even the nicest person can be abusive when in pain/on strong drugs) etc.

Hairdressers of beautician's fit in better with kids, and can earn well. But need science too. Everyone needs science.

Oh forgot, the thing kids are struggling with in Diploma's is the the functional skills, which includes MAths and English. It is quite hard actually.

I think you?re right to say it doesn?t sound like your DN is doing this for the right reasons, Fujji. Could you have a quiet chat with her and find out what she?s really interested in? If she?s chosen drama and art herself, maybe she?s more on the arts side generally rather than the science side?

FWIW my DD has always loved science and wants to do ?something medical?. She?s 12 and gets level 6a/b so I don?t think your DN?s marks show a natural aptitude for science.

I completed my nursing degree 2 years ago.

Despite having 5 GCSE and and A Level, I still needed to do an access course to get biology and maths.

Our drug calculation exam was strict (and rightly so) we needed to get 100% with no calculators allowed. Of course she will need maths for nursing.

I wouldnt recommend nursing to anyone who doesnt really want to do it, its not that sort of profession, like teaching I imagine, Its a vocation. I wanted to do it for 20 years before I trained and even now some days I bloody hate it. Cant imagine doing all that I do if my heart wasnt in it. Its basically poor pay in a job that has mad hours, with no real benefits apart from pension which the government will probably skank off us soon.

Nursing is all degree level now in Wales and England is moving in the same direction, fewer and fewer universities offer diploma now. If she wants to nurse abroad then she will have to have a degree, and most nurses I know who did the diploma are doing top-ups for a degree

She will probably also need to show she has done voluntary work in a hospital or similar...

nursing is hard profession,they work hard inc shifts.pay not great wither.physically demanding.as far as i know reasonably hard to get into too - all taught at uni