Psychology and/or Nursing

Nursing is completely different than psychology. Do you mean mental health nursing?


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I finished a psychology degree this year and starting an adult nursing degree in September.
I've always wanted to help people in some way and kept switching from becoming a counsellor/therapist or nurse. After choosing psychology over a nursing diploma at the last minute, although psychology is still my plan B should nursing go wrong, I definitely want to be a nurse.
Psychology is tough; the degree can be challenging at times and to progress in psychology you need to do a masters (which you get no funding for unless you are extremely lucky to get a scholarship) and then a PHD which is extremely competitive. Of course if you have a lot of drive and really want to persue it then you stand a good chance but it is not the same as nursing where you come out qualified and ready for the job.
The way things are now, you'd get funded for doing both if you wanted to do the psychology degree and then the nursing degree, but that may not be the same in three years time so that would be something to consider.
It is definitely a hard choice when deciding which career path to go down. You have to weigh up what you really want to be and what really suits you. Have you asked people who know you quite well what they could see you working as in the future?
Anyway as someone who was in the same position three years ago, I am happy to answer any questions about psychology or nursing and the application processes.
Hope this helped somewhat!

Hi needsomeadvice12,

They are very very different so it is important to get some experience in nursing before you commit to it, as it tends to have a very high drop out rate (up to 50%) because people think it's a great career choice but the reality is often very different to their own expectations.

You can gauge the material you cover in psychology by picking up a text book, and you can be sure your course will be mainly lecture and essay based, but nursing will really need some experience as an HCA or some shadowing to decide if it is for you.

Nursing conveys the obvious advantage of being funded so it's £45,000 cheaper than a psychology Bsc. You also come out qualified in a profession with excellent job security and career progression. As a psychology graduate you may well be unemployed after six months just because the jobs market is a tough place to be competing in.

Psychology of course allows you better access to private sector jobs and allows you the opportunity to become a psychologist. But becoming a psychologist, whilst it is a good job, will require years of further study, years of relevant experience and then perhaps year competing to get a psychologist position once you are qualified.

Doing one course then the other really is really only for people who realise their first choice wasn't what they wanted to do and had a change of heart. Having a Bsc conveys little advantage to nursing (aside from allowing access to graduate nursing) and vice versa, so it would largely be a waste of £45,000 and 2/3 years, not factoring in 2/3 years of lost career progression and 2/3 years worth of lost wages.

You have a great opportunity to make the best choice for you first time around. So spend some time getting hands on with both options, get some experience, do some more research, go to some open days and make the right choice for you.

All the best.

How do you feel now starting your second degree? Do you feel like you wasted 3 years now doing a Psych degree? And what made you change your mind from pursing a career in Psych to Nursing? And was it easy to get into a Nursing course, such as getting a reference and interviews etc? Did you have any clinical experience when applying for nursing? (PS sorry for all the Q's!)

Umm it feels a bit daunting! I'm really excited to train as a nurse but another three years without a gap year is gonna be tough lol. I know it'll be worth it in the end though I did originally get onto a place on the graduate entry nursing which is 2 years long at masters level... But I switched to the BSc degree as I didn't feel I'd be able to handle masters level, especially without a biological background - I am regretting that decision a little bit but what will be will be !

I definitely don't think the three years has been wasted. I didn't go to a university with a great reputation but I absolutely loved my three years there. So many good memories that I'm glad I have. Plus I think having a degree helps because it's gotten me used to degree level work. With nursing you are balancing placement hours with academic work and already having done it at that level, I think it's really gonna help. Plus psychology fits into nursing, like I'll be dealing with patients who have mental illness or learning disabilities at some point. I don't know, apparently nursing degrees are tough and I'm thankful to have a head start almost.

Like I say I've always wanted to work with people helping them either through therapy or nursing. Although I really like psychology and would have tried to go into post grad, I couldn't shake the want of becoming a nurse. It sounds weird but I really love hospitals and have wanted to work in one since I was little. I just really want to be a nurse. It is hard to describe

Getting onto nursing was really tough. My reference was easy enough cause I just used my university tutor. I have no idea what she wrote but she must have had good things to say about me haha. Anyway I applied for post grad nursing at Sheffield, SHU and Nottingham..... Both the Sheffield universities rejected me straight off and Nottingham offered me an interview. I applied to Manchester and MMU for the BSc degree and they both offered me an interview. At Manchester they said they'd had 2500 applications for 200 or so places. MMU had nearly filled their places by time I got my interview and on the day they told us they were interviewing over 100 people for the remaining < 10 places :| Anyway I got an offer from both but tbh the interviews were really difficult and you have to be prepared. The interviews are the worst part!
Nottingham accepted me onto the post grad but I asked to change to the BSc.

And no I didn't really have much experience. I tried to get some shadowing experience at hospitals but I missed the application deadline. The only experience I had was volunteering as a community first aider with St John Ambulance which turned out to be invaluable to me as I could apply so much of it to nursing.

Pretty long post haha. Just let me know anything else you want to know!
Do you already the qualifications for nursing? When are you thinking of applying for?

I appreciate the long post! I know the entry requirements for both Nursing and Psychology and I think I'll be able to meet them as I already have the GCSE's and have recieved A's and B's at AS Level. However, I have to start applying to Uni from September when I go back to college which is just around the corner and I haven't even made my mind up on which course to go for! What would you recommend?

I appreciate the long post! I know the entry requirements for both Nursing and Psychology and I think I'll be able to meet them as I already have the GCSE's and have recieved A's and B's at AS Level. However, I have to start applying to Uni from September when I go back to college which is just around the corner and I haven't even made my mind up on which course to go for! What would you recommend?

That's good
It's hard to suggest what to do. I wouldn't really recommend you choose psychology with the hopes of doing nursing later because that could be risky. I'd probably recommend you look into nursing, not necessarily mental health though. You can get jobs in mental health nursing with an adult nursing degree whereas mental health nursing can limit you a bit. But you could look into mental health nursing degrees if you were sure you want to go into that.
Nursing would be more practical since you come out skilled and qualified.
What are you leaning towards?
What would you want to be if you chose psychology?

If I chose Psychology, I'd probably just do it because the application process is easier and there is more of a chance of me getting in, and I'll just see where it takes me. I have no real plans for it. If I chose Nursing, I'm afraid I might get rejections due to my lack of experience in the field. It's a tough decision...

In that case I'd suggest applying for nursing. The easiest option isn't always the best option. You could apply for mental health nursing if that is the area that interests you. If you get onto it and decide you want to be more general, I have known a few people who easily switched their courses to adult nursing instead or vice versa once they had a place. What experience do you have at all? I only had SJA and charity shop volunteering. I wrote about the charity shop in my PS saying it gave me good communication skills, working in a team etc. You don't need to send your UCAS app off until January so you could get some health care experience in that time easily. I would recommend contacting your nearest SJA unit to get some first aid experience. Contact hospitals as well, even if you are just wheeling the tea trolley round you will be in a clinical environment and will witness illness and injury. Just a week doing something like that could be invaluable to your application.
Have you ever cared for a family member or helped someone in the street or anything like that? There is so much stuff you can do to add to your app.
So yeah I'd suggest go for nursing and if that fails, there is always clearing to get onto psychology. But you'll do fine if you are determined.

Just look carefully at the entry requirements as some universities like Sheffield require 650 hours of healthcare experience, most don't though and like I say I only had a few duties with SJA to talk about!

Go for it

That clears things up for me a bit! Thanks for taking the time to give some advice

Hello everyone,am new to the site,can someone please advise me on what books to read for the access course to nursing . I'll probably be starting an access course next year, now that I have a baby its gonna be really hard for me to study,I need to start studying at home before I start the course,please help me out,