Mental health affecting placement

I have been advised by mental health team to take another week from placement although I have just had a week off due to my mental health not being at its best right now. I didn't tell placement this was the reason though when I first rang in. I thought things would be okay now and I could have gone back, but unfortunately atm I am not quite there. The mental health team has said if I was in uni for classes I'd have been able to take it day by day but as it's placement on a hospital ward they're not happy for me to go back this week.

Can I be kicked off the course for having so much sickness already (first year), who should I speak to within university to get some support there for when mental health team think I am well enough to go back, and also how on earth can I catch up on the hours I miss? I am scared I will fail this placement because of this time off, although I have already been there for a couple weeks and was doing well?

I am a nursing student so I am aware I need to be mentally well myself to be able to look after others safely

Hi Anon,

I'm sorry to hear that you've not been doing so great recently. It's good that your taking time out of things to feel better, especially if you are a nursing student.

I can't say either way if you will get removed from your course, although if it's two weeks for health reasons I would very much doubt it.

If you are looking for support of course a good port of call is any wellbeing services that you might have at your university, they may be able to provide you with coping methods, support to getting back into things, or in some cases just a shoulder to cry on if you need it.

If you are worried about missing out on work I would highly recommend that you contact your tutor/ lecturers as soon as possible. Explain the situation, explain that you have had to take time off as recommended by the mental health team, or if you don't want to explain in detail just say you've been off sick on the advice of a professional or something like that. Then explain that you worried about missing out on work and ask what you can do to keep up, they might be able to send you powerpoints to go through, a bit of reading here and there just to keep your brain ticking over a bit.

If that isn't something you might like, you could always try the disability support team at your uni. Mental health issues (I don't know which apply to you but can include depression, anxiety, and others) are often covered by this team and they might be able to provide you with some learning support like time management or dealing with classes, etc that could be useful to you.

Lastly, I might recommend looking into applying for an extension on assessments that you might have, you'll still have to get them done, but it might take a little bit of the pressure off.

I hope this helps and good luck with it
All the best,
Cat, York St John University Student Ambassador

I have been advised by mental health team to take another week from placement although I have just had a week off due to my mental health not being at its best right now. I didn't tell placement this was the reason though when I first rang in.

I thought things would be okay now and I could have gone back, but unfortunately atm I am not quite there. The mental health team has said if I was in uni for classes I'd have been able to take it day by day but as it's placement on a hospital ward they're not happy for me to go back this week.

Can I be kicked off the course for having so much sickness already (first year), who should I speak to within university to get some support there for when mental health team think I am well enough to go back, and also how on earth can I catch up on the hours I miss? I am scared I will fail this placement because of this time off, although I have already been there for a couple weeks and was doing well?

I am a nursing student so I am aware I need to be mentally well myself to be able to look after others safely

What did you tell them? It might be an issue if you told them something that wasn't true, as honesty is a key part of the career you're training for.



Do you have a personal tutor, or placement coordinator you can talk to? You need to be honest with them (and with yourself).

Hi Cat,

Thankyou for getting back to me on this. Luckily my exams and assignments are done for the year, and I passed them all with over 70% so I am showing that I can do work academically to university level. The only thing left for this year is remaining of this placement, another placement, one more uni block (no exam in that though) and a maths exam at some point which I'm not worried about. I'm just worried about the making up of time within the placement hours as they're a required set of hours over the 3 years to comply with the NMC standards and things :/. I do have a disability advisor for other reason not my mental health, I may contact her tomorrow to see what advice she can give - although will this be passed on to others? I know uni isn't the cause for this rut I seem to be in at the moment, which is why I don't want to be removed, or remove myself. It is the only thing actually keeping me going at the moment. The mental health part so far is 2 weeks (counting this week also) but around a month ago I was off for another week, but this was for physical reasons which I do have hospital discharge letter if they require for that one, as I was in hospital for the best part of the week.


Thanks again,
Anon

Last week I told them I was unwell with temp and vomiting (this was true, but there were the mental health reasons aswell). And I do have a personal tutor but I'm not comfortable in speaking to him about this 😕
I am honest with myself though, I know I need to take the time to get my head back straight but I also know I don't want to end up having to leave the course