Nursing degree - is it possible with a young family?

[Pedicuri]

I have been looking at a 3 year full time nursing degree, and will be ringing the uni to get more info this week. I am wondering if anyone here has recently done this? I have chatted to a few nurses but either they were young and without children or older with grown children.
I have heard that the coursework is challenging because of the work placements - did you have any say in where or when you could work?
How did you find the course?
Any help appreciated.

A friend of mind did it with fairly young children - under school age when he started - and you are right it was the workplacements that were challenging - he didn't have any choice about where and when - although his OH and mum could do the childcare so it wasn't so much of an issue - the uni holidays were good - and since he quaulified - he likes the job but the shift working is tricky with childcare
I think you would need to ask the university about it -but I would have a plan for the work placements if you do go for it

I've been looking into doing Midwifery and have the same concerns but I think that while it might be hard to manage both a full time course (with shift work) and a young family it is certainly not impossible. Where there's a will there's a way.

I don't know how much choice you'd get for clinical placements but I'd imagine that any reasonable university would definitely take into consideration the practical implications for you and try to accommodate people for their preferred placements.

The only things that put me off at this time are finding the time to study at home (I barely have time to go for a shit) and the length of time I'd have to be away from my children (my baby twins are 13 months) so perhaps will wait until they're at pre-school at least.

Is there any way you can do your course part-time over a longer period?

I haven't done it myself , did my training pre-kids yrs ago but I have worked with quite a few student nurses that have small children. I think most of them have a lot of help with childcare from families.
You will have to do the same or similar shifts to your mentor while on placement and that may include nights.

My friend did it with a 3 and 5 year old. It was a challenge but she did it. I did the social work degree with 4 young children and did it. As long as you want it enough its perfectly possible.

it's one of the worst jobs ever to train for with a young family. The constant chopping and changing of shifts depending on placements plus the 9-5 stints M-F when at Uni. I would think long and hard about doing it.

Some unis are now trialling a family-friendly part-time nursing degree - DeMontfort in Leicester is one. But nursing isn't a family-friendly job.

See my comments here for further details:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/going_back_to_work/1263351-Not-sure-which-career-path-to-take-Long