Career/life change

missbiggles1

lauren_hb wrote: »

No, it takes 4 years as you have to fit your working role as a nursing assistant alongside it. It is fantastic and I'm very lucky to get a full time wage whilst studying for my degree.
It must be fairly common though as throughout West Yorkshire there was over 100 applicants last year, all who have to be supported by there organisation. I think companies are looking more to develop the staff they have now, hence my suggestion to OP to maybe consider a nursing assistant/support worker role first and see what development opportunities may be available

It may be common where you are but it's rare as hen's teeth in many places. In my county there was 1 or 2 people doing it every couple of years - the number of applicants isn't an indication of the number of placements.

It may also depend on local universities - our nearest nursing degree course was about 10 miles away so there was no need to put that level of investment into existing staff when there would be 10 or 20 new graduates looking for work, many of whom were already working as HCAs on the bank.

I'm glad that you have a place and it works for you.

makeyourdaddyproud

If the OP finally does get into medicine, either by some twist of good fortune or subterfuge, I hope to god they never treat me or my family. Sadly, it's Russian Roulette armed only with a MSE Id.

You come across as frighteningly clueless.

mumps

lauren_hb wrote: »

No, it takes 4 years as you have to fit your working role as a nursing assistant alongside it. It is fantastic and I'm very lucky to get a full time wage whilst studying for my degree.
It must be fairly common though as throughout West Yorkshire there was over 100 applicants last year, all who have to be supported by there organisation. I think companies are looking more to develop the staff they have now, hence my suggestion to OP to maybe consider a nursing assistant/support worker role first and see what development opportunities may be available

It sounds ideal. I was a senior manager in a health care organisation until I retired a few months ago and had only heard of NHS staff doing it in my area. HCAs at the local hospital. I did get my staff onto some of the courses designed for the NHS but never had the opportunity for this one. I hope it goes well for you.

mumps

missbiggles1 wrote: »

It may be common where you are but it's rare as hen's teeth in many places. In my county there was 1 or 2 people doing it every couple of years - the number of applicants isn't an indication of the number of placements.

It may also depend on local universities - our nearest nursing degree course was about 10 miles away so there was no need to put that level of investment into existing staff when there would be 10 or 20 new graduates looking for work, many of whom were already working as HCAs on the bank.

I'm glad that you have a place and it works for you.

That might explain it, my workplace was about 12 miles from a university that runs nursing degree courses, two intakes a year so I guess there are plenty of newly qualified nurses.

GlasweJen

OP why don't you start by taking the UKCAT and see if you score enough to be in with a chance?

I really don't think your dream is achievable and you seem incredibly naive about how doctors train and how universities select candidates for medical degrees. Perhaps you could arrange a session with a careers advisor to talk about your options or if you really want to work in health email HR at your health board and ask them if they can arrange for you to shadow a few areas to see if anything else interests you?

The suggestion to be a nurse practitioner might well be more likely to happen for you but our NPs in hospitals are all trained nurses who made it to senior charge nurse (that's 2 bands of promotion and takes years) then trained for a few years before getting NP status, those jobs don't come straight from graduating and being the new staff nurse in an area is tough, there are lots of other staff nurses who are all trying to get noticed for when that all important band 6 job gets advertised.

SpicyChickenBaguette

Good luck OP

GlasweJen

another route to training is to get a job at band 2 or 3 as a healthcare assistant/healthcare support worker.

After a year you have to sit down with your supervisor and discuss your progess, they will then ask where you want to go in your career. You can get sent on courses and possibly be sponsored through a degree conversion if you're good at your job, prove you can go further than your banding and your health board struggle to recruit the specialism straight out of uni for whatever reason. Band 2 and 3 jobs are what used to be known as auxilliaries, you would need to push to be allowed to shadow the nurses and doctors, go and do self study and note it all down in your personal portfolio. The embedded expectation with these roles is that the person will be young and wanting experience for their uni personal statement or that they will settle at that band and not want more training. Unison are pushing this year to force health boards to give their auxilliaries more training and opportunities. I personally have put a few noses out of joints by chatting to doctors and pushing to get a chance to see theatre and listen in on consultations, I'm an optometrist to trade but now work as an eye care support worker so step down in some respects but the things i've seen since i started are amazing.

mumps

GlasweJen wrote: »

OP why don't you start by taking the UKCAT and see if you score enough to be in with a chance?

I really don't think your dream is achievable and you seem incredibly naive about how doctors train and how universities select candidates for medical degrees. Perhaps you could arrange a session with a careers advisor to talk about your options or if you really want to work in health email HR at your health board and ask them if they can arrange for you to shadow a few areas to see if anything else interests you?

The suggestion to be a nurse practitioner might well be more likely to happen for you but our NPs in hospitals are all trained nurses who made it to senior charge nurse (that's 2 bands of promotion and takes years) then trained for a few years before getting NP status, those jobs don't come straight from graduating and being the new staff nurse in an area is tough, there are lots of other staff nurses who are all trying to get noticed for when that all important band 6 job gets advertised.

My DIL to be is a nurse practitioner, she was still in her 20s when she qualified as a NP, so 3 years to qualify as a nurse and then about 6 or 7 years to get experience and training so yes it does take years but I think it would take longer to be a GP, too early to do the maths:p

GlasweJen

Our NP (eye department) qualified in 1990 as a staff nurse and got NP status 3 years ago but she's one of the first in Scotland to be allowed to do things like intra vitreal injections and has her own clinics and patient lists. Ophthalmology is super competitive for doctors as well so might just be specialism dependent.

mumps

GlasweJen wrote: »

Our NP (eye department) qualified in 1990 as a staff nurse and got NP status 3 years ago but she's one of the first in Scotland to be allowed to do things like intra vitreal injections and has her own clinics and patient lists. Ophthalmology is super competitive for doctors as well so might just be specialism dependent.

I love the NP at my GP surgery, she diagnosed me after about 10 useless visits to the doctors who all decided I was depressed! She listened, told me she thought she knew what was wrong and did the blood test to confirm it and she was right.