The cost of nursing? Possibly

Good afternoon and  🐰 Happy Easter 🐇

I hope you are enjoying the break doing whatever you do at this time of the year 😊

I thought I would have a little think about the topic of the cost of getting a nursing degree.

As always feel free to comment on this blog as you see fit. The thoughts I put in this blog are just mine and in no way reflect the thoughts of my Uni' or anyone else. Just my meanderings about this area of life as a student nurse.

How I see it, is like this...
If you train to be a nurse while you are young, still living at home and with minimal stuff to pay out for, then brilliant.

However if like me, you have lived a few years and have stuff to pay out for and think about, then things aren't so simple!

I mean, there's rent, bills, food, not forgetting of course that I love coffee and all students need coffee don't they?

☕ ah ok... just me then? ☕

Anyways, you get the picture of what I am on about.

Now, for me, going to Uni' was a dream I have had for years, most of you know that already. However, if it wasn't for the lovely Mr O being an ace with finances, then I would likely still be dreaming about it!

The fact that I was able to claim a bursary and get the maintenance loan from those peeps over at Student Finance and NHS England helped because without it, Uni' would most deffo' still be a dream.

So now we are back in 2017, I have a year and a bit to go til I hopefully qualify as a proper professional.

(No Mr Shaw and Mr Collins, I am not rolling on the bonnet of your Ford Capri - how rude!! I am referring to being a professional nurse - for pity's sake!! Not CI5)


So, where was I? oh yes, bursary payments and the such.

Okay, so we know that the government has decided to ditch the bursary for student nurses. This will mean that anyone wishing to train to be a nurse from here on in (well ok, September 2017), will have to have a full SFE loan and end up with a huge debt.

I am at a loss as to how mature students, like me, will be able to manage to train and run a home. I wonder if this will mean that there will be very few of us older peeps at Uni' now? That said, at 45+ years of age, are you going to want to increase your debt by a substantial amount? I say substantial cos its mahoosive in my book, I don't know about anyone else's views.

Perhaps the idea is that people train young and therefore are employed as a nurse for much longer? More bang for your buck as it were? I dunno...just a thought!

I am aware that some mental health Trusts run a kind of in house nurse training course that involves you doing Uni' work alongside your normal job.

However, what happens when the area you work in is busy, on a day when you are a student and not the employee? Do you say sorry I cant help today cos I am a student nurse? or do you simply do the tasks required cos you can and after all it would be helpful?

It's a tough call to be fair and not one that I would want to make, but there are those that manage it very well in all fairness, and I guess it's not for everyone.

Yes, sorry, got sidetracked - back to the figures and costs...

Lets say you take a career break to do the 3 years studying and your salary whilst employed was in the region of £20k a year. This means a potential drop in income of £60k.

Then you have the loan from SFE for 3 years' worth of education = £28.5k. Roughly.

Then we add to the mix the incidentals like maybe living a life while studying for the 3 years, at a basic level so as you can eat and all that jazz (yes even students must eat!!), travel to Uni' and get the stuff you need to write on and with. We''ll call this about £7.5k.

This is without the cost of renting anywhere to live while at Uni' as I live in the same city as my Uni', so can't comment on that.

The total cost you have is about £96k for the 3 years. I make that £32k per year.
Not bad and I didn't even remove my socks for that!!

So, you see, while I think doing a nursing degree is a brilliant choice and still one of the best things I have had the fortune to immerse myself in, is someone going to be able to give up on a career they may already have, to do something they want?

Possibly, possibly not. I know I couldn't have done it without the bursary and the help I currently receive - but hey, that's just me.

Therefore, what I was getting at right back up there at the beginning was that maybe people are best of taking up this nursing degree and study at an early age while they are able to afford to do so and before they end up with their own home and all that goes with it?

As I say, these have just been my ramblings about the student bursary for nursing. They're my thoughts only and meant as a lighthearted look at the possible implications for a nursing career in the future.

All I can say is good luck in however you choose to learn, if indeed you are thinking about nurse training, I'm glad I did it!

Anyways, ttfn, I am off for a coffee ☕☕

"Surprise, Surprise!" 

Alright, calm down Cilla, calm down... they don't need to think of your singing just now!

Bye for now

Kx