Preparing to be a student nurse is hard and I am under no illusions that being an actual student nurse is going to be 100x harder.
There are so many things that need to happen… applications, interviews, references, CRB checks, immunisations, occupational health interviews, qualification checks, placement preferences and most importantly shopping. Don’t forget the shopping! Stationary, folders, diaries, fob watches (I got a pink and blue one as a pressie!), comfy shoes and whatever else springs to mind! But for me, the one thing I have indulged in is books – I doubt I will ever have enough hours in a lifetime to read the amount of books I have purchased….
You can’t really see the second layer of books sitting behind these…..haha!
Anyone who knows me will know that I just don’t like feeling unprepared. I’m already going back to uni with the tide against me so to speak…with being a slightly older student and with no health care education or work experience I must admit I do feel a little out of my depth and I just don’t want to turn up to my first day with no clue whatsoever. But…never one to turn down a challenge I now have a small country’s worth of reading to do and it’s actually going pretty well!
So all the admin and shopping out of the way, the most frustrating thing for me at the moment is people’s perception (or stereotypes) of students, nursing and nurses. I do realise that no individual will get away from seeing or meeting at least one student or nurse in their lifetime, whether it is in a clinical or personal setting and everyone is entitled to their own opinions….but….it’s incredibly frustrating to have opinions of “dirty lazy” students, “stressed out” nurses and a “crappy” NHS forced on me.
Me: “I’m tired”
Response: “You’ll be able to rest lots when you’re back at uni and you’re a lazy student!”
Me: “I didn’t get up until 8am”
Response: “You’ll have to get used to the early mornings when you’re a nurse!!”
Me: “I’m going to be a student nurse”
Response No.1: “Not another student nurse! Doesn’t the NHS have enough nurses?!
Response No.2: “I hope you like wiping bums!”
Response No.3: “My mum/aunt/sister’s friend/dog’s walker’s grandma is a nurse”
Response No.4: “You do know that’s going to be really hard don’t you? And you hardly get paid anything”
I really want to address some of these points because they are really bugging me!
I don’t doubt there will be university students out there who are lazy, I’m also 100% sure that there are workers out there who are just as lazy. I have worked with some…in fact…I have worked with people who fell asleep at work. I don’t recall any student having fallen asleep in lectures… hungover and not paying attention yes, fallen asleep no.
I don’t disagree that some degrees allow for a lot of free time. But not nursing. A standard non-nursing/medical degree is around 36 weeks long which leaves a lot of holidays. My nursing degree is 47 weeks long with 5 weeks holiday per year. I would say that on average that’s the same as a full time job if not less. What’s more, the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) which decides whether to register a nurse ready for practice, “will not accept less than three years and 4,600 hours in order to ensure that sufficient time is spent in practice to achieve the standards of proficiency for safe and effective practice” (http://www.nmc-uk.org/Documents/Standards/nmcStandardsofProficiencyForPre_RegistrationNursingEducation.pdf). Assuming 8 hours per day as per the average full time job, this equates to 575 days across 3 years (around 192 days per year) of university attendance and practical placements. It does not include reading (recommended 2-3 hours per 1 hour lecture), revision for exams, preparation for placements etc…The average number of working days in a year are around 210-230 days taking into account average holidays. This doesn’t quite add up to the lifestyle of a lazy student, does it?
Unlike Trainee teachers, student nurses don’t get paid during training. We get a bursary from the NHS which is actually a godsend because the number of hours required to study and the shift pattern that placements take, make part time work very difficult. The NHS is very short of nurses (and many other key workers) and at a time of austerity it simply cannot afford to fund all degrees, provide a bursary and pay for training. I’m more than ok with this.
However, once qualified, nurses are actually paid pretty well. Obviously “pretty well” will be a pittance to a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. It is probably a little under the average UK salary, but then, many entry level jobs are. At senior level the pay is very attractive – don’t be fooled by hearsay! The progression path in nursing is also simply enormous. The number of different branches and specialisations and the different roles of a nurse mean that the options are near endless. They research, educate, empower, counsel, listen, diagnose, prescribe and much more. I won’t lie, wiping bums is definitely somewhere in there….at some point your bum or the bum of someone you love may need wiping, and you’ll be grateful that a nurse is available to help you or your loved one in the most sensitive and dignified manner.
I do also realise that nursing can be physically and emotionally draining. Everyone’s experience will be different but it is clear in my mind that the best and worst days of my life will probably happen whilst I’m a student nurse or a qualified nurse. Does it frighten me? Not really. It saddens me that it would put people off. This is why I get frustrated with people’s opinions on nursing. As with anything, people rarely comment on positive aspects of any job, only the negatives. So generally, I only ever hear the bad sides of nursing and honestly, I don’t want to hear it. I want to find out for myself because:
a) every job has good and bad points
b) I don’t tell you how pants I think your job is
c) nursing has evolved massively in recent years so your grandma’s experiences may not longer be relevant in today’s nursing practice and
c) this is MY journey and I’d like to find out these things for myself thank you!
So I’m afraid that yep….another student nurse (and many more to come) is in your midst…but I’m not just another student nurse. I’m aspiring to be a better person in every way I can and know how to because, in the words of a very lovely anonymous patient “Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing”.…and I’ve always wanted a halo 🙂
notanotherstudentnurse 