Hey, I'm a second year (almost final!) adult nursing student. The academic work you've done before will partially determine how you find it. I did a levels (chemistry, biology and psychology) and I can say the academic work is far easier than A level - so that's certainly nothing to stress about. Just remembering information without much depth at all.
Where it gets tricky is balancing doing a full time placement (37.5 hrs a week) with writing a 4000 word assignment. It's all about managing your time. Providing you don't get stressed out easily and keep on top of revision/assignments you won't struggle. I work as a bank health care assistant and I can easily fit shifts in, although I didn't do this until second year. A lot of people I know worked a part time job though! Once again, it's all about managing your time.
The bursary helps the financial aspect of things, but depending on your personal situation it wouldn't hurt to have a part time job. Most students do it, you just have to make sure you don't overload yourself. Gotta have time to relax 😅 Also depends on how good you are at budgeting etc - but we nurses don't really differ from the rest of the student population there.
Yes it is stressfull, but you'll love every minute of it, and there will be plenty of you going through it together so you can help eachother out. But honestly, it's not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. You still get holidays, and when you're on placement you only work 3 days a week if you're on a ward. Plenty of time to join a society or have a job if need be.
I hope this helps alleviate your worry a little, just get ready to enjoy your degree! 😁