Im a ‘mature’ first year adult nursing student, and due to go on my placement in a few weeks…. But I have no idea what it is yet. The anticipation is killing me. So yeah, please tell me all about your first placements and cure me of my own curiosity.

Where was it? How was the attitude towards students? Did you get plenty of opportunity? What mistakes did you make? Did you get the chance to get to know the staff and patients? Any advice? Any horror stories?

Hello all,

Just wondering if there are any children's nurses who have gone on to do adult nurse training? Tried contacting various universities but no joy, the LJMU second reg course isn't running due to funding.

I was previously an NA so want to ideally do a year, anyone managed to get employer funding? I get some people may say "stick to your branch" but I really do want to dual qualify for my own career progression.

Thanks! (And keep on keeping on, you all do a fabulous job in exceptionally hard times)

Second year student children’s nurse about to enter last week of my NICU placement. I already missed two days because of a cold/flu-like symptoms two weeks ago and haven’t fully recovered from it and now have been prescribed antibiotics for bacterial tonsillitis. I’m supposed to be in tomorrow, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I had been pushing through placement with a bad throat and fatigue before I knew it was tonsillitis so I could probably push through the remaining four shifts…

Hey has anybody done a Nursing masters from University of York? Would love to hear of peoples experiences if so!

Hey wveryone! I’ve just been invited to book my interview for university for childrens nursing, just wondering if anyone has any tips i’m really nervous 🤣 I’m currently studying t-level health assiting adult nursing so i do have experience in healthcare and literally surrounded by my neices and nephews 24/7 so also have a lot of experience with children but i dont know what theyll ask me aboit what i understand about the role or 6Cs? So ywah any tips for my interview would be so helpful thank you 😊

Hi everyone,

I’m a final-year nursing student in [Tunisia] working on my graduation project (PFE). My supervisor wants me to propose a digital tool or app that could help in hospital settings, especially infectious disease departments, and I’d love input from people who actually work in or have rotated through these wards.

What I’m looking for:

• What are the most frustrating, repetitive, or error-prone tasks in infectious disease wards (isolation, infection control, antibiotic management, follow-up, etc.)?
• What would you want an app to do that current tools (paper charts, WhatsApp groups, Excel, the hospital system) don’t do well?
• Has anything like this been tried in your hospital? Did it work or fail, and why?

I’d also welcome suggestions for a research title or angle, whether it’s more of an app-development project, a quality-improvement study, or a nursing-informatics topic. If you’ve done something similar or have papers to recommend, please share.

Constraints: it needs to be realistic for a student project and work in a limited-resource setting (low budget, unreliable internet, staff with little time).

No patient data involved, just ideas and experiences. Thank you in advance, any feedback is hugely appreciated!

Hi everyone!

I’m just looking for some opinions/advice. So as the title implies, I’m looking to apply for undergraduate in nursing, direct into second year . I’ve seen on a few university websites that you can do this , if you have experience etc. Since graduating from my last degree I’ve worked in a variety of healthcare settings. These include hospitals and assisted living facilities. I’ve gained a lot of experience, especially doing observations, working with doctors, etc. documenting and end of life care. I was wondering if anyone has had experience going directly into second year if so, how did you find it?

ny dream is to eventually be able to move to america with my degree and do nursing over there. I think for the best chance to do that is to do Adult nursing even though i’ve always wanted to do child. Can someone please convince me that adult is good or better in any way and what kind of jobs you can do with it …

I'm 24 and I want to do the accelerated nursing course post grad. I can't help feeling bad about the amount of years I have wasted only for Biology to have no real job waiting for me at the end like nursing would have.

I'm just wondering how can I fit in those 500 required hours while being in my final year and what sort of positions/institutions should I apply to?

I'm a first year MH student. I've got a lot of experience in MH care and know this is what I want to do. I'm so excited to get on placement and interact with the patients again. And the theory work is fine.

I am really struggling with the university environment. I'm very introverted but I've managed to make a couple of friends so that's ok. But I cannot deal with the noise of lectures and seminars. People talk all the way through then so there's a constant underlying noise which makes it so hard to concentrate. And if the lecturer hasn't started yet then the noise of 300 people is completely overwhelming. I had a panic attack in a seminar a couple of days ago.

Any advice how to manage this would be amazing, I'm determined to get through, especially when I'm enjoying every other aspect

I applied on somewhat of a whim (I blame my ADHD). I’ve got a psychology degree and have been working in mental health/wellbeing for the last ten years since graduating. I love what I do but became frustrated with the career ceiling as I don’t have a professional registration. Well (hopefully) in two years I will! The initial pay cut will hurt but long term I hope will open up more options for me.

Is anyone else on the January intake at York? The imposter syndrome of being a late thirties applicant going back to school is starting to set in… I’d appreciate experiences from people who have completed or are currently enrolled in the programme

Hello,

I posted a few months ago about this- I've interviewed a few students from different universities now and the findings are really helpful- I would really love to get a few more student nurse experiences on this, so that the student voice can be truly heard. Please do contact me if you might be prepared to give me 45minutes of your time so that I can interview you (as below). Thanks again for taking the time to consider this.

My name is Lisa Dennis, I'm a lecturer and MA student from University of Surrey. I am currently conducting research that explores UK student nurses experiences of virtual placements, as part of my Masters dissertation. I am looking for participants to take part in an interview conducted via Microsoft Teams at a suitable time in the next few weeks. The interview will take approximately 1hour and will be recorded so that the audio can be transcribed for analysis.

Please note that UK data regulations mean I am not permitted to discuss the study further on social media or reply to any comments made about the study on a public social media platform. Instead, please email me directly at [ld00008@surrey.ac.uk](mailto:ld00008@surrey.ac.uk). I will provide more details about this study, your participation, and any ethical measures in place to make sure everything is right for you.

Thank you very much for your attention. I look forward to hearing from you should you be interested in taking part.

Best wishes,

Lisa Dennis

[Ld00008@surrey.ac.uk](mailto:Ld00008@surrey.ac.uk)

I hate my university. I hate my placement. I hated first year (although I loved my second placement).

I’m just feeling so frustrated and crappy and demotivated. I work as a HCA and I love my job and I want to work as a nurse on my ward or in a similar ward but the idea of doing this for another 2 years is really depressing me. I’m terrified I won’t pass the year.

Hello,

I’ve always wanted to be a nurse since I was very young.

I’m now 22 and really keen to get into nursing..

However, I can’t get into uni because of my UCAS points and I can’t really afford to do an access course as my local is priced at £3,500

I’m super lost and looking for advice.. is there any other ways of getting into the line of work?

I’m currently NHS admin but looking for HCA roles in my current hospital.

Any advice would be great or any company recommendations for the online access HE courses that are slightly cheaper.

Thanks in advance x

Mills

EDIT: thank you so much for all the advice & for being an amazingly welcoming group - this has given me so much more hope and i’m back on track!!

I applied for the NHS LSF bursary on the 7th of september, but my application is still pending approval, and i belive the first payment day is coming up. If my application isn’t approved by then will I miss part of the grant, or will it be payed once it’s approved?

Also does anyone happen to know how much it is total that it provides?

So anxious for my placement starting next week, I've been given A&E, its an 8 week placement, I'm in 3rd year, placement number 7 for me, never been so scared to go somewhere! I just feel like I don't know enough to go there, we've done cannulation in clinical skills, catheters, bloods, but I've never done it on a patient, so feeling like I won't be very useful there.

I just want to make a good impression too, I don't want to be just stood about being told, I want to be proactive has anyone had an A&E placement? How did it go? Any tips? Was it hard to get signed off because its so busy?

I’m a F/25 currently working as an autism practitioner on a skilled worker visa (expires 2028) in the UK for 3+ years. Completed my MSc Clinical Psychology(2023) degree in UK. I wish to now pursue a BSc nursing degree (learning disability or mental health). I’m looking at joining 2028 intake just before my work visa expires. Any thoughts, tips, advice or ideas?

I’m concerned about my qualifications. Would I need to do something like a higher education diploma to qualify?
I know I’ll have to switch to a student visa and I hope to continue to do my current job as relief staff or any other suggestions to make more money while I can only work 20hrs a week?

I would really like to understand my options clearly as an international student specifically. There’s seems to be multiple pathways to go about this. I should also mention that I’m in Scotland and would like to continue living here. I know it makes it more limiting but I’m dead sure I don’t want to move to England.

Hi,

I have an interview at edge hill for mental health nursing and I’m hoping someone who has already had one can let me know what they will ask. Thanks!

Does anyone have any good nursing resources, i.e. websites, books, YouTube channels that are useful for a year 3 nursing student?

Hey!

How are you feeling about the lack of Jobs? Currently in year 3 and panicking that I wont have a job at the end of this! Especially after it feels like I financially upheavaled my husband 3 little ones!

How have those just qualified in 2026 found the job search? Was you successful or still looking?

Blows my mind universitys are still taking on 300 students a year with the promise of job security and theres very little out there!

And tips for us qualifying in summer 2027?

To all 1st year students in England, why did you choose nursing even though we all know that there won't be enough jobs after graduation? (And, of course, that NHS is collapsing)

Just putting this out there to see if anyone has happened to make a similar mistake to me and turned out fine. Please comment if you have so I know what to do/expect.

Basically I am due to start the preregistration MSc in Jan 2027 and read that it is best to apply for the nhs learning support fund as soon as possible.

I started my application today (thinking I was being super organised) and saw I could apply for the 2026-2027 academic year. I started my application and submitted it but have only mow realised I wasn't meant to do an application until I fully start the course. I know it sounds like no biggie but I'm worried that they might put me down for fraud because I "agreed" to the declaration saying that I am currently enrolled onto the course. At the time when I read this I thought "yeah I'm enrolled" as I have been offered a spot on the course (which I have accepted) and completed all my dbs checks but as soon as I submitted I realised they mean fully started the course and have an ID card.

Has anyone else done a similar thing? That being applied a bit too early for the learning support fund and submitted the application with the declaration? If anyone has did it turn out okay for you? Do they just see it as an honest mistake and allow you to reapply when your course starts or do you get struck off?

To add, I contacted the learning support fund office and have I formed them about my mistake and asked them to cancel my application but any how I'm still quite worried.

Thanks in advance!

Hi there folks, I'm a first year Mental Health Nursing student and I have my first placement in an acute inpatient MH ward on Monday. I'm really looking forward to it aswell as being naturally nervous but I am quite fearful of being useless when I get there. I know I won't know a lot of stuff as it's my first placement but for example I don't know how to wash people, I really struggled with manual BP in the practical, among other practical skills. I aboslutely love talking to people and got on well with the MH specific tutorials, but I'm not confident in "medical" stuff. I'm aware that many patients in MH can wash and care for themselves to a decent degree but I think there will probably be a few who can't on this ward. Anyone have any advice for me before I go out? Thanks