Nursing from a Psychology BSc and Masters- Mental health or adult nursing?

OP

Thank you for the reply! I am not actually certain that I want to work in MH for the rest of my career, this is why I was thinking prehaps it would be better to do adult nursing. I just wanted to know that because of my background, it would be possible to get a job in MH nursing with an adult nursing degree. thank you :smile:

. Im actually looking at GEM courses too, I just dont know if im smart enough haha!

Reply 3

Have you considered Psychiatry? Much harder to get into than MH nursing but it would be a good combination of both!

Reply 4

OP

Original post by MissDetermined

Have you considered Psychiatry? Much harder to get into than MH nursing but it would be a good combination of both!

I have! I would love to get onto a graduate entry medicine course, but I dont think I will with my grades! :frown:

(2.2, and a PASS at masters) Although I do have good reasons for those grades, I had a very bad last year in undergraduate with a abusive relationship, and my Nan (Who Im extremely close to) Getting cancer, and then The last 6 months of my masters I was struck with illness after illness and constant exacerbation of my asthma. What happened was I got severe tonsillitis, chronic sinus infection and double pneumonia, which exacerbated my asthma.My immune system took a battering and I kept getting reoccurring infections, I had tonsillitis, sinus infections and pneumonia about 5 times leading upto final exams and my dissertation, and was on antibiotics and oral steroids for months. It was hell! I was also working at this point and stupidly put work over my masters (Because I wanted to make a good impression). I ended up finishing my masters with an overall PASS being a few marks off a MERIT. Although there were some modules I passed with merit including Research methods which was supposed to me the most difficult. In fact the first few assignments (Before i got ill) came out at distinctions, I was getting 75-80% and then It slipped. I kick myself now for not asking for extenuating circumstances for my dissertation! and putting work first! I would love to get onto a GEM course, but I really dont know weather I should bother trying!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

I think the best thing would be to email/ring admissions of all universities that offer a medicine course to see what your chances are. Surely you'd have a shot because your qualfication is still higher than A level students? Do you have any GCSE or A level Biology? That will help too. I'd start with enquiring about that if it's what you really want to do, maybe keep MH nursing as a back up. Sounds like you had a really bad time but probably nothing you can do now if you're already graduated - if anyone asks about your grades then you could explain but I wouldn't put it out there otherwise because you have nothing on paper to back up that you had extenuating circumstances.

Reply 6

You could probably get medical records to back up your illness(es) if you have sick notes or spent time in hospital.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by MissDetermined

You could probably get medical records to back up your illness(es) if you have sick notes or spent time in hospital.

Yeah, I never took a day off work, so I didn't have sick papers, never got admitted because I was constantly back and fourth the GP (and out of hours at like 3am half the time), and on and off steroids, antibiotics, additional pumps until i was well enough to have my flu jab. That was a big problem too, because I couldn't have my flu jab, It was like a circle, I needed the flu jab to stop getting ill but kept getting Ill cause I couldn't have it haha. Finally had it in December, got ill again in January back on oral steroids and more antibiotics, and then luckily the asthma nurse put me on an additional bronchodilator. Luckily enough that has cleared me up, and I've even been well enough to stop that now and just carry on taking my normal bronchodilator and a leukotriene receptor. I've been brilliant since!

Yeah, I was thinking about taking some A-levels, maybe biology and chemistry and getting back into a HCA role! Hopefully that will give me a better chance! My original A levels, are Law, History, English Literature, Sociology and psychology. I didn't really know what I wanted to do back then. I've actually wanted to do medicine for a while now but didn't think I stood a chance!

Reply 8

OP

Original post by MissDetermined

I think the best thing would be to email/ring admissions of all universities that offer a medicine course to see what your chances are. Surely you'd have a shot because your qualfication is still higher than A level students? Do you have any GCSE or A level Biology? That will help too. I'd start with enquiring about that if it's what you really want to do, maybe keep MH nursing as a back up. Sounds like you had a really bad time but probably nothing you can do now if you're already graduated - if anyone asks about your grades then you could explain but I wouldn't put it out there otherwise because you have nothing on paper to back up that you had extenuating circumstances.

Yeah at GCSE, I have a BC Applied double award science and also Tripple ( did it in the last 6 weeks lol, I had to push them to let me do it) I had C's in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

Reply 9

OP

Swansea Uni, accept a 2.2 at undergraduate if you have a MSc but, it doesn't specify what grade you need at Masters :/
http://www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/medicine/mbbchgraduateentrymedicine/

Reply 10

OP

Original post by MissDetermined

I think the best thing would be to email/ring admissions of all universities that offer a medicine course to see what your chances are. Surely you'd have a shot because your qualfication is still higher than A level students? Do you have any GCSE or A level Biology? That will help too. I'd start with enquiring about that if it's what you really want to do, maybe keep MH nursing as a back up. Sounds like you had a really bad time but probably nothing you can do now if you're already graduated - if anyone asks about your grades then you could explain but I wouldn't put it out there otherwise because you have nothing on paper to back up that you had extenuating circumstances.

So Ive been looking a bit more, and Cardiff do a Pre Clinical year, http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/course/medicine-with-a-preliminary-year-mbbch

Do you think this could be a possibility? what do you guys think? would I have a better chance with this than a GEM course?

Reply 11

I wouldn't want to give you the wrong advice, the best thing would be to ring them ask and enquire. Ask if your degree and masters is enough, and then if not what the next best thing to do is. I'd ring around all the universities, or email to ask them for advice. Then you definitely know what quals will be accepted

Reply 12

OP

Original post by MissDetermined

I wouldn't want to give you the wrong advice, the best thing would be to ring them ask and enquire. Ask if your degree and masters is enough, and then if not what the next best thing to do is. I'd ring around all the universities, or email to ask them for advice. Then you definitely know what quals will be accepted

Yeah, Thank you! I can see then if its worth pursuing or not!

Reply 13

username1785849

7

I think you should explore the medicine route too. :smile:

As for which nursing degree, you need a mental health nursing degree to work in specific mental health settings (i.e. acute mental health wards). Both adult and mental health nurses do work in some of the same areas though, such as dementia and addictions (due to both having mental + physical problems).

Reply 14

OP

Original post by orangeoranges

I think you should explore the medicine route too. :smile:

As for which nursing degree, you need a mental health nursing degree to work in specific mental health settings (i.e. acute mental health wards). Both adult and mental health nurses do work in some of the same areas though, such as dementia and addictions (due to both having mental + physical problems).

Thank you. Yeah, I think I'm going to attempt to get onto the GEM course at Swansea. I cant go for an undergraduate course as I have no way of funding the tuition fees in the first four years 😡, otherwise that would be such a good option.

Reply 15

OP

yeah, I hastily applied to an adult nursing degree at my old uni, a few days ago on a whim because they had spaces left for the uptake starting at the end of this month. They asked me in for an interview but after thinking about it over the last few days, I decided not to go for it. I really want to do medicine.

Reply 16

Agata8

3

Hi,

I've done my BSc in Psychology with Health Studies and got 2:2 also due to bad circumstances. It meant I couldn't get a graduate basis accreditation and couldn't go into the psychology field too. I've considered whether to go for BSc mh nursing or MSc pre reg my nursing. My problem was that I didn't have a GCSE in biology as I did different qualifications in my country and they're not equivalent. And that's always a requirement for entry.. I decided not to do MSC as it's not funded anymore and you can't get a student loan for it. However with recent government changes you can reapply for a student loan for a 2nd BSc if it's in a health related disciplines as there's no bursary.

Reply 17

OP

Original post by Agata8

Hi,

I've done my BSc in Psychology with Health Studies and got 2:2 also due to bad circumstances. It meant I couldn't get a graduate basis accreditation and couldn't go into the psychology field too. I've considered whether to go for BSc mh nursing or MSc pre reg my nursing. My problem was that I didn't have a GCSE in biology as I did different qualifications in my country and they're not equivalent. And that's always a requirement for entry.. I decided not to do MSC as it's not funded anymore and you can't get a student loan for it. However with recent government changes you can reapply for a student loan for a 2nd BSc if it's in a health related disciplines as there's no bursary.

I could go into psychology I just don't want to. Even though I got a 2.2 for my BSc I'm still eligible for GBC,my 2.2 has never held me back in regards to getting research posts and doing my MSc, its just I don't want to work as a psychologist any more.

I didn't know that you can reapply for a student loan? You still have to pay tuition fees though don't you?

Reply 18

Agata8

3

Original post by Maxsimon

I could go into psychology I just don't want to. Even though I got a 2.2 for my BSc I'm still eligible for GBC,my 2.2 has never held me back in regards to getting research posts and doing my MSc, its just I don't want to work as a psychologist any more.

I didn't know that you can reapply for a student loan? You still have to pay tuition fees though don't you?

Have you decided then what sort of jobs you'd like to go into? I guess the roles of an adult nurse vs mh nurse are very different, even though they could share the environment.. I worked with mh nurses as a support worker and I think it's something worth going into myself :smile:

You can apply for a full sfe student loan for both maintenance and tuition fees. You pay them back once you earn more than 21k and then you pay back 9% of what's above that 21k. I think you can get up to 10k per year for maintenance. But it's not a bursary but bear in mind that there are no NHS bursaries anymore.

Reply 19