nursing advice please (1 Viewer)

[sweetpea111]

Hello all, i'm thinking about becoming a nurse.

Just finishing my HSC 2007, yet not getting a UAI.

Living in sydney. 18 yrs old.

would like any infomation about this course as a tafe option.

• How should i get started?
• what tafe is good? and what is the best uni to continue at?
• any advice on making the tafe to uni process easier? maybe how to gain extra credits or fast track the process?
• prerequisites?
• anything i should avoid? that will only slow the process or be a waste of time?
• Is it very hard to be a nurse in both the theory and practical aspects?
• Any success or failure stories lol?
• is it worth the 3+ years study for the amount of pay? work hours? job availability? psychological strain?
• is there a part time option to begin my training whilst working so i can have a years break from full time studies? or anything i can start casually (volunteer or something) to get credits.
• Are there any short courses that will give me the general idea about nursing so i can decide if i like it before going into the full study?

Thanks to anyone who can give me any feedback.

 

[vodkacrumble]

Hello all, i'm thinking about becoming a nurse.

• How should i get started?
• what tafe is good? and what is the best uni to continue at?
• any advice on making the tafe to uni process easier? maybe how to gain extra credits or fast track the process?
• prerequisites?
• anything i should avoid? that will only slow the process or be a waste of time?
• Is it very hard to be a nurse in both the theory and practical aspects?
• Any success or failure stories lol?
• is it worth the 3+ years study for the amount of pay? work hours? job availability? psychological strain?
• is there a part time option to begin my training whilst working so i can have a years break from full time studies? or anything i can start casually (volunteer or something) to get credits.
• Are there any short courses that will give me the general idea about nursing so i can decide if i like it before going into the full study?

right!

- fairly vague question, i'll move to the others

- TAFEs are all TAFEs, they have the same content in the courses (much unlike unis). at TAFE you can either do your AIN (assistant in nursing) or EN (enrolled nurse) training via a facility - you need to be employed by someone first.
as for continuing, i think all the unis are a bit shit. i went to UTS which is the best of a bad bunch in NSW, in my opinion.

- if you do your EN training, at some unis you can the complete the RN training in 2 more years. at UTS you do 2 years + a summer school in the middle. that's pretty much the quickest way to do things, but be aware if you did your EN training and are set to finish in March, the unis won't take you until the following year as you will have missed the start of uni in February.

- no prerequisites, other than the ability to speak english (and even then it seems unis can be quite lax on this issue...). doing bio/chem is useful as concepts in pathophysiology will be familiar to you.

- not sure about what kinds of things you mean to avoid, i can't think of anything.

- i didn't find anything particularly taxing, but people do. people come into the course, and lord knows what they were expecting, but they drop out after a few days of practical because they realise they don't like nursing.
putting it bluntly, nurses can be right fucking bitches at times. it's a female dominated area. dealing with all the personalities can be difficult.
as for coursework, i had the most trouble with the subjects that bored the shit out of me (like one entirely looking at analysing journal articles and research methods). i did the best in the ones that i enjoyed (like mental health & critical care).

- i guess i'm a success story in that i finished the degree.

- is it worth it? hmm. well you have to enjoy the job, otherwise it won't be worth it. simple as that. you don't do the job for the pay or the glory. the hours are fine (better than what drs put up with!), and shiftwork can work to your advantage. but there are heaps of areas you can get into that are more 'normal', mon-fri jobs (eg. operating theatres, community).

- you can't do your EN training parttime (that i am aware of) as you are employed as a fulltime employee. you're paid for fulltime TAFE blocks and the fulltime hospital practical blocks. however you can most certainly do uni parttime.
the EN training (or extensive experience) are the only things that give you credit, but volunteering, etc certainly will give you a more rounded view on the job.

- you can do the AIN training through a facility (mostly aged care facilities), i think it's about 13 weeks. it's hard work, but i enjoy aged care. however you will get thrown into the crappier/stereotyped side of nursing as your job is to help people with their hygiene/mobilising/nutrition.


well that was a chunky post.

 

[rozymisty]

right....well i had a huge post here..so who was the wanker who deleted it?!!! That took me ages to type up. And believe me i saw it posted here several times.

I work as an AIN in a nursing home and that is very back breaking!

 

[vodkacrumble]

who was the wanker who deleted it?!!!

i think only mods or the original poster can delete, but i may be wrong.

 

[White Rabbit]

EN training at TAFE is harder to get into than RN training at Uni. About 400 people apply every intake, for each area. Maybe 30 will get in. I'd imagine applications for the Feburary intake would have shut by now. My advice would be to contact which ever hospital you plan on working in, and then they send you to tafe. You don't have a say in the matter. The Hospital is your main point of contact. I'd look into what it actually involves too, while I'd sugest the EN course for any prospective nurse, it is by no means the easy way out. I've done both 1st year uni and TAFE (in that order) and found Uni much easier and much less confronting. That said, TAFE does prepare you, and offers amazing support in the form of EN educators (which are amazing and our saving grace).

 

[gracie007]

^Nah. The teachers at my Tafe constantly say that around 2000 apply, and only 200 are accepted.

The EN course is changed as of next year, it will be a DIPLOMA instead of cert IV.

Applications for start in feb next year close in october.

 

[vodkacrumble]

Applications for start in feb next year close in october.

it depends on the health service - some only have one recruitment period for the 3 intakes per year, so if you miss that you have to wait until next year.
better to contact the area health service you want to work with and find out what their situation is.

 

[Bacilli]

I'm pleased I discovered this post.
Vodkacumble, in regards to your opinion, why is UTS the best of a bad bunch"?
I have UTS nursing as second preference and by looking at the course structure; it seems promising in regards to first year subjects.

Questions:

1) What tasks are expected to be completed by nursing students during first year clinical practice?

2) On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest, 5 being reasonable, and 1 being non-existent), how would you rate the student support from UTS Nursing academic staff?

That's all for now, thanks.

 

[rozymisty]

As a first year nursing prac student, you are only doing basic things like lots of bedmaking, showering, feeding dependent patients, doing oral medications except for dangerous drugs ie those drugs taht are highly addictive, really strong narcotics, taht sort of thing. You cant give intramuscular or intraveous drugs, or even mix them up in the medication room.

mostly, first prac is there to get you into the hospital environment, although a lot of the placements are nursing homes..which isnt realy good coz you are there helpin out the assistant nurses, just not getting paid for it.



I had my 2nd interview for a grad program today. The interview at St Andrews was VERY informal, just a few clincial questions and mostly why i want to work there, and a general chat, to get to know me and stuff like that, explain what they do with the grad program etc etc. I am pretty confident I will be offered a place, they just have to check all the referees etc and go from there.
The thing wtih all these interviews is taht we may get several offers for places next year, and we can accept one, and if we get our dream placemetn later on, we can ring up the other place and say hey my dream job has come up so i wotn be taking your grad program

hehe the thing that is good with St Andrews is taht I want to do orthopaedics adn they have a good program, and plus being a private hospital, they get all the footy players going there and getting al their injuries looked at haha.

The other interview, on Wednesday was at Mater Private. It was a group interview and we had a group activity, a task where we had to priortise activities, a 1 on 1 interview, and a role play task where one of the interviewers was in the role of a patient and we had to do whatever we would do to treat that person. It was just like any prac, but ti was rather daunting coz tehy were difficult and we had the assessor there, and had to hand over to them at teh end. When i had done mine, the guy started laughing and apologisiing for being a difficult patient haha, but i was like nah thats sweet. I thought they had stuck in a cannula into his arm just for the task, but he said they took out the needle...i was like haha just as well...thought you were very willing to do anything to get recruits haha


I think i would prefer the mater, coz st andrews is 'difficult' to get to adn from if im starting/finishing late at night-its near a school and Roma Street Parklands,a nd I dont fancy walking alone to the bus stop 900m away. But im only a $15 cab fare away from home so that would be ok, and hopefully I would get my licence and stuff soon so yeah...

 

[Bacilli]

Thanks for the information!

 

[lil_georgie_gal]

I'm a first yr nursing student at UTS, so far on clinicals ive helped with basics such as showering, doing obs, making beds etc, but now in second semester i can start doing dressing, oral meds except S8 and prob a bit more later on since i have 1 more placement left this semester. Its getting better as it goes in terms of practical stuff

Also the student support is pretty good, the tutors are pretty good i guess there might be a few not so great ones but ive had some really good tuts. Also there are services to help you with your work if your having difficulty e.g. calculations when u start meds.

 

[vodkacrumble]

Vodkacumble, in regards to your opinion, why is UTS the best of a bad bunch"?
I have UTS nursing as second preference and by looking at the course structure; it seems promising in regards to first year subjects.

Questions:

1) What tasks are expected to be completed by nursing students during first year clinical practice?

2) On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest, 5 being reasonable, and 1 being non-existent), how would you rate the student support from UTS Nursing academic staff?

I swapped from Newcastle Uni to UTS because the course structure was much better, BUT the Newie course structure has changed quite a bit so i can't compare the two now.
Basically, I think all the unis are too light on clinical practice but at least UTS gets the 1st years to be on the wards 1 day a week from the 3rd week so students can figure out if they don't like Nursing early on. Also, there's the option to do a submajor and an elective in 3rd year.

I did the Critical Care elective in my final semester, i was in a cardiothoracic ICU and i learned so much and it really gave me a boost to prepare me for my grad year.

as for the questions:
1) Depends on where you are! My first year prac (only had 1 x 3 week block at the end of the year when I was at Newie) the staff had no idea what I should or shouldn't be doing so I was doing basic cares (showering, etc), obs, oral meds, IV meds, S8 drugs and going down with pts to see procedures (radiotherapy, insertion of a CVC, going to theatres to see some knee replacements). But that is very unusual!

2) I would rate the staff at 8-9. I found the lecturers to always be really helpful, if you were having trouble with an assignment they would be more than happy to sit down with you and point you in the right direction (or give you an extension if you're just not coping). There's also ELSSA which helps with assignment proofreading - they won't alter the assignment, but will help you with spelling/grammar.


However, I do recommend trying to get some parttime work in a hospital - the clinical environment is really where you do the learning.

 

[lil_georgie_gal]

Yea i agree with getting more clinical experience. Im trying to find a job as an AIN atm, even though we do get 4 weeks of clinical throughout the year its still confronting being in a new ward, new ppl each time etc

 

[Bacilli]

So If you're currently a first year nursing student, you may apply to the hospitals as a nurse?
So I don't have to complete my degree to work as a nurse? trainee nurse? Interesting, yet confusing.
Please correct me.

 

[rozymisty]

Wow 3 wks in first year? thats pretty good! THats really cool that you got to go and see some knee replacements! Bit strange and kinda wrong that you got to do IV meds and S8s when you hadnt learnt that stuff.....they all shoudl be briefed onw hat you can and cant do.

Uni of Qld does the 1 day a wk out on the hospitals and the rest at uni, which would make things a bit difficult.

Um plenty of nursing homes really need AINs, so you wouldnt have any problems getting jobs there. But then it is a lot mroe back breaking and stuff, adn cleaning up lots of shit, and continence pads and stuff.

I work in a nrusing home at the moment and I got my first assult tonight. Stupid bitchy woman couldnt wait for 5mins and just came up to me the 3rd time and i told her to go away,a nd she just slapped me. I felt like slapping her back, adn lucky for her it wasnt a week earlier, coz then my mouth would hav been VERY sore from the wisdom teeth adn stuff.


Id say ring up a nursing agency, one that does nursing homes AND hospitals, coz you will get PLENTY of work at different places. You either get ones where you just help out the nurses with stuff....adn this can include doing obs, which is beyond the scope of practice apparently coz with the obs the theory is that as an AIN you dnt know what is bad and what should be reported to the RN, even though if your a nursing student you should know anyway..plus the AIN has to report the obs to the RN anyway.

Or as an agency nurse, you will do specials, where you just look after 1-4 patietns who are like say confused and tsuff, and want to pull stuff off and climb out of bed etc, or maybe who are just confused,a dn make sure they stay in bed and stay safe etc. That job, if its confused patietns, can get VERY VERY boring and frustrating esp around tea time when sundowning occurs. 8 hours can feel like eternity!! And most of the time the nurses just dont really want to help you, which is very frustrating especialy on an evening shift, when they dont have enough.



But my friend was telling me today about the Mater Private has a studnet nurse program...well its like AINS but they get them to do all the obs and stuff like that, rather than specialling. I rang up the HR people today to find out more, and they are going to ring me back tomorrow...I really want that job! Coz i dont really like nursing home work, its smelly and backbreaking at times, especially the morning shift! Even thougt the nursing home is like 10min walk, i would prefer just to be walking around doing obs and stuf like that in a hospital!