Middlesex for Nursing?

Hi there! Would love to hear from a current or previous BSc Adult Nursing student that can tell me the good, bad, and ugly of the program? I am at a loss weighing my options and want to hear from a student about their experience: the professors, the student affairs, why you chose the program, employability post-graduation.. etc. Any guidance is much appreciated! (I am a mature student so I won't be living in dorms or staying on campus much).

Reply 1

Littleemma98

13

Original post by emdavidson

Hi there! Would love to hear from a current or previous BSc Adult Nursing student that can tell me the good, bad, and ugly of the program? I am at a loss weighing my options and want to hear from a student about their experience: the professors, the student affairs, why you chose the program, employability post-graduation.. etc. Any guidance is much appreciated! (I am a mature student so I won't be living in dorms or staying on campus much).

Hi

Current 2nd year student nurse.

Unfortunately there's good and bad parts of being a student nurse as you'll find out that you may got one bad placement when you go on it. But not every one is bad as you do get some brilliant placements as well.

The good bit of placements is the 4 day's of if you doing hospital wards placements, community placements are enjoyable but I prefer the hospital wards side, down point is you working the GP surgery opening hours with one day of in the week and free weekends. Bad part of community placements is you don't know what you are walking into when visiting people house's.

I haven't seen any ugly parts of the course yet.

Our lecturers are very good and helpful if needing to ask them, very approachable as well.

I chosen nursing because it's something that I always wanted to do although I just completed a vet nursing degree prior to starting my nursing degree ( completed the one and then straight into the nursing).

I have stayed at home throughout both my vet nursing degree and also upto now my nursing degree. I'm not too far from the university I'm attending but further to travel for hospital placements etc due to location within my health board region. Definitely stay at home if possible as not got any accommodation issue to sort out.

Employability is apparently good but you have to obviously apply for jobs while in your final year ( last four to six months I was told to start applying).

Still got a social life outside of the course plus manage to work part-time still.

Go with your gut feelings about becoming a nurse as it's a worthwhile job to do.

@Emily_B @Tracey_W @Allyson2020 any further advice from yous with being all qualified and recently qualified nursing staff.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

Tracey_W

17

Original post by emdavidson

Hi there! Would love to hear from a current or previous BSc Adult Nursing student that can tell me the good, bad, and ugly of the program? I am at a loss weighing my options and want to hear from a student about their experience: the professors, the student affairs, why you chose the program, employability post-graduation.. etc. Any guidance is much appreciated! (I am a mature student so I won't be living in dorms or staying on campus much).

Hi Emma or Emily ??

Nursing is obviously a good career choice, none of us who goes into nursing don't go into it for the money as we do the job because of the care we want to give to those who are very ill and Sick.

I have studied midwifing and have been qualified for 3 years coming up and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing my job as it's a worthwhile job and also a prevlidge to deliver someone elses baby.
I found doing my degree very satisfactory although very hard going it was still worth it.
I know that every university is different also all the various placements we do is different from one to another because there's no two placements the same. Each placement is completely different as you will be working on different hospital wards areas and in the community whether it's in a GP surgery or a carehome.

The bad point's is that you have to get use to working various different days and hours ( dayshifts, nightshifts and weekends ) throughout your nursing degree and also as a qualified nurse.
I worked a constant 12.25 hours shift pattern regardless of which shift pattern I was working throughout my student days and also now as a qualified midwife as I'm in the hospital setting delivering babies etc rather than the community setting. I work only 3 days out of 7 days a week. Having 4 day's of allows you to have a life outside of the job.
Community placements are generally during the GP surgery opening times Monday to Friday - with one day of in the week plus you'll have free weekends. Outpatient department hours are generally similar to the GP surgery times etc.

Depending on what hours your hospital trust that you are under for the university works will depend on how many days you are working as some works long shift's hours - doing a 12 - 13 hour shift with 4 day's of a week or it maybe split shift pattern of say between ( 6am - 2pm , 2pm - 10pm and also 10pm until 6am nightshift Monday to Sunday with two days of a week )

I basically found the university lecturer and tutors okay to deal with and was there if you needed to ask them anything. Obviously I can't talk for any other university but only where I went to.

I chosen nursing career because of wanting to help people who was sick plus I'm from a big nursing family, I was probably like yourself being a nature student doing a nursing degree but it did take me many many years to finally get into the course but not the way I wanted to go as I was wanting adult nursing first then eventually go on and do the midwifing top-up course but doing it from the beginning saved me going back to university to do it.

I applied for quite a few positions at different hospitals throughout my country of the UK and I landed up with 3 offers about 3/4 months prior of graduating but on conditions that I passed my final exams but while I was awaiting the results I was offered a job on my last placement I was doing at the time which I took once I knew I was qualified.

I wasn't able to stay at home because of the travelling distance between my own city and the city I studied at as my placement start time was 7.15am and getting the train to the other side of the country there on time and getting the bus to where I was working was the problem so I decided to find a flat rather than University accommodation and I was able to go home regular. I would have been okay with university study's but because of travelling before peak times the fare's was basically double. I was wasn't prepared to travel approx hour and three quarters each way.

So it's good to stay in your home city or town. Unfortunately I chosen a university outside of my own city for midwifing because I didn't like the university that did the midwife course in my own city ( on outskirts of it ) .

I'm sure you will enjoy doing nursing.

@Emily_B is a registered adult nurse and maybe able to give you more insight into adult nursing etc.

Reply 3

Emily_B

15

Original post by emdavidson

Hi there! Would love to hear from a current or previous BSc Adult Nursing student that can tell me the good, bad, and ugly of the program? I am at a loss weighing my options and want to hear from a student about their experience: the professors, the student affairs, why you chose the program, employability post-graduation.. etc. Any guidance is much appreciated! (I am a mature student so I won't be living in dorms or staying on campus much).

Hi!
I'm a registered nurse, 3 years qualified.

There's certainly a lot of good to the course - especially as a nursing/midwifery degree is the only way of getting on to the NMC register and practicing as a nurse/midwife in the UK.

The bad of it is that you may have assignments to submit while on placement.

The ugly of it is seeing the ugly side of people. There's a lot of ungrateful people out there. It makes looking after all the appreciative patients so much more worth it.

I found the lecturers OK - each passionate about their own area; some more supportive than others (but, having completed another degree prior to my nursing, I can assure you that there are more and less supportive lecturers everywhere!)

I can reassure you that you won't be the only more mature student on your course. There's always quite a few mature students on nursing courses.

Employability prospects are great - 1 in 10 nursing posts is currently vacant. Your future employer? Pass an interview, and they want to see proof of and NMC registration, and proof of passing a nursing degree (from literally anywhere). The NMC? As long as you've passed a degree they've accredited, you're on the register. Your future colleagues and patients? They want you to be competent, doesn't matter where you did your degree.

Make sure that you're happy with your chosen university, and the travel time to placements. Remember that you go on placement where you get sent, not where you choose to go.

My main bit of advice is to take every single learning opportunity on placement. It's a great way of consolidating everything you've learned in theory blocks, and learn other things. Also remember that helping the HCAs/carers is a great way of learning the basics of nursing (their job is part of yours, too) and getting them on side so you have their support.

You won't get the exact same placements as everyone else on your course - I had placements that other people didn't and vice versa - but, you'll still get a good range of placements.

Reply 4

Allyson2020

13

Original post by emdavidson

Hi there! Would love to hear from a current or previous BSc Adult Nursing student that can tell me the good, bad, and ugly of the program? I am at a loss weighing my options and want to hear from a student about their experience: the professors, the student affairs, why you chose the program, employability post-graduation.. etc. Any guidance is much appreciated! (I am a mature student so I won't be living in dorms or staying on campus much).

Hi

I have to agree with what the first three posts on what they have said on things as they have gave some good advice on there very own experiences 😃🙂.

You won't be doing your placements at the same place as usually you are sent to various different places unless it's unfortunate that where you are only have one hospital in which I much doubt it like.

Emily hit it right about the ungrateful people that are out there regarding the ugly side of nursing because I have seen it over the amount of years I have been a nurse. This definitely makes looking after all your patients that appreciate your hard work you do 🙂.

You will probably find placements are generally good but unfortunately there's also the chance you might find one or two that is bad but it's part and parcel of the nursing career.

As a mature student you'll not be alone in your year groups at this sort of age because you'll probably see hopefully that you are amongst people who are in there very late 40's and even early 50's starting a nursing career as well as the very young age group. The young age group will probably be asking the likes of yourself for help rather than the other way around.

I started my nursing career at 17 as a student nurse and I have now been a registered adult nurse for going on 12 years and I have also recently completed the midwifery top-up shortened course and I am now also a qualified as a registered midwife.

I found finding a job on graduating very easy back when I was a student nurse 😂. Where I'm from there wasn't any opportunity for me to do a home nursing degree as it's only last few years or so that the nearest university has started a course for nursing. I landed up having to go and live in local accommodation near the university I went to for my adult nursing degree.
If I remember correctly my university lecturers was sort of good and helpful to the students.

Just be mindful that you are not assured a place at your local university okay so maybe think about also applying to the next nearest university as well to give you a chance of getting on the nursing course.

Hopefully what everyone has said so far will be helpful to you 😊

Reply 5

Littleemma98

13

Original post by Andrew_12b

good advise

Thanks for your comment 😚😚☺️

Reply 6

Middlesex University

15

Original post by emdavidson

Hi there! Would love to hear from a current or previous BSc Adult Nursing student that can tell me the good, bad, and ugly of the program? I am at a loss weighing my options and want to hear from a student about their experience: the professors, the student affairs, why you chose the program, employability post-graduation.. etc. Any guidance is much appreciated! (I am a mature student so I won't be living in dorms or staying on campus much).

Hello, emdavidson Thank you for your question my name is, Rebecca I am a student ambassador for Middlesex University.I will try to answer your questions in order but the more subject specific questions, I would recommend talking to our Course Ambassador for Nursing Antonio here https://www.mdx.ac.uk/student-life/chat-with-studentsthe professors - I would recommend attending one of our open days here the next one is the 11th June 2022 you can book online or in person here https://www.mdx.ac.uk/get-in-touch/meet-us/ug-events/open-daythe student affairs - We have great essay writing and maths skills services through our Learning Enhancement service available to book appointments for on weekdays in term time. The counselling support services are great with next day call backs available should you need it. Unihelp is really great to point you in the right direction of the service you might need and help with basic problems.why you chose the program - Antonio our Nursing ambassador should help with this one as I studied Fine Art so I am not much help for that one. It also seems like you got some great answers on here.I hope this helps, if you have any more questions feel free to message meemployability post-graduation - From the National Student Survey Results on the Middlesex University Adult Nursing course 85% go on to work and / or study within 15 months after the course, You can see more data here https://discoveruni.gov.uk/course-details/10004351/144B741K3/FullTime/

Middlesex for Nursing?

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