DCU for Psychiatric Nursing as Mature Student

timmyb

Thinking of applying as a mature student to DCU for Psychiatric Nursing, Level 8. Is anyone currently doing the degree or has anyone completed it as a mature student? If so could you share your views/experiences of DCU as a whole, the nursing department, positive and negative points, facilities, work placements, employment prospects etc.

My profile: male, mid 20's, Honours Degree in Applied Social Care, permanently employed in ID Dual Diagnosis Unit (includes psychosis).

Cheers!

Fyr.Fytr

Hi timmy, im currently doing general nursing in dcu, in first year, but am not a mature student.

Most of the other lads in the nursing group as a whole are doing psyc, the majority of lectures are together, very few are branch specific, well for the moment anyhow. There is a good bit of theory involved, subjects lick psychology, microbiology etc etc. Can be tough going at times but its enjoyable if it is what you whant to do

Attendence monitioring is in place, this means you must swipe in for ever lecture, you have 30mins to swipe in, from quarter to the hour, to quarter past, anytime after that eg 16 mins past your classed as absent, can be a pain on the heavy traffic mornings, minimum of 80% attendence is required for each module for each somester or else additional work or repeating the module may be required depending on how low below the 80 you are

The nursing school as a whole is new and very well run, has its own canteen, free studnet carpark right beside it (other free carpark and the pay per use multi storey only a couple of mins walk) the clinical education centre is superb, there are differnt rooms set up like wards of various sizes, with hospital beds and other clincal area equipment etc also a comunity flat set up, anatomy room, sluice room, changing rooms, computer lab etc etc

As for placements i cannot speak for psyc other then the timings of placements when we all go out at the same time id say a good 1/3 or 1/2 of the 4 year course is spent on placements including a 36 week paid internship in 4th year, the initial 2 weeks are purely observational but after that your working according to what youve been trained so far. I found my first one very enjoyable (apart from the mankey uniform, but my 2 mates who are doing psyc didnt have to wear them so no need to worry :P) and puts it all in context and due to go out again in a couple of months

As for employment well youll be a registerd nurse in your slected area at the end of the four years, so you can apply for jobs straight away, im not sure what the job market is like at the moment for psyc nurses, but anyway you can also travel all over the world as a registered nurse (some country may require further registraion but you get the drift)


Think thats about it, any further questions please contact me