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Children's nursing/Psychology careers advice....

Hi there! This is my first post on the forum! I am in need of some advice and will tell you about myself, hope you can help!

I am currently 16 years old and in year 12 at sixth form studying psychology and double health and social care, i enjoy both subjects equally and am predicted AAB at AS level.

Work experience... i volunteer for one hour per week in the learning support department of my school, i have done this for the whole of year 12 and plan to continue this into year 13. I have recently had a chat with my h&sc teacher, who is trying to contact my local council to get me work experience with an educational or clinical psychologist (but this may not be possible). I am also planning on applying to my local children's ward to gain work experience for a few days to a week (Yes i know i left the work experience a bit late!)

I want to be either a children's nurse or a clinical psychologist, however i am unsure which i want to do or would be able to do and was hoping for some advice!

Clinical psychologist
To do this i would need to take a degree in psychology, get some work experience then take a postgraduate degree in clinical psychology.

1. With my qualifications would i be accepted onto a psychology degree course? i.e. with health and social care?! would they prefer applicants with other subjects?

2. I have heard that very few applicants get accepted onto this postgraduate degree, around 30%. Would i be in great financial difficulty if i did get onto one? Is it worth it if i did?

Children's nursing

1. My h&sc teacher told me that i would be better off taking psychology, because aparantly there are very few places on children's nurse degree programmes so i may not get onto one?

2. She also said that even if i did get onto one, when i graduate i would find difficulty getting a job as a children's nurse due to many children's hospitals and wards closing down, and the cut back in the number of nurses. Is this true?

3. Most other people i have spoken to feel that my personality would be best suited to nursing, however i don't really like the idea of working night shifts, is that essential?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and sorry this post is really long!!

xXx :smile:

xXx

Reply 1

miss_buttercup

right my lovely, lets address the childrens nursing concerns -
1.yes childrens nursing can be hard to get in because there a few fewer places then on say adult nursing simply because fewer childrens nurses are needed. this does mean that altho a uni may only require CCC at alevel for example you would be at an advantage if your grades were higher. you are also at an advantage if you've had previous work experience. definitly keep up the volunteer work and try to find other bits of work experience where ever you can! the more the better!
2.each NHS trust predicts how many childrens nurses wil be required for each year and assign funding for that many students so technically there should always be a job for you. the local trust have paid for your training so want you to stay in their area and will often bend over backwards to find u a job. Also remember that with al the news about lack of jobs it means less people are likely to apply for nursing in the next few years. Also the same number of nurses wil be needed in may just be that over time more and more are employed by private healthcare companies.
3.you are required to work a minimum of 2 weeks worth of night shifts in your 2nd and 3rd year training and unless you'll work part time, night shifts are pretty much unavoidable. If there are real issues such as childcare etc then often wards will help you as much as possible but theres no real way of cutting them out completely.
hope this helps huni, n e more questions?xx

Reply 2

Rainbow_Chick

Before making any descisions i think you should wait untill you gained experience in both the careers. Once you have done that i think it will be easier to choose.

Reply 3

abc137

Thank you so much! That's really helped :biggrin:

!! xXxXx

Reply 4

abc137

Anyone else got any additional advice/info?

Reply 5

abc137

Turns out i can't get work experience with a psychologist as they don't take people under 18 for confidentiality reasons :confused:

Reply 6

belis

Maybe you should consider mental health nursing. There is lots of psychology to it and it is possible to work with children and young people within that field.

Reply 7

Rainbow_Chick

xSweetheartx

Turns out i can't get work experience with a psychologist as they don't take people under 18 for confidentiality reasons :confused:

Have you thought about speaking to a psychologist to find out about the work they do. Also you could contact some of the mental health charties such as MIND they sometimes look for volunteers to help out at support groups etc. It may not be the exact experience you want but it would be relevant. Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 8

lostidentity

I'm in the same boat, i am desperately trying to get some experience on a childrens ward at my local hospital but they keep not getting back to me :mad:

its so aggrivating. Where are you looking to applying?

Reply 9

abc137

Thanks Belis and hellokitty. I had a look at mental health nursing but don't really want to do it, as i'm into the actual psychology of it more, if that makes sense?! lol. There is a mental health charity in my town which i might look into more. Lostidentity - annoying isn't it! i feel for you! Did you mean which universities am i looking at applying to or which hospital for work experience?

Reply 10

abc137

Another thing... my tutor suggested to me today that i do a Psychology degree then take a conversion course for children's nursing. This would leave more options open with a psychology degree as nursing is the only thing you can do with a nursing degree really... well that i would want to do. What are people's opinions on this, good or bad idea? I think the conversion course is 18 months, and i've been reading on here that many nursing students are older anyway... but would this be bad financially as i would be studying for ages?! Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks x

Reply 11

dani_88

How about being a child psychologist?? You get to do the psychology degree but still work with children...? How would other people describe your personality.. If you really want to work with children then nursings probably the way to go..because a psychology degree is quite broad and theres lots of research etc..

Reply 12

abc137

Well my boyfriend who knows me best thinks i'm really good at psychology however my personality would be best suited to children's nursing - ?! My family think i should take psychology but i think that's just because it's more academic.
I want to work with children and i want to care for them but don't really want to do all the nasty jobs involved in nursing but i would like the good ones! I'm just really, really interested in psychology though and i enjoy it.
I am planning on applying for both courses however a few people including a teacher and a university admissions person said that they wouldn't recommend that as it would show that i'm not 100% committed to the courses which would weaken my application particularly for nursing, not necessarily for psychology. That's not true though i would love to do both equally! Help! lol, i can't choose! What do people think of taking psychology then children's nursing wuold that be a good or bad idea? Do clinical psychologists work with people of all ages or mainly children or what? Sorry i know this isn't really the right forum for that question but hopefully someone might know the answer. x

Reply 13

dani_88

Theres no problem doing psychology then nursing. Your life isn't set in stone yet! People have career changes in their forties. You might find a completely different career unrelated to them both in the end, you just never know. Do what you really genuinely feel will make you happiest..I wouldn't advise submitting a mixed application - i wanted to do french and psychology first time round and i struggled to write a ps on them two! I think it would be even harder for nursing and psychology - childrens nursing places are really competitive so if your not 100% certain you want to do it, then save the place for someone who really wants it.. If you are certain its what you want to do then you are probably best submitting an application for that only... :smile:

Reply 14

Whisper

Children's nursing apply via NMAS; Psychology via UCAS.

Reply 15

abc137

Whisper

Children's nursing apply via NMAS; Psychology via UCAS.

I thought that only nursing midwifery students applying for the diploma rather than the degree apply via NMAS. (?) I thought that for a degree in children's nursing you still applied vis UCAS, and the same with Psychology obviously. Am i wrong?? Just a random question, is it possible to make an NMAS and a UCAS application at the same time or not?

Reply 16

dani_88

NMAS is for diploma and UCAS is for the degree. I think what whisper was suggesting was that you should apply for all of your psychology courses via ucas and childrens nursing courses via nmas.. to be honest a lot of the diploma courses for nursing say that if your good enough you can transfer to the degree in your final year so you start as diploma and finish with the degree too.. less debt that way i guess?

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