Quarterlife crisis!
For the past 18 months I've been working towards studying mental health nursing. I started my access course in September 2015 and completed it successfully in June 2016.
Here's my predicament now, I'm now doubting whether nursing is what I really want to do and feel like I'm definitely more interested in the fields of psychology as I believe I would find it far more interesting, as well as giving bigger and better job opportunities afterwards (no disrespect to nurses whatsoever)
For the past 6 months I've worked as a carer at a residential care home (working with nurses) and have not felt the slightest bit inspired to really want to nursing now, although I know this is only one aspect of nursing.
Reading up on studying psychology forums, psychology seems to have a bad press regarding the lack of opportunities available job wise and also employers seeing psychology degrees as very common and undervalued, is this a true statement? I don't want to do something if it's not going to be worth the hard work!
I'm willing to study hard but worry about the financial side of things as well.
If I begin mental health nursing in February 2017, then it is NHS funded and I will also recieve NHS bursaries, this is one of the reasons I went for mental health nursing. If I study psychology it will all be loan based with no job gurantee at the end?
I'm stuck between what I think I should do and what I truely want to do
For some back ground information I'm a 25 yr old male.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcomed!
Here's my predicament now, I'm now doubting whether nursing is what I really want to do and feel like I'm definitely more interested in the fields of psychology as I believe I would find it far more interesting, as well as giving bigger and better job opportunities afterwards (no disrespect to nurses whatsoever)
For the past 6 months I've worked as a carer at a residential care home (working with nurses) and have not felt the slightest bit inspired to really want to nursing now, although I know this is only one aspect of nursing.
Reading up on studying psychology forums, psychology seems to have a bad press regarding the lack of opportunities available job wise and also employers seeing psychology degrees as very common and undervalued, is this a true statement? I don't want to do something if it's not going to be worth the hard work!
I'm willing to study hard but worry about the financial side of things as well.
If I begin mental health nursing in February 2017, then it is NHS funded and I will also recieve NHS bursaries, this is one of the reasons I went for mental health nursing. If I study psychology it will all be loan based with no job gurantee at the end?
I'm stuck between what I think I should do and what I truely want to do
For some back ground information I'm a 25 yr old male.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcomed!
As a mature student, you will probably still get a bursary from the university in addition to your loan for any course you do even if you lose the NHS bursary. I know from my own research that it varies between £1500 to £3000 depending on which university I end up choosing.
As for career prospects, I have no idea what psychology is like, but just because there is some job security in nursing doesn't mean you should do it.
You've seen first hand what working conditions nurses have so you must be thinking what it's going to be like doing 30 years of that work. I deal with patients over the phone and work with nurses and paramedics. Honestly, I don't know why anyone goes into that work. I understand the idealism that people have to do it but actual working conditions just seem unbearable in this country.
As for career prospects, I have no idea what psychology is like, but just because there is some job security in nursing doesn't mean you should do it.
You've seen first hand what working conditions nurses have so you must be thinking what it's going to be like doing 30 years of that work. I deal with patients over the phone and work with nurses and paramedics. Honestly, I don't know why anyone goes into that work. I understand the idealism that people have to do it but actual working conditions just seem unbearable in this country.
How about counselling? You'd get a good range of study in different applied psychology approaches, your degree would be valuable and there is reasonable job security as you could be employed or self-employed. You'd also have the hands on approach with patients (which is the primary part of nursing) with slightly more reasonable hours.
Might be worth considering?
Might be worth considering?
Original post by LAH91
For the past 18 months I've been working towards studying mental health nursing. I started my access course in September 2015 and completed it successfully in June 2016.
Here's my predicament now, I'm now doubting whether nursing is what I really want to do and feel like I'm definitely more interested in the fields of psychology as I believe I would find it far more interesting, as well as giving bigger and better job opportunities afterwards (no disrespect to nurses whatsoever)
For the past 6 months I've worked as a carer at a residential care home (working with nurses) and have not felt the slightest bit inspired to really want to nursing now, although I know this is only one aspect of nursing.
Reading up on studying psychology forums, psychology seems to have a bad press regarding the lack of opportunities available job wise and also employers seeing psychology degrees as very common and undervalued, is this a true statement? I don't want to do something if it's not going to be worth the hard work!
I'm willing to study hard but worry about the financial side of things as well.
If I begin mental health nursing in February 2017, then it is NHS funded and I will also recieve NHS bursaries, this is one of the reasons I went for mental health nursing. If I study psychology it will all be loan based with no job gurantee at the end?
I'm stuck between what I think I should do and what I truely want to do
For some back ground information I'm a 25 yr old male.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcomed!
Here's my predicament now, I'm now doubting whether nursing is what I really want to do and feel like I'm definitely more interested in the fields of psychology as I believe I would find it far more interesting, as well as giving bigger and better job opportunities afterwards (no disrespect to nurses whatsoever)
For the past 6 months I've worked as a carer at a residential care home (working with nurses) and have not felt the slightest bit inspired to really want to nursing now, although I know this is only one aspect of nursing.
Reading up on studying psychology forums, psychology seems to have a bad press regarding the lack of opportunities available job wise and also employers seeing psychology degrees as very common and undervalued, is this a true statement? I don't want to do something if it's not going to be worth the hard work!
I'm willing to study hard but worry about the financial side of things as well.
If I begin mental health nursing in February 2017, then it is NHS funded and I will also recieve NHS bursaries, this is one of the reasons I went for mental health nursing. If I study psychology it will all be loan based with no job gurantee at the end?
I'm stuck between what I think I should do and what I truely want to do
For some back ground information I'm a 25 yr old male.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcomed!
I would research into both the mental health nursing and psychology courses at the universities you might like to study at, contact the universities and email/talk to current students about the courses to get an idea of which course you might like to study more. Go to a few open days if you can and sit in on the course talks for additional information you can't find online.
The course lecturers and current students can advise you on work experience opportunities, graduate prospects as well as the course itself and general university life which is really helpful. I was torn between studying Event or Tourism Management at university but the open days I went to made me realise I want to study Event Management as it appeals the most to me and students have gone on to have successful jobs in the field at the university choices I've applied for 😊
Another thing you could look into is if there are combined degrees based around psychology and/or mental health nursing so you have the best of both worlds e.g Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Mental Health was the title of just one of the combined Psychology courses I found when looking briefly on the UCAS website and I'm sure there are others.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do 😊
Job prospects are not static so you really shouldn't place your decision entirely on them. Mental health nurses aka CPNs are in high demand. You work closely with patients and have the added benefit of being able to prescribe medication which a clinical psychologist cannot, nor can any other type of therapist.
The jobs market is tight and competitive in the majority of fields now. It's difficult to find paid work as a counsellor the majority of work is voluntary for quite a lon while after qualifiying but the student debt is massively different to going to uni. About £6/7000 total compared with £56k minimum for psychology bsc (you'd also need a masters and a PhD if you went the psychologist route). NHS bursary is unlikely to last much longer so I would choose clinical psychology based on that either because it's more likely you'll have to take another student loan on by the time you can get on the course.
Also most people apply multiple times to get on clinical psychology course due to how competitive it is. It requires a lot of post study experience and it's very very difficult to get an assistant psychologist post. Most clinical psychologist spend around 40% of their time actually providing therapy. The rest is supervision, admin and managerial. It can also be the case where they aren't contracted for full time hours and have to spread themselves across multiple employers.
The answer to this isn't necessarily private practice when you're competing with free service and experienced therapist offering weekly sessions at a fraction of your fee. Plus the additional worries of self employment.
Nursing/psychology/social work..you have to passionate about it to survive. Whether it's a passion for excellent patient care or a passion for a particular area of medicine or a passion beyond helping people. You can help people by being a bus driver. Something in it must light a fire in you because to be honest you spend an awful lot of time justifying your role and it's necessity. Years of additional training and memberships to keep on top of. The stress of being responsible for people's lives. As a nurse you could accidentally give wrong amount of a drug. As a social worker you could miss signs of abuse. A a therapist you could misread signs from patient about how suicidal they are (it's not clear cut). Each profession holding you solely responsible. It's a burden and a privilege. I'm a therapist and I wouldn't change my job for anything. I'm studying to expand my client population and understanding of more complex disorders.
The jobs market is tight and competitive in the majority of fields now. It's difficult to find paid work as a counsellor the majority of work is voluntary for quite a lon while after qualifiying but the student debt is massively different to going to uni. About £6/7000 total compared with £56k minimum for psychology bsc (you'd also need a masters and a PhD if you went the psychologist route). NHS bursary is unlikely to last much longer so I would choose clinical psychology based on that either because it's more likely you'll have to take another student loan on by the time you can get on the course.
Also most people apply multiple times to get on clinical psychology course due to how competitive it is. It requires a lot of post study experience and it's very very difficult to get an assistant psychologist post. Most clinical psychologist spend around 40% of their time actually providing therapy. The rest is supervision, admin and managerial. It can also be the case where they aren't contracted for full time hours and have to spread themselves across multiple employers.
The answer to this isn't necessarily private practice when you're competing with free service and experienced therapist offering weekly sessions at a fraction of your fee. Plus the additional worries of self employment.
Nursing/psychology/social work..you have to passionate about it to survive. Whether it's a passion for excellent patient care or a passion for a particular area of medicine or a passion beyond helping people. You can help people by being a bus driver. Something in it must light a fire in you because to be honest you spend an awful lot of time justifying your role and it's necessity. Years of additional training and memberships to keep on top of. The stress of being responsible for people's lives. As a nurse you could accidentally give wrong amount of a drug. As a social worker you could miss signs of abuse. A a therapist you could misread signs from patient about how suicidal they are (it's not clear cut). Each profession holding you solely responsible. It's a burden and a privilege. I'm a therapist and I wouldn't change my job for anything. I'm studying to expand my client population and understanding of more complex disorders.
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