Student nursing & child care

wortblossom

I really want to apply to do nursing when my youngest starts school in
September. However I need to know if its pratically possible as I have
3 children (all at school ) and my husband works full time (9-5). Does anyone
know what the time tables are like for 1st /2nd year nursing students, particuarly
placements?

iclayt

You should be able to look at timetables/work and study hours for relevant programs on the website of the university/training provider. If you like, I can send you the course details of the BA Adult Nursing at the university I work at. Every module is listed for each year of study, and you can get an idea of contact hours etc.

For example, the first year of the course here consists of 4 compulsory modules. eg the first module is delivered as follows over one academic year:

Lectures 25 x 1.00 hour
Tutorials 18 x 2.00 hours
Independent online learning hours 9
Private study hours 230 (estimate of course)
Total Contact hours 61

Times that over 4 modules and that's the first year. Other modules include clinical placements etc which are supposed to amount to almost 300 hours worth in total.

Speak to the department and see if they can give you an idea, they will get this a lot.

tyler2027

Hi,

I can only give you details of my experience (was a student, qualified now a few years).

Bear in mind you do 2300 hours in uni over three years and the same amount of hours in placement.

Universities differ in when they have you in for lectures etc but its more or less office hours. Never started before 9 and in most days of the week. One day though we started in the afternoon and finished at 7pm. As the course progressed the lectures dropped down and there was more home study/personal time. By year 3 we was in 2 days a week.

Don't think uni time will be much a problem. Some unis do it that you your in for a few weeks at uni, then at placement for a few weeks. Others do it so you split a week....say three days in uni two days in placement.

placements.....nightmare!
they do make it clear before you start that you must be capable of committing to 24/7 care. You don't get to set your own start/stop times......you follow a shift pattern. This can be something like an early 07.30-3.30 ........ a late 13.30 -21.30........a long day 07.30 -21.30 or nights. It all depends on your placement.

Rough guide you could be in five days out of the seven if its a mix of earlies and lates and three days if its long shifts or nights.


Some placements can be mon-fri days ie clinics, community nursing, outpatients. But expect most of your placements to be hospital based and its those type of shifts spread over 7 days.

A uni may have a rule like mine did .... maximum of working one weekend in three and no night duties in first year. Other unis may not.

Some placements may be willing to negotiate which days you work. But it all depends on what shifts your mentor works as your supposed to work with them something like 40-50% of the time :rotfl:
Can't say I ever had such a placement but know of students who did. Again, if you get one great...but expect the majority to be quite inflexible.

Ok so overall I know I have come across as negative about placements and childcare. The truth is, its a struggle....but......loads of student nurses with kids manage to juggle things. If anything your lucky because you husband can cope and do the school run if your on an early. Late shift it may mean a childminder/understanding grandparent/friend favours but only for a couple of hours. Nights and weekends he can cope - their his kids too;)

school holidays....you get I think 7 weeks off as a student....and being uni they don't always ensure they collide with school hols! so it will be a mix of you being off separate to your husband and him using his hols during summer.....with maybe a few weeks of winging it if your on placement.

its challenging but doable.

Ty

Sncjw

hi ive done 2 years of being a student nurse and it is hard even for a person without children. Basically this advice might differ from uni to uni. anyways its a full time course so 35 hours a week you are supposed to be doing some form of work related to the course. In my uni our timetable wasnt set like other courses it varied each week and can be between 9-5. sometimes our lecters are cut short due to being done so quick but dont get your hopes up for all of them to be like this. There can be a 4 hour gap between lecters and your expected to do some studying between then. if your day finishes early your expected to extra study.

During uni you will be given assignments to do and homework to do for the next lecter. you dont have to do the homework but it helps as it will probably be focused around that topic for the next lecter. Uni treat you like an adult and your responsible for your own learning and time management.

Sometimes your assignments may nt be due for a while or it is based around placements so you will need to do these ontop of a shift at placement. Now trusts operate differently and even wards operate differently. Some let you choose your shifts and write it in the off duty. if you do this i advise you to try and follow your mentor shifts as they are the ones who are signing you off. i was given what we called a pab with a list of our competencies we had to do over the year. we have 3 placements over the year and we would chose with adivce from mentor what was best for each placement to do. you need to get these signed off by mentor and some tutors request you to provide evidence of this which can include documentation which you use a fake a patients details and then you annotate to show understanding, relfection, any courses you do, witness testimony. As you will be busy it is not always possible to do these on placement so would need to be done at home.
Your off duty would be show you to be in around 5 days a week if you do early/lates or 3 days a week if you do long shifts. These times vary ward to ward but can be early 7/7:30 till 3/3:30, lates 1/1:30-9/9:30 or a long day 7/7:30 to 9/9:30.

you would have to think about who can look after the children when they finish school to when your husband gets in. It is a stressful course because it takes up so much of your time for coursework and placements. it can be done because i know some nurses who are mothers and passed the course.

when people say its a demanding course you dont truely know until you do it. Also you may get help for child care from nhs bursary if you look at the site. I know the funding has changed since i started so best to look at that too.

Just to mention as a student nurse you get all the statuatory holidays off like chirstmas and maybe easter depending on placement times. My uni gave us a three year plan to show when we are off. there is self directed study weeks as well but alot used that as holiday. Other course usually finish in may but us student nurses finish in august with only 4 weeks summer holiday.

any more question please ask.

Sncjw

yes i forgot to mention nights we were not allowed to do them untill 2nd year and night shifts are the full 12 hour shifts.

As a student nurs your supernumery meaning your not classed as staff as such so your entitled to take breaks. Although staff nurses should take breaks sometimes it isnt possible and sometimes they do try and extend this students but you are allowed to do so.