Advice From Nursing Students Please!- Gaining Experience in Nursing Environment

Hi, I too start my Access course next month & want to study Adult Nursing next September, are you able to join the bank at your hospital as a Care Assistant? So you can do shifts as and when to gain more experience. Otherwise it's just a case of trying to fit in volunteering here and there.
I have been told to use all my experience (whether care based or not) & show how the skills are transferable to Nursing.
I have heard of successful applicants with no care experience whatsoever, so it's not unrealistic to apply with the experience you have now.

Hope this helps a little and Good Luck!

Hi all,

I'm due to begin Access To Health (Inc Nursing and Midwifery) at college in September with the hope of studying Adult Nursing at University next year.

However, I'm a little worried as when I attended my interview, I was advised that I needed to gain more experience in a care setting prior to applying for university as I have less than most applicants. I currently work as a medical secretary at a hospital and have worked in medical administration roles for the last 2 years. Prior to that, I worked as a care and support worker for a year in a sheltered housing setting.
I have unsuccessfully been trying to ask around the hospital for volunteering opportunities and have been browsing online, however I work 3 days a week and am a single parent to a nearly 6 year old. Once I start my course in September, I'll be at college 2 days and work 3 days a week giving me only weekends and late evenings free. So between juggling childcare, work and college I won't have a lot of free time to find opportunities to volunteer and I'm concerned that this will put me at a huge dis-advantage to the many students who will be applying for uni that already work in healthcare roles.
I suppose I'm just looking for a little advice from people who study nursing/ have studied in the past. Have any of you had minimal experience and still got onto the uni course, have you struggled because of the lack of experience? Also- any suggestions on how to beef up my experience with not a lot of spare time?

Thanks in advance!

Coventry offer a pre-degree programme where you can work paid as a HCA for 6 months prior to starting to gain extra experience. So if you applied for a February 2017 start, if you were successful you'd do Aug-Feb as HCA to build experience before the degree. Don't know where you're based, but other unis might run similar programmes so worth enquiring.


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There's a new nursing associates role coming out very soon! That might be worth looking into. But other than that id say if you a very dedicated to being a nurse id maybe look at leaving your job to do care. Care homes are fairly easy to get jobs in (as horrible as that sounds) and that's how I started out. I then constantly looked on nhs jobs and got myself a hca job before getting into nursing. I know a few who have got into nursing with no experience BUT you are kind of back of the que unfortunately....but it doesn't mean it's impossible to get in. But wouldn't you rather have some experience anyway? It's incredibly difficult going into nursing with no care experience what so ever...I personally can't imagine it. You've so much to learn. You could also look at volunteering at care homes like a befriending service? There's a lot you could be chipping away at to ensure you get some experience. Good luck!


Posted from TSR Mobile

Hi all,

I'm due to begin Access To Health (Inc Nursing and Midwifery) at college in September with the hope of studying Adult Nursing at University next year.

However, I'm a little worried as when I attended my interview, I was advised that I needed to gain more experience in a care setting prior to applying for university as I have less than most applicants. I currently work as a medical secretary at a hospital and have worked in medical administration roles for the last 2 years. Prior to that, I worked as a care and support worker for a year in a sheltered housing setting.
I have unsuccessfully been trying to ask around the hospital for volunteering opportunities and have been browsing online, however I work 3 days a week and am a single parent to a nearly 6 year old. Once I start my course in September, I'll be at college 2 days and work 3 days a week giving me only weekends and late evenings free. So between juggling childcare, work and college I won't have a lot of free time to find opportunities to volunteer and I'm concerned that this will put me at a huge dis-advantage to the many students who will be applying for uni that already work in healthcare roles.
I suppose I'm just looking for a little advice from people who study nursing/ have studied in the past. Have any of you had minimal experience and still got onto the uni course, have you struggled because of the lack of experience? Also- any suggestions on how to beef up my experience with not a lot of spare time?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I had minimal clinical experience before I started my nursing degree. I'd done a bit of St John Ambulance cadets and that was really it. The rest of my experience was fairly vast given the age at which I applied, but with children, but in non-clinical settings like summer schools and youth clubs.

It's not necessarily about having bucket loads of clinical experience that matters but its the way you showcase it in your personal statement and in using examples in your university interviews. Your personal statement isn't a list of your experience but they want to know what you have learnt and why it is relevant to nursing rather than what you have done.

You could try St John Ambulance as an option. I woukd steer away from the nursung associate role opportunities as it is brand new and hence may be subject to alot of changes. Also, their role will not be equivalent to that of a qualified nurse. If that is what you want to persue you will need a degree.

See the work experience thread I started on here for some more ideas/help: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3546665&p=58928667#post58928667

Hope that helps!