nursing degree

[poochie]

Any kind ideas /support greatly appreciated

My dc would have liked to apply medecine . Had all the relevant work experience dementia home,st johns ambulance,shadowed doctor etc .Even came out at the best interviewee in the recent medecine practice interviews and best personal statement. Having investigated if any uni she realistically could apply to and appears to be only one. She is refusing to take a gap year and will not consider biomedical courses and says that it is just to competetive and would be another 4 Years if she wanted to do medecine after. So she has decided to do nursing but people keep saying to her that she is better than that??? Why would people say that when nursing is an amazing profession.

[Y]

Can't offer an opinion on the two professions, but certainly at St George's there is an opportunity to transfer from biomed to medicine, during the course of the degree:

http://www.sgul.ac.uk/courses/undergrad ... o-medicine" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know of someone with similar grades who was offered medicine at St George's. (That's about the extent of my knowledge. There will be many people on here with personal experience of applying for medicine/nursing)

Is she sure she has only one realistic chance of an offer? What does she actually want to do?

[Yamin151]

Anything wrong with Cardiff?

And agree absolutely nothing wrong with nursing. My dh a nurse and I come from a family of doctors (not me, I went to the dark side and pharma industry!). My dh is a specialist clinical nurse and is on the rotation with doctors, and is a highly skilled individual. There are plenty of 'jobbing' nurses who don't wish to become as specialist and do a good job on the coal face (or sometimes not!). I suspect it is a mixture of this group of nurses, who sometimes can be a bit moany and not comes across that well, that overshadow the skilled specialist ones, or the enthusiasts who do a great, if more basic job. However, no matter how skilled, the career of a nurse will never be as lucrative as that of a doctor. That is surely the last consideration really! I also think that the generation of docs who saw nurses as 'hand maidens' is gradually disappearing. It is a foolish doctor indeed who does not see the benefit of a skilled nurse and treat her or him with respect.

So it comes down to what your dd wants to do really? But again, just wondering why not apply to Cardiff for medicine if that is her first choice of career?

[marigold]

My DD is in the third year of a nursing degree and has just spent an elective month on a highly specialised unit. She was amazed with the levels of autonomy and specialisation amongst the nurses and impressed with how the doctors defer to their knowledge and expertise. The research nurses were particularly dynamic, seem to have a very interesting jobs and some are on very high pay bands.
As Yamin says, nursing has moved on light years from the handmaidens of the past. I believe some of the universities ( eg Nottingham ) do a four year course which leads straight to an MSc for those with high ambitions in the profession.

If your daughter has any specific questions about the degree course , do not hesitate to ask.

[Blitz]

Deleted

[solimum]

Conversely, the bright daughter of some friends of mine started on a nursing degree at Nottingham (persuaded I think by her parents who were hoping she would get a degree fully funded by the NHS, and by a grammar school that only seemed to promote a chosen few for medicine) but dropped out, not really enjoying the practical side at all (maybe too she was surrounded by older recruits?) and restarted in neuroscience. Often schools automatically think "bright, scientific = doctor" without exploring the huge range of other options.

[Tinkers]

Often schools automatically think "bright, scientific = doctor" without exploring the huge range of other options.

I do careers fairs at various schools, promoting engineering. When I was at DD's school last year, the careers teacher bemoaned the fact that many girls took the line 'I'm bright and good at science, I know, I'll do medicine', when she felt some of them would be much better suited to other scientific careers, including engineering. I think she used the term 'no imagination'. (Though obviously some are ideally suited.)

[Guest55]

Tinkers, don't you think that there is still some prejudice against engineering?

Medicine, dentistry, vet are the focus for scientifically able students - steered often by parents ... (not posters on here obviously)

[Manana]

Any kind ideas /support greatly appreciated

My dc would have liked to apply medecine but with a ukcat score of 608 and 3A's and a C (in chemistry) at AS ,8 A* and 4A'sGcse and an A in AS world development(not sure if that is really worth much as an AS!). Had all the relevant work experience dementia home,st johns ambulance,shadowed doctor etc .Even came out at the best interviewee in the recent medecine practice interviews and best personal statement. Having investigated if any uni she realistically could apply to and appears to be only Cardiff. She is refusing to take a gap year and will not consider biomedical courses and says that it is just to competetive and would be another 4 Years if she wanted to do medecine after. So she has decided to do nursing but people keep saying to her that she is better than that??? Why would people say that when nursing is an amazing profession.

People say that because the pay in medicine is usually far higher than in nursing. That's not to say that nursing is not an amazing profession though.

[Tinkers]

I think 'some' is an bit of an understatement. It's still seen as many as hard hats and boiler suits. One of the reasons I make a big effort to go into schools to talk to students (especially girls) and their parents is to try and change minds, even if they don't go into engineering, at least they have a better idea of what we do.

This despite the fact that last year and this year, chemical engineering grads are the second best paid graduate profession (beating medicine ), with the other engineering professions not far behind.

I think there's a certain kudos to doing medicine, for the student, for the parents and for the schools. Something else that the careers teacher complained about actually. That same kudos doesn't yet exist for engineering.

Getting back to the OP, I guess there's similar issues with nursing. The same kudos isn't there. I guess she needs to ask herself whether later on she will think she settled for second best?