Hi TSR, posting for my mum here.
She's just started as a mature student doing Midwifery; aside from me and my older siblings, she's got two of my young siblings ages 4 and 6. We were under the impression that she would be doing training shifts at the local hospital about a 20-min drive or 10-min bus ride from our house, meaning she is able to still fit her course around taking care of my younger siblings (the uni is completely aware that she has young children and is their sole carer).
However, she's been allocated shifts at a hospital which takes her 1.5 hours to get to on a good day, meaning she has to leave home at 7am, and takes her 2 hours to get back on a good day, meaning she gets home about 6pm, shortly before my little siblings go to bed. And this is before her shifts have even been given, including night shifts. Basically, this doesn't work for her, but so far when talking to the woman in charge of sorting out which midwife goes where she's been refused her request to transfer to the closer hospital, to transfer in the case of a dropout or to defer her place for next year. It's causing her a lot of stress, and to make things worse she's recently had an operation on her hand because she has trigger finger, and her doctor has told her she shouldn't really be driving (especially not to go to this other hospital). We're thinking of going to reporting this to the boss of the woman we've currently reported to, hoping the last thing in particular will help persuade them as the current situation is unsustainable.
Any advice?