Healthcare student society

Hey guys

I thought I would start a thread for students of all healthcare disciplines to come and chat, to discuss applications, placements, assignment stress and compare stories etc. After all, healthcare is one big team :party:

So how about we introduce ourselves and go from there?

I'm Forestcat, I'm a nurse turned medical student. I was qualified for three years before starting uni again. I worked in stroke, oncology and haematology, special care baby unit and agency... so basically a little bit of everything!

(edited 9 years ago)

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Reply 1

claireestelle

Hello, I m claireestelle and am just about to finish a health and social care fd course and then I m starting a nursing degree in september :smile:

Reply 2

nina.victoria

Original post by claireestelle

Hello, I m claireestelle and am just about to finish a health and social care fd course and then I m starting a nursing degree in september :smile:

Hello, this is the first question I've ever posted on this website so apologies that I've posted it in the wrong place, just couldn't find a forum that suited my question :')

Basically I did terribly at college and got bad A-Levels, as a result I decided to do an apprenticeship for a year in Business Admin. After doing this for 7 months I've decided to keep my options open for the end of my placement and apply to uni just to see if I would get accepted onto anything. I have been accepted onto 2 foundationdegrees, both at Leeds City College. I am happy and excited as living in Leeds is something I've been interested in for a while, but I just wanted to know if anyone here had any advice on what a foundation degree actually is?

They are both 2 year long courses. To my understanding, after these 2 years I receive a Foundation Degree (fdA). I then have the option to do a Top Up year which will bring my overall qualification to a Bachelor's Degree (BA). Is this correct? Because I have friends who are doing foundation degrees in Art and Design and theirs is only 1 year long and they must apply for a normal 3 year long BA degree at uni after that, so very confused.

If this is correct and I get a BA after my top up year, will this be as prestigious as other people's degrees who went straight to uni? Any help you have on the matter would be helpful, thank you

Reply 3

claireestelle

Yes thats correct, a foundation degree is basically like the first two years of a degree. I believe art is different because it is a foundation certificate they do or a foundation diploma. And yes if you topped it up it d be like a normal degree so just as prestigous :smile:

I might be spending 5 whole years in university in the end but doing my foundation degree to get onto nursing was the best decision i ve ever made and helped me turn it round after my horrendous a level results.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

ForestCat

Original post by claireestelle

Hello, I m claireestelle and am just about to finish a health and social care fd course and then I m starting a nursing degree in september :smile:

Thats great Claire! What branch of nursing will you be studying? I bet you're excited :h:

Reply 5

claireestelle

Original post by ForestCat

Thats great Claire! What branch of nursing will you be studying? I bet you're excited :h:

Mental Health :smile:

very excited, getting more impatient to start every day

Reply 6

ForestCat

Original post by claireestelle

Mental Health :smile:

very excited, getting more impatient to start every day

Cool

Where will you be studying? What made you choose mental health?

Reply 7

claireestelle

Uclan

I find mental health and the brain incredibly interesting, as well as having people close to me who have experienced mental health illness and i want to work in a job that breaks down the stigma that patients with mental health illness face

Reply 8

nina.victoria

Original post by claireestelle

THANKKK YOUU SOOO MUCHH!!!
u just saved me from dying :P

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 9

ForestCat

Original post by claireestelle

Uclan

Ah cool, I trained nearby at Edge-hill and used to have a placements with UCLAN students. Are you moving for uni or local already?

Its great you have that interest in it, will definitely help with placements. :smile:

No problem :smile:

Hi,

I'm tgog and I'm a 2nd year MPharm Pharmacy student at Brighton - I hope to get into hospital pharmacy / academia after my degree. I worked in a community pharmacy as a dispenser for 3 months last summer, and this summer I intend to carry out some research with my personal tutor at university (funding pending) and am waiting for replies from hospitals that I've applied to for vacation placements.

Reply 12

claireestelle

Original post by ForestCat

Moved to preston for my foundation degree and liked it so much decided i want to stay for my nursing degree so i guess i m sort of a local

Reply 13

Audiology-Med

Original post by ForestCat

Cool

Where will you be studying? What made you choose mental health?

I'll be starting my healthcare science audiology course this year, how you finding the workload between being a nurse and a med student. Do you think working in the NHS first was better for you instead of applying for med straight after you finished your nursing degree.

Reply 14

ForestCat

Original post by claireestelle

Moved to preston for my foundation degree and liked it so much decided i want to stay for my nursing degree so i guess i m sort of a local

Thats great that you found somewhere you like. It certainly helps if you know your way around an area.
Have you any plans for your last summer of freedom before you start uni?

Original post by Audiology-Med

Its drastically different. We learn so much more in medicine and if anything it highlights how little we were taught in my nursing degree (and how much we were expected to just learn on placement). Whilst my nursing degree and subsequent experience helps with the clinical side, I've found it pretty hard going with the level of science and detail (plus the sheer quantity) of stuff I am learning now.

It certainly helped me. I didn't want to do medicine when I did my nurse training, nor in my first year post qualification. Its only later on I realised nursing wasn't quite right for me. But I certainly think NHS experience is always valuable!

Reply 15

ForestCat

Original post by thegodofgod

Welcome

How are you finding the degree so far? We have some pharmacists on my course (and fellow mods on here) and the level of detail and the amount of stuff they know blows my mind!!

Reply 16

thegodofgod

Original post by ForestCat

Welcome

How are you finding the degree so far? We have some pharmacists on my course (and fellow mods on here) and the level of detail and the amount of stuff they know blows my mind!!

Thanks!

The degree's so much fun - our 2nd year is a lot more clinical and hospital-based stuff than 1st year, which was a lot more community-based! :excited:

In our course we don't have traditional modules per se, but cases - each year there are about 10-12 cases which denote a medical condition, and you have all of your lectures relevant to that condition (i.e. physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, pharmacy practice, formulation sciences etc.). A couple of our cases this year included Hypertension, Renal Failure, and Ischaemic Heart Disease, all of which I loved - I've decided that cardiology is definitely the specialty for me as a pharmacist! :biggrin:

Our pharmacy practice coursework this year was to construct a pharmaceutical care plan for an elderly patient with an acute kidney injury, who was on several drugs and interactions between a couple caused the AKI. Found that so awesome and established that hospital pharmacy was for me! :yep:

How's medicine going for you? I have a few close school friends who are medics at Imperial / UCL / Barts and it seems like they're always working, way more so than us pharmacists!

Reply 17

ForestCat

Original post by thegodofgod

Thanks!

The degree's so much fun - our 2nd year is a lot more clinical and hospital-based stuff than 1st year, which was a lot more community-based! :excited:

How's medicine going for you? I have a few close school friends who are medics at Imperial / UCL / Barts and it seems like they're always working, way more so than us pharmacists!

That sounds like a good way of splitting it up and learning about the common stuff you're going to see. Its great you've got an idea of what you want to do. I must say I like hospitals too! I'll hopefully end up in a hospital based speciality.

Medicine is pretty heavy going. So different to anything I've ever done before. Just trying to stay on top of things really but I'm not the best worker so :s-smilie:

Reply 18

claireestelle

Original post by ForestCat

Thats great that you found somewhere you like. It certainly helps if you know your way around an area.
Have you any plans for your last summer of freedom before you start uni?

Its drastically different. We learn so much more in medicine and if anything it highlights how little we were taught in my nursing degree (and how much we were expected to just learn on placement). Whilst my nursing degree and subsequent experience helps with the clinical side, I've found it pretty hard going with the level of science and detail (plus the sheer quantity) of stuff I am learning now.

It certainly helped me. I didn't want to do medicine when I did my nurse training, nor in my first year post qualification. Its only later on I realised nursing wasn't quite right for me. But I certainly think NHS experience is always valuable!