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University of Stirling

University of Stirling: Adult Nursing

Hello!
So after silently reading through the forums posted here, I thought I would participate and ask my questions too... mainly to ease my worrying.

I've decided to take a gap year but applied to University of Stirling for the adult nursing course in 2015 September. I have BBBBCC so I'm thinking I have a pretty good chance of getting in, right? :s-smilie:

I hope so!

I'd just like to ask existing nursing students/graduated students in Stirling about the hours in lectures and placements? I've heard a lot of Uni's have different hours and I know it can vary but if anyone could give me some sort of idea about what days/how many days we'd be in lectures?

Will we ever have lectures and placements at the same time or will it be like one month lectures and one month placement?

Is the workload okay to manage with lectures and placements and everything?

Any help would be appreciated so I can calm down and stop worrying so much, haha! Thank you so much! 😊☺

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Reply 1

ghanana

I'm a first year adult nurse in Stirling :smile:

And we always have either uni or placement, although we do have exams and to submit essays while on placement. Our placement hours are between 30-35 a week depending on how long we are on placement for. And hours in uni really depends, the first couple of weeks we had lectures every day, then we had lectures on Mondays and Tuesdays mostly and skills sessions through the rest of the week so we were in small groups for that so weren't really in too much.

I find the workload okay, and I love my placement just now, it's a lot of time management stuff, but it's definitely doable :smile:

Good luck!

University of Stirling

Reply 2

Penguin4723

First of all, thank you for replying and it's very helpful.

So, are you ever on placement and lectures in the same week or is it a month on placement (with added essays and what not) and then the next month on lectures? Also, when did you start placement?

And how did you find the interview? Any tips?

Thanks.

Reply 3

ghanana

We didn't have an interview, it was just a group assessment day thing, and just participate really, it's quite a common sense conversation topic and our group just bounced ideas off each other really and it went quite smoothly.

We don't have uni and placement at the same time, but how long we are in uni or on placement varies. Placements are between 5 and 9 weeks this year, we had uni for six weeks, placement for 5 weeks, self directed study til Christmas break, uni for two weeks, then placement for 7 weeks. But don't take that to mean anything. It'll change every year depending on placement availability and stuff.

Hope that helps :smile:

Reply 4

Penguin4723

Oh, okay. That helps a lot, thanks.

One last question: how many days off/holidays do you get?

Reply 5

ghanana

We get 7 weeks in total, three for summer, two for Christmas and two for Easter :smile:

Reply 6

Penguin4723

Nice! Thank you so much for your help! :smile:

Reply 7

beckahgrimbo

Original post by ghanana

I'm a first year adult nurse in Stirling :smile:

Good luck!

when did you hear back from stirling when you got your interview?

Reply 8

Penguin4723

What month did you apply through UCAS and when did you get an interview? Still waiting. Is it worth phoning the Uni up? ☺ Thanks.

Reply 9

ghanana

Hey, I applied to UCAS about November I think, got invited to an applicant day in January, but Stirling was the last uni to get back to me with an offer, right before their deadline which if I remember was some time in the end of March? Around Easter time anyway. I think it's still quite early to call and ask, because they won't really know much at the moment, I imagine if you called they'll just be like "oh yeah, you'll hear in the next few weeks", but that's not very useful.

We didn't get an interview really, it was a group discussion thing where they'd tell us to watch a video before going to the applicant day (Ours was on compassion) and we had to discuss it as a group. It wasn't a typical interview really. Good luck both of you :smile:

Hope that helped.

Reply 10

Beckah1204

Original post by ghanana

Hope that helped.

Thank you very much :smile:

that has helped keep my mind at ease :smile:

Reply 11

Penguin4723

I got an invite to the applicant day!😊 Can you just explain what happens there and how I can prepare? So nervous!

Thanks :smile:

Reply 12

ghanana

Well done on getting an invite :smile:

It's really just half a day where they take people into a lecture hall and tell them about Stirling and their nursing program with bits about the structure of the course. Then they take you out in groups of about ten to a separate room to talk about whatever subject was agreed before (Did you get told yet? Like sent any videos or anything?) But it was something really simple, we watched a video before the day about nurses ignoring a guy asking for his glasses then not helping him eat even though he couldn't really see then we had to talk about that. Keep one comment back during the conversation, because at the end they'll tell everyone to add one more comment, and we were caught out, because we had already said everything we could, heh.

I'd also know answers to basic interview questions - Why Stirling? Why nursing? What would make you a good nurse? etc.

It really wasn't very stressful, it was just a chat really to make sure everyone knows what they're getting themselves in for :P

Reply 13

Penguin4723

Oooh, yeah, we did get sent a video and they told us it would be from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. I'm really nervous about the group discussion: what if you don't get a chance to talk or not know what to say? 😦

Also, is there a seperate interview? Who asks the nursing interview questions?

Thanks for your help! I'm so nervous and excited!

Reply 14

ghanana

"Why do you want to be a nurse?" was the first thing they asked us in the group interview and we went round in a circle and all had to answer. You should have stuff to say ready before the interview to be honest, but it's all common sense, it's really up to you to have stuff to say. And everyone gets a chance to talk, some contributed more than other people, just have your own opinions sorted in your head before walking in.

They gave people individual interviews if they feel they could have done better than in the group ones, but nobody I heard of got an individual interview, cos it's really hard to mess up a chat, really. Just relax, and since you're applying to nursing, you must already have an idea about why you are and what you hope to do with it. Absolutely nothing will come up that you don't already know.

Reply 15

Penguin4723

Oh, okay. Seems quite relaxed.
Thanks for your help :smile:

Reply 16

ghanana

Have fun and good luck, might see you next year, heh :smile:

Reply 17

Penguin4723

Hopefully! How are you coping with the course?

Reply 18

ghanana

I'm enjoying it, I absolutely loved my first placement and now I'm off for Christmas. There's a lot of wee extra things to do (Cleanliness Champions, Better Blood Transfusion, IHI) to keep track of, so it's more organisation than I'm used to I guess, but I'm quite happy with my marks for my first essay and exam :smile:

Is Stirling first choice or back up? Or you not sure yet?