Opening Day

Hi people :)

Well it's been about 10days since my last post and life has been same old...3 weeks into the 12week study block and work is slowly mounting up. We have a date set to attend an open day at the end of March to give us the opportunity to speak to people from the various hospitals regarding job opportunities and to ask questions and listen in on various talks-should be interesting! As I am also looking for work further afield in the UK I am also registering on NHS Jobs just to see what opportunities are arising, with another open day to attend at the end of February. Definitely worth registering on before looking for work, as you will be able to see what they expect and look for from newly qualified students so you will gain some indication of which area's you will need to focus on.

As the title states, I thought it a good opportunity to write about the university Open Day. Although I was determined to get onto the nursing course and only applied to Bedfordshire, I wanted to get a bit more information about the course from talking to people rather than just relying on the prospectus I had received. After keeping an eye out for dates, I attended the open day at Aylesbury (Bucks campus) as the date suited me and a lot of the staff are the same as well as the sessions and course structure. I finally managed to find the campus (advice-look at google maps/sat nav/map etc before leaving and leave extra time!) and there were a lot of other people there. The open day was aimed at not just potential adult nurse students but also mental health, child and ODP (Operating Room Practitioner). Even if you think you want to apply for a certain field of nursing, it is worth sitting in on the talks around the other area's as who knows, there may be other options and it also gives you an insight into the other roles.

I think the most valuable thing I found when there was being able to speak to admin staff about funding/bursary options. I knew I would need to contact the bursary/finance teams for more exact details but getting a good overview did put my mind at rest, as after years of working on a full-time wage I was wary about whether I would have enough to live off or whether I would need to take up a part-time job whilst studying (fortunately I am getting away with not having to, but it depends on your situation/lifestyle etc).

I know a lot of students who did not attend any open day prior to applying for the course, but feel they may have been able to gain more of an understanding about what to expect from the course. If you end up going-let me know what you think. Do you think it helped?

On a sadder note (but I feel worth bringing up) I had a death in the family last weekend of a close relative. We were aware he was ill from before Christmas so at that point I decided to work on my essay over Christmas and submit three weeks before the submission date. Over the three years other students have had similar situations where things happen-either family illness or personal illness maybe, and the last thing you want is the stress of an essay that is due in within the next week. As previously mentioned, some students thrive on pressure to complete their written work well and do work better by leaving things to the last week or two but my belief is if you can get it done early, do it. You never know what is around the corner and sometimes the last thing you need is uni work.

Right, well that's me for the day. See you next week!
Em x