Quitting work to become a full time student

slenderkitten

Wouldn't it be better to offer some sort of care aspect service on a voluntary basis to the hospitals, or become a part time carer, there are loads of these jobs where they give you on the job training.

In these tough times i would not be tempted to give up my job earning a good wage to train full time for the next three years and not know that i am capable of even passing it.

A lot of people in my family have changed jobs to becoming a nurse but only because they were on low paid jobs but its hard work, double shifts for one thing. Do you think you could hack working 11 hours shifts on your feet the whole time, some shifts change last minute. It's a stressful job too. Some of them have changed from hospitals to work in old people's homes as the hours and their duties are much better but you have to be doing a nursing job in a hospital for some time before you get to go down this route.

I would advise to keep your jobs do either part time training or a part time job or a part time voluntary job in the care industry to see what it's like THEN decide if you really want to do this.

Nebulous2

I've twice given up a job I was getting nothing from with a drop in wages. Both times it has worked out okay, with more job satisfaction and improved opportunities several years in.

It's surprising what you can give up, drop a car, cut out foreign holidays, stop eating out etc. All nice things to have maybe, but a long way away from essential.

Lots of nursing students take on extra shifts. I've worked as a manager in care for a long time and employed a lot of them. Cast your net wider than hospital and look at social care, for older people and for people with learning disabilities for example. It depends where you are and what recruitment is like, but we even gave people annualised contracts, where they essentially didn't work whilst on placement but got an income every month anyway.

Preparation is key though. Try to get some work in care settings, either voluntary or paid, on your days off to make sure you like it. Practice living on less money now. Ditch the debt and build up a cushion of savings before hand.

Good luck, whatever you do, the biggest mistake many people make is expecting too much. If you go in thinking you will change the world you will be disappointed. If you go in thinking small changes are worthwhile, and take satisfaction from achieving these, then care work is a great place to be.

melysion

I cant give you advice on bursuries etc but perhaps some general insight based on my personal circumstances.

I'm in the midst of changing my career. I've been a successful research scientist for 15 years, but have recently walked away from that to pursue a different career role. This includes, in the short term, a sharp dip in salary. but I already know I have made the right decision.

Be careful is my only advice. I had to think very long and hard before making the jump. Took me a year or more before taking the plunge and yes - the finances really do have to be taken into consideration. Thankfully, I care little about goods and luxuries so I guess its easy for me to cut out Sky TV and shop at Lidls rather than Waitrose - but it is a hard and scary road and you have to me 100% sure you want to do it.

If you are then great. Go for it. But with your eyes wide open.

FBaby

OP I would look into the realities of nursing before going any further - I fear you may be shocked

I have to say that I agree with that. Many nurses love their job, but many are currently extremely frustrated with the way the NHS is working currently.

I get from your messages (and I apologise if this is wrong) that you are turning towards a career in nursing because as a result of your frustration with your current situation, ie. going to work and accomplishing nothing, and see a nursing career as a way of finding a fulfilling career where you actually help people and feel rewarded. If that is the case, you might indeed find that the rewards that come with nursing might not be balancing the frustrations that come with it. The fact that both feel this way makes me feel even more strongly that it is a career choice resulting from frustration from current working conditions.

Considering what you have to lose, you need to trully understand what a career in nursing means now and in the future. I would advise that you get in touch with people with a career in nursing, who have become nurses after a change of career and who have done it for a long time.

I wanted to be a nurse in my 20s, I now know that it is not the career I idolised and that it takes very selfless and naturally caring people to enjoy it and be good at it.

Sncjw

hi there i was a student nurse for 2 years before having to leave for personal reasons anyways it is really tough course. Firstly you say you have a degree so you may be able to go through the post grad route to get a masters in that which will take 2 years. It all depends on the univeristy. You may or may not get funding for this as a masters but as i say depends on the route you take. in regards to your partner you didnt mention if he had a degree if he hasnt he would have to take the 3 year route as an undergraduate . This is only if you pass the application and interview stage and given offers. You need a health check and also a crb check.

In regards to funding it has changed since i started i belive you get a bursary of some kind which you can work out through NHS bursary website. It gives you a rough idea but not the actual amount you will get. I find it baffling how having a total household income of 50k a year you havent got any savings. My tip would be to start saving in some way if you cant then you need to sit and work out what things you could actually live without because once your on the nursing programme you will have alot of things to cut down on to survive on the low income as a student. The bursary if effectivly what your paid when your on placement. it is very low if you calulate it.

When you start your course yes it may be different in different unis but you will porbably get your first assignment quite quick into the programme. you will be given homework to do to prepare for the next lecter or seminar. you can choose not to do this but doing it will be helpful to understand whats going on. If your both lucky to get onto the programme you may not be in the same tutor group or even lecter group. This can cause your timetable to be very different to one another. It is not like other courses where you have a set timetable each week as this course is a full time one your timetable will vary and i mean full time as in 35 hours of work. During your breaks or times when your not in uni offically your expected to do some self directed study. Your lucky you dont have kids because you will have more time to study rather than having to juggle it with kids.

Placements at my uni were allocated by the placement office but we were allowed to choose our home trust. Many people will want to choose the trust closest to the uni. If your uni allows you to choose you may not get your first choice so factor that in for travel time as most shifts start at 7am. As a student you may find every ward has different shift times so they could start little earlier or later and finish earlier or later. Within my uni we were not allowed to do night shift untill year 2 but i didnt do mine on a ward but in a and e. Although i havent done a nightshift on a ward i feel the night staff try to help the day staff as much as they can by washing patients who require two people to help them.

Day shift is a busy shift as your trying to manage paitents as you may need to wash about 15 patients although you do have hcas which are useful to help you it can be a stressfull time. Also ward rounds occur during this time so can be a busy time for the ward. nurses are trying to get as much done as they can in regards to drugs, ivs, arranging tests, getting people to surgery and prepping them. they are also trying to get people discharged too.

sometimes you may get to do a late shift which is more a relaxed affiar compared to mornign shift. your still busy as your constaly checking people are dry and aklso cleaning them up. In the afternoon of morning shift or the late shift is where i learned more of the procedures needed for patients such as iv, ng tubes and other procedures.

You may be lucky to escort a patient to various services that are attached to the ward such a surgery, x ray or even on occu health visits.

during placement i got given a pab book which is a book listing my comptencies i needed to pass. This is signed off by your mentor by producing evidence to show you have an understand of this comptency. some of the work you need to do at home as its not possible to have time to write reflections on the ward and also annotate documents. Make sure you spend most of your time with your mentor if you can. some wards allow you to choose your shifts so choose shifts with your mentor. however some wards allocate your shifts for you. You can request a shift change if you really need it but dont abuse this as your there to learn.

Regarding breaks you should be allocated a break no matter how busy the ward is as your supernumery which means your not offically a memeber of staff. Sometimes nurses can abuse this by having a understaffed ward and declaring you as staff.

if your not sure of anything ask!. never be afraid to ask because if you get something wrong you could affect the patients health and its good practice to be aware of what you can and cant do. When i first started my tutor showed us the nmc hearings which shows what you can get struck off for. it is scary profession at times because you have so much hanging over you.

On top of placement stresses you have assignments to do at the same time to meet a deadline. We were allocated 2.5 hours off from a shift so we finished early to make sure we only did 35 hours a week. this 2.5 hours is used for self study. Long days can be good because you work three days and get four days. this is useful if you have assignements as it gives you more time to get them done rather than working 5 days on 8 hour shifts.

I would think carefully both yourself and your partner because it is such a stressfull course and you may find you have no time to socialise much. it all about time management and you will really have no idea how much it affects your life in general untill you do it. If you can get into the masters route which is only 2 years why not you do that and your partner work in his current job or let him do the three year course while you work. at least it is only 2 or 3 years and there is a source of income. If you are both serious about doing this then i think that for one of you to wait will not be a problem because it will still be there when the other qualifies. i wouldnt jepordise your income to the house if its posible one can stay on at work and wait. it is tough to live on a bursary income and now it is lower but with a student loan and to run a house with a mortage. i doubt the bursary income will cover your mortage and then general living expenses.