The Student Room Group

Children or Adult nursing??? Help please

I am so stuck on whether to go for adult or children’s nursing?

I love caring for children but I know adult has a lot of specialities and I would love to specialise eventually.

I’m really interested in the clinical side of nursing but I’m assuming both courses are quite the same when it comes to the clinical side?

Some help would be nice :smile:x

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Reply 1
Original post by Amedits
I am so stuck on whether to go for adult or children’s nursing?

I love caring for children but I know adult has a lot of specialities and I would love to specialise eventually.

I’m really interested in the clinical side of nursing but I’m assuming both courses are quite the same when it comes to the clinical side?

Some help would be nice :smile:x

You'll gain clinical experience regardless of whether you do adult or children's nursing. You'll have clinical placements regardless of which one you do. If you go down the children's nursing route, you'll still be able to specialise (I'm sure that specific children's hospitals like Alder Hey and Great Ormond St won't go without having specialist nurses, oh and btw an old school friend of mine who is a children's nurse is now a diabetes specialist nurse...)
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that there are opportunities out there for children's nurses, it just maybe isn't quite the same as for adult nurses. Please stick with children's nursing if that's where your heart lies. There's nothing worse than doing something you don't want to do.
Reply 2
I have the same dilemma i have been offered adult and children nursing for September and i am struggling to make a clear decision in this uncertain time.
Reply 3
Original post by Jaz1510
I have the same dilemma i have been offered adult and children nursing for September and i am struggling to make a clear decision in this uncertain time.


It’s so difficult to choose! do you know which one you’re leaning towards
Reply 4
In my heart I know I want to work with children as I went into nursing as I want to be a health visitor but now av done a year access course and see placement in older care I really would not mind what I did. My offers are in Scotland and England and I live in Scotland so financially adult would be far better but my heart is with children....... what about you?
Original post by Amedits
It’s so difficult to choose! do you know which one you’re leaning towards
Reply 5
Original post by Jaz1510
In my heart I know I want to work with children as I went into nursing as I want to be a health visitor but now av done a year access course and see placement in older care I really would not mind what I did. My offers are in Scotland and England and I live in Scotland so financially adult would be far better but my heart is with children....... what about you?

If your heart is in children's nursing, then go with that. Please don't put yourself in a situation of "what if" by not going with your heart and doing adult nursing instead! (This is coming from a nurse who didn't mind the medical ward placements she had as a student but is now happy being where she wanted to end up... on a surgical ward.)
Reply 6
Original post by Emily_B
If your heart is in children's nursing, then go with that. Please don't put yourself in a situation of "what if" by not going with your heart and doing adult nursing instead! (This is coming from a nurse who didn't mind the medical ward placements she had as a student but is now happy being where she wanted to end up... on a surgical ward.)

I just worry about the finance side when I have a small family. People tell me to do adult and then apply for HV or children’s after to top up! Don’t think this decision will ever be easy I was hoping fate would guide me as it has for so many others on the access course but sadly I have been given the choice which is even harder when other nurses have told me nursing picks you, you know what kind of nurse you want to be..... am rubbish at decision making for myself and no matter what I choose will think what if! But I know once am committed that will be me 100%. All my fellow peers are going to adult at same uni also so adult seems more like a comfort blanket where as children’s will be starting all over again! Any advise or tips from your experience would be great as everyone has a different story to tell! :smile: x
Reply 7
Original post by Jaz1510
I just worry about the finance side when I have a small family. People tell me to do adult and then apply for HV or children’s after to top up! Don’t think this decision will ever be easy I was hoping fate would guide me as it has for so many others on the access course but sadly I have been given the choice which is even harder when other nurses have told me nursing picks you, you know what kind of nurse you want to be..... am rubbish at decision making for myself and no matter what I choose will think what if! But I know once am committed that will be me 100%. All my fellow peers are going to adult at same uni also so adult seems more like a comfort blanket where as children’s will be starting all over again! Any advise or tips from your experience would be great as everyone has a different story to tell! :smile: x

Yes, you can do a top up course from being an adult nurse to health visiting (Specialist Community Public Health Nursing, SCPHN). These courses are widely available and a quick google search will show these up. Conversion from Adult to Children's nurse is not necessarily as straightforward, i.e. in finding a course, getting funding, and finding them isn't so easy either.
Doing adult nursing because your friends are is a poor excuse. Just remember that the first year of nursing is generic so you'll end up in lectures with them anyway! It doesn't mean losing friends but making more friends. A lot of people starting uni are starting completely from scratch and are really nervous anyway. Then there's placements... you don't always end up on placement with people from your cohort, sometimes on placement with no other students around, and everyone has very different placement experiences.
Reply 8
Original post by Emily_B
Yes, you can do a top up course from being an adult nurse to health visiting (Specialist Community Public Health Nursing, SCPHN). These courses are widely available and a quick google search will show these up. Conversion from Adult to Children's nurse is not necessarily as straightforward, i.e. in finding a course, getting funding, and finding them isn't so easy either.
Doing adult nursing because your friends are is a poor excuse. Just remember that the first year of nursing is generic so you'll end up in lectures with them anyway! It doesn't mean losing friends but making more friends. A lot of people starting uni are starting completely from scratch and are really nervous anyway. Then there's placements... you don't always end up on placement with people from your cohort, sometimes on placement with no other students around, and everyone has very different placement experiences.

Yes I could do the public health with either degree. Suppose it would be harder to add on children nursing as you will become set in a way of a adult nurse with completely different learning. Of course I understand peers come and go I came into this myself and that’s all I am there for me and my degree. It would just be alittle more assuring known students in uni before hand. Rather than children’s nursing is at a completely different place so it would be starting all over again! So many pros and cons to both. I just worry a little about my job prospects with children nursing in such a rural area. :smile: Do you know any children nurses?
Reply 9
Original post by Jaz1510
Yes I could do the public health with either degree. Suppose it would be harder to add on children nursing as you will become set in a way of a adult nurse with completely different learning. Of course I understand peers come and go I came into this myself and that’s all I am there for me and my degree. It would just be alittle more assuring known students in uni before hand. Rather than children’s nursing is at a completely different place so it would be starting all over again! So many pros and cons to both. I just worry a little about my job prospects with children nursing in such a rural area. :smile: Do you know any children nurses?

My cohort consisted of adult, children's and learning disability student nurses so yes, I do know children's nurses and they do have jobs. There are always job opportunities for children's nurses, have a look on the NHS jobs website for job opportunities in your local area. Someone I went to school with is a children's nurse in Greater Manchester and is now a children's diabetes specialist nurse (city area, I know, but...)
Reply 10
Original post by Emily_B
My cohort consisted of adult, children's and learning disability student nurses so yes, I do know children's nurses and they do have jobs. There are always job opportunities for children's nurses, have a look on the NHS jobs website for job opportunities in your local area. Someone I went to school with is a children's nurse in Greater Manchester and is now a children's diabetes specialist nurse (city area, I know, but...)

My friend who has been high up in mental health nursing for over 10 years has said you don’t pick your nursing it picks you in The nicest possible way, do you think adult and children nurses are very different or not really?
Close your eyes and listen from your heart. What does it say?
If children then children or if adults then go with adult nursing.
Original post by Jaz1510
My friend who has been high up in mental health nursing for over 10 years has said you don’t pick your nursing it picks you in The nicest possible way, do you think adult and children nurses are very different or not really?

All nurses care, that's the underlying thing. HOWEVER, looking after a poorly child is a very different thing to looking after a poorly adult. Caring for someone with a mental health illness is very different to caring for someone with a physical illness. I personally think you have to be a certain type of person to be a mental health nurse (don't ask me what that is, I can't tell you but it's definitely not me!).

I went in to my nursing degree thinking I wanted to work on a surgical ward or in theatres. I decided that I would keep an open mind regarding placements in other areas. I came out the other end knowing full well that my initial thoughts were completely right - I didn't mind medical wards, was glad to finish community placements, was so relieved when I finished in A&E that I'd never have to go back to that sort of work, and loved surgical wards. It therefore shouldn't surprise you that I work on a surgical ward. Oh, and my husband is very much a medical ward nurse and my brother in law is very much an A&E nurse... we don't see eye to eye on where the best area to work in is at all and that's just differences between adult nurses.
You can still end up in surgical wards, medical wards, paeds A&E, paeds ICU, NICU, community as a children's nurse, get specialist roles, just like an adult nurse can work in the adult equivalents. Quite how different the opportunities are as a children's nurse I don't know, but that really shouldn't sway you towards a branch of nursing that your heart isn't fully in.
I was offered child at one uni and adult at another. Wanted to do child A LOT but the uni I was offered adult at is soooo prestigious (you can only do adult there) and my parents were so proud of me getting an unconditional for it that I picked it lol. Think I’ll still enjoy adult tho and ultimately I want to progress and become a chief nurse so having an honours degree instead of a three year will benefit me hopefully
Original post by Caea
so having an honours degree instead of a three year will benefit me hopefully

I'm confused here. All nursing degrees are 3 years, it's a degree with honours anyway. I didn't study anywhere remotely prestigious and my nursing degree is with honours.
Original post by Emily_B
I'm confused here. All nursing degrees are 3 years, it's a degree with honours anyway. I didn't study anywhere remotely prestigious and my nursing degree is with honours.

That’s completely untrue, all nursing degrees aren’t 3 years and honours. Where I live it’s 4 years honours or 3 years without honours
Original post by Caea
That’s completely untrue, all nursing degrees aren’t 3 years and honours. Where I live it’s 4 years honours or 3 years without honours


Go on then, enlighten a lowly registered nurse, where in the UK do you have to do more than 3 years?
Original post by Emily_B
Go on then, enlighten a lowly registered nurse, where in the UK do you have to do more than 3 years?

Haha, funny cos you think your right.
Edinburgh -4 years, Edinburgh Napier- 4 years for honours, Dundee - 4 years for honours, Glasgow Cali - 4 years for honours, Glasgow - 4 years.
Reply 18
Original post by Caea
Haha, funny cos you think your right.
Edinburgh -4 years, Edinburgh Napier- 4 years for honours, Dundee - 4 years for honours, Glasgow Cali - 4 years for honours, Glasgow - 4 years.

Yeah in Scotland you can do your 3 year honours and if your work in third year is passed first time then you can be offered an extra 12months while working as a RN to do your honours.
Original post by Jaz1510
Yeah in Scotland you can do your 3 year honours and if your work in third year is passed first time then you can be offered an extra 12months while working as a RN to do your honours.

That doesn’t chance the fact you can do a four year honours course in the uk, that’s the only point I’m proving

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