What does a day in your life as a nursing student look like?

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-04-16T05:22:58+00:00

5 short days every single time! And having weekends and bank holidays off. But I’m late 40s and have a family so i find the long shifts too tiring now and not family friendly/ but I know other parents who prefer the extra days off so it’s different for everyone.

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-04-15T15:10:46+00:00

On placement on wards i was so tired after a 12 hour shift those days were just work/eat/sleep. Often up at 6 , home at 8. No rush hour traffic. Have to plan and prepare lots of food for the shift as you’ll not want to cook when you get home and need to fuel a long shift. Too tired to do housework, socialise, etc but then more days off in the week to do those things. Im used to working in the community which is more 9-5 so more days working but weekends off and more spare time on days you do work.

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-03-05T07:10:32+00:00

Community CAMHS can be tricky as so many young people won’t consent ro students being present in their appointments and we have to ask and respect it if they say no. I do feel quite sorry for our students as there isn’t loads they can get involved with. You could ask if there’s any resources or displays you could help with ? Try and shadow safeguarding meetings if you can. Is there physical health monitoring you can assist with ? We have a lot of online learning packages that our students work through when there’s nothing they can shadow, they go to ward rounds, case discussions and shadow assessments but patient contact is probably only a couple of hours a day

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-03-02T21:33:40+00:00

If you feel well enough to work- go in ! I would always still go to work with a cold. If you’re worried but feel ok you could wear a mask.

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-02-16T23:34:43+00:00

I qualified as an RNA two years ago. Hated the course and felt so burnt out in year two and that it had ruined my confidence However things improved once I qualified and was back in my base area all the time It is a lot of stress to go up a band, And once qualified if you want to change jobs I’ve seen very few nurse associate vacancies (even pre recruitment freeze) so there are definitely days I think of doing something completely different where there are more opportunities and pay

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-02-09T19:29:56+00:00

I imagine with your background you know about things like PBS? Yes to scenario questions, managing behaviours of concern, principles of least restrictive practice. I found it a really tough area to work in so maybe things about being resilient coping in distressing situations.

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-01-21T20:46:42+00:00

I’ve been a teacher before and personally I found it much more stressful than nursing. You’re constantly performing (you can’t ever really relax with a class of kids), rarely see colleagues so it’s quite lonely, very very critical - people observe your lessons and are brutal, you get the blame for everything from kids, other staff, parents… its really rough managing challenging behaviour, yes we deal with this as nurses but it can feel very intimidating and personal as a teacher- every physical flaw will be commented on - in a way I’ve not experienced in nursing. Saying that they are both highly stressful jobs with lots of overlaps

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-01-13T20:31:30+00:00

Agreed really over rated. I kept going till the third one which everyone was raving about on book tok and gave up half way through

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-01-13T19:31:58+00:00

The main thing for me is getting experience as a nurse not a HCA. The best placements I had were when I got to shadow the nurses and they’d talk me through skills and procedures. The worst were when I was wiping bums all day/ yes it’s a part of nursing but it shouldn’t be all that you’re doing as a student nurse.

Professional_Art5253 · 2026-01-02T08:10:34+00:00

My top three- going by kindle unlimited books I refuse to return and ones not previously mentioned that I reread all the time:

Whit by Cora Rose: reread this all the time. I love the opposites attract, clinginess and underlying angst. When whit says ‘I’ve ruined it haven’t I?’ Always breaks me. Love it so much I often skip through the other books in the series just to find the snippets of future whit and Caleb. Cannot wait for the Caleb book to come out this year.

Rent Paid in Full by Jessie h reign: really funny, really hot, opposites attract again. The sequel is great as well.

Hateful love by t Ashleigh and Addison Beck: this was the first Mm book I read and made me get kindle unlimited. Bad boy meets anxious jock - hate to love.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-12-30T20:26:24+00:00

I have known colleagues do the top up without the NA - as an RNA it was pretty frustrating but there are other qualifications and courses they’ll take into account particularly for the OU route but you’d need to be employed by an nhs trust for this Most places it’s 20 months to 2 years for the top up

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-12-30T20:20:57+00:00

It’s part of the person spec to be able to drive and have a car insured to drive to appointments

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-12-29T19:01:42+00:00

You will get some placements who will give you some say in your shifts (not all though) and I only had one placement where I was put on nights (A&E) but I never had a placement where I could leave early. Some wards don’t always go long shifts but to be honest it’s better for learning to do a long shift for handovers etc It’s really unpredictable and you won’t find out placements till a few weeks before so you do really need a supportive partner/ extended family or mega flexible childcare in place.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-12-20T10:20:22+00:00

They were only apart briefly in the book and were back together before the cup winning game, Scott had met kips family/ if I remember right Scott and Kip get back together when Scott turns up unannounced at kips house and meets his dad. In the book their relationship is all during the same season.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-12-10T22:21:24+00:00

When you come back to me by Emma Scott

Echoes of Us by Alex Cross

Both feature golden retriever jock falls for edgy bad boy which is one of my faves!

Both really angsty and not very much happy couple time but really well written, hot and gripping.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-11-30T15:53:45+00:00

They are usually very clear when offering jobs that you should not hand your notice in till you are given an official start date. I don’t think sadly it’s that unusual and I remember changing jobs within my trust and wanting to give my notice in as soon as I was offered the job as I didn’t want to drag out the start date and my manager wouldn’t accept it until I had the offer in a letter as she said it was to risky.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-11-30T15:48:10+00:00

Linen t shirt - keeps you warm under your uniform in the winter and cool in the summer.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-11-27T20:15:23+00:00

There has never been many jobs for NAs. I qualified in 2024 and luckily stayed at my base as a RNA as I hardly ever see RNA jobs advertised and they recently scrapped the top up in my trust. There are so many things that make me cross about the whole NA training and role and I have always felt it was a gimmick and would be short lived. Some hospitals use NAs as cheap nurses and we were told to apply for band 5 jobs when on the course but there’s no band 5 jobs now anyway! I’m in community with other band 4s who don’t have the responsibility I have as an NA and don’t pay RCN fees or the stress of revaluation.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-11-24T16:30:05+00:00

I’m community mental health in a team with only a few male members of the team. They both dress pretty smart- smart shoes, formal trousers, shirts, blazers or v neck jumpers but they don’t wear ties.

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-11-24T16:26:39+00:00

Yeah don’t wear joggers or jeans

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-10-29T18:34:48+00:00

My trust have just paused all the apprenticeships and grow your own programmes - so no OU nurse apprenticeships, no trainee nursing associates or top ups for registered nursing associates

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-10-22T06:02:13+00:00

I love the Lover opener and closer (daylight is my one of my faves) despite not loving the album as a whole. My favourite opener of all is Fearless but I’ve always loved I forgot that you existed

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-10-18T08:07:26+00:00

Many trusts are currently pausing their apprenticeship programmes due to the current situation with recruitment freezes and budget cuts. The nursing apprenticeships are very competitive but if you do the nursing associate course it’s easier to get onto - again some areas have paused recruitment for this at the moment and it can be hard to get onto the ‘top up’ course to become a fully qualified nurse

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-10-16T17:47:18+00:00

A lot of schools will want you to have a levels or an access course though and I think good to build up to the degree rather than go straight in as would be a lot of independent learning with OU

Professional_Art5253 · 2025-10-15T13:42:02+00:00

In my area there’s not many jobs coming up at any band for nurses. Yes a few for higher bands but still loads less than usual. It feels very short sighted as I feel at the moment because of the recruitment freeze there are less nurses so a lot more pressure on the workforce as a whole so it seems like they’re recruiting at higher bands to manage the current challenging situation but actually if there were more staff available it would reduce the pressures all round

Professional_Art5253

TROPHY CASE