New Year, New Chance

Last year, several weeks after I had started my first paper I quit.

Yea I know, real good stamina I have.

However as much as I can make excuses for it I can still admit that I am not a distant learner. I get frustrated very easily and found the course provider very annoying.
Nowadays everything is done by internet.
I don't have too much trouble with that, hey, I am a switched on 40 year old, I love computers, well as long as they do what I want them to do and do it how I want it to be done!
However sometimes websites are not as easy to understand as the provider likes to think they are.
I had many a day of study where I was sat in my study tearing my hair out, screaming blue murder and actually throwing things across the room.
My language was not pretty and my frustration levels were rising way too much, surprised I didn't jump off a cliff!
Unfortunately, when I get frustrated I cry. So many a tear was shead and not much work was written.

But then it is difficult to write work when you can't find the resources.
And of course back to the beginning, everything is now on line.
I felt that this whole course was just me and my computer. Absolutely no one to turn too, no one to ask for help, even the help desk wanted you to email them with the problem, which didn't help when you needed the simple answer now so you could carry on, not wait 4 hours for them to get back to you. Don't they realise that some people have limited time to do their study, not just when it suits them!

I did go and see the course tutor, who apologized for somethings and accepted my postponment until this year.

However we are now in 2011 and this course provider has decided to run with internet even more than last year. To them I am a distant learner, so therefore that means DISTANT, as in away from them, not needing them, do it all yourself, teach yourself, just read it from a book and you will be fine, by yourself!
Fine, but it helps if in the first week I can actually log onto their website. Week 1 of study disappeared already due to no access.
We are now in week 2, already I am having trouble getting into the library online. I can't find the course material online as it has not been loaded under my log in due to, possibly, the problems from last week when they didn't want to activate my log in!
So I have now been doing this paper for 9 days and already I have cursed at the screen about the course provider. Again I had to ring 6 times before I could get to talk to someone on the help desk and not send an email and at the end of it they put me through to the person I should have thought to go to in the first place!

Now I know with any study there is a fair amount of behind the scenes work you have to do yourself, but I find going to lectures very helpful, I get stuff out of them and usually find all my questions get answered from them. I find there is access to people to talk to and I have a better understanding of what I am writing.

So Rotorua here I come. Every Wednesday for now, will change to a Thursday very shortly, I am going to be driving over and do my day of study in the library on campus. It will still be just me and my computer and shelves beyond shelves of books but hopefully something will come from it all.

If not then I am seriously going to have to rethink life a little!

School Time

Let the study commence!
I have received the first papers for my first module.
So this week will be taken up with reading all the papers I have received and maybe a little trip to the Hospital library to suss out if they have any of the books and articles I require for my course reading?
Rather get the book from Hamilton than have to organise it from Rotorua.

Have to complete 2 essay assignments this semester, although a little confusion on the due dates at present,  day and date do not actually match, but hopefully all will be sorted next week.

Than I have 6-7 weeks to get first assignment completed and sent off!

Can I turn back now and not pass GO and not collect my $200?

Moving Forward

So it has been a slow time waiting to hear what is happening.
Application form has been sent to Rotorua and papers have been discussed with Tutor.
Invoice for the first paper has been received and I have just paid it.
If I send them a picture I will hopefully receive my student ID soon as well.

So now I sit and wait for the first paper to arrive and then I scream when I realise how much work I have to do.
I am starting with "Introduction to Nursing Knowledge"

This course is designed to be thought provoking, enlightening and useful in your practice, it is hoped that your learning in this course will be enjoyable. The focus of this course is on the development of knowledge that underpins nursing practice, and then relationship and interdependence between nursing theory, nursing research and nursing practice.

At the beginning of the course, the historical development of nursing, nursing knowledge and the philosophies which underpin nursing practice are traced. In this way, you will achieve increased understanding of past influences that have helped to shape nursing today.

As you progress through the course, you will examine the development of a range of nursing theories and models, which facilitate the planning and delivery of nursing care. There is a focus on ways in which research links theory and practice, providing the basis for evidence-based practice. Examples from practice illustrate application of nursing knowledge and, through-out the unit, reflection on the links between this knowledge and your own practice will enhance learning.

So there you have it, my first paper.
Sounds interesting and thought provoking, but we will see as the papers arrive.
Will keep you posted as to how it is going.

Hope

There is hope on the horizon.
Wintec were unable to help me with getting my Degree but they did suggest another place to try.
Rotorua of all places.
It means correspondence, which I have to admit, I am not a great fan of, I just don't have the will power to sit and study with so many other things going on around me, but it is looking good so far.
I was prepared to travel there once a week if it was required, but it isn't, only if I want to use their library etc do I need to go there.
I have been in touch with them and things are looking good. Because I qualified as a nurse after 1994 then I only have to take 4 papers.
Now these papers can be taken all together in 1 semester (fulltime) which means I would have them finished by Christmas or they can be taken very slowly, 1 or 2 a yr.
Me, well I am going to commence one of the papers this July, which will be finished by Christmas and then I will get the other 3 papers sorted over next year, so hopefully by the end of 2011 I will have my Degree.
This in turn then means that I can apply next year for the 1yr Graduate Diploma in Teaching to be completed in 2012.

This to me all sounds so much better than slogging away at a 3 yr course over 5 years!?

Update

Today I had the wonderful pleasure of finally talking to the Head of Health at the local Poly.
Yes I do need to do an 18month fulltime course with them to get my degree, but she doesn't recommend I do the course!
Unfortuately this poly changed their courses a while back and it sure ain't in my favour!

The maximum points that can be cross credited is 180, for a degree you need 360.
Therefore I would have to do 18 months fulltime at a course and this is where the funny part comes in....I would have to join a currently running Bachelors course for the last 18months of their course.
It would entale me taking 12 papers in that time.
When I enquired as to the timetable, then it would be fulltime, Monday to Friday 8-5pm.
AND I would have to do some clinical placements.
When I enquired further as to what that was for I was gobsmacked at the answer.
The answer was that I would be on a nursing programme and therefore I would have to do clinical placements like the STUDENT nurses I was doing the course with.
Yes that is correct, you read right, me, an already registered nurse with 15yrs experience, would have to go and do student nurse clinical placements to be able to get my Bachelors of Nursing.
Me, who is currently working 4 days a week as a nurse, would have to go on placements and be assessed to see whether I had what it took to be a nurse?!

I just about fell off my chair at work when she told me this. It was so belittling to me as a nurse, it made me feel stupid and useless.
I can not understand their logic in saying that as an already qualified nurse, to be able to upskill to get a degree, I would have to join student nurses.
What happened to going forward with your education, not 3 steps back!

So consequently I will not be going to the local poly to undertake my course.
I think that the easiest thing to do will be to apply directly to the University for the 3yr teaching course and start it part time.
It may take me 4/5yrs but at least I am working towards what I want to do and not going backwards to be able to go forwards!

Frustration

The local Poly got in touch this week to talk to me about my application to do the Bachelors of Nursing.
Unfortunately it is not looking good.
Turns out that they have a limit on credit that can be given out for prior learning, and that level is 180 points. This in turn works out to be 18 months of a 3 yr course.
So they have comeback to me to say that I can complete my Bachelors with them if I want to undertake an 18 month full time course!

I can, if I like, start this course in July.
Yea right, like I can commit to a fulltime course for the next 18 months, oh and then I would have to complete the fulltime 1yr course for Teaching after that.
That amounts to 2 1/2 yrs fulltime, so may as well just do the whole 3yr course for Teacher training in the beginning?

I can, if I wish, complete the Bachelors of Education as a parttime course, which I think would amount to about 5 yrs!
So if I am going to start anything parttime, then I think it may be this, at least if I am going to study anything over the next year, then let it be something that will go towards my Teaching and not Nursing, because at the end of the day I really do not need a Bachelors of Nursing, it was just the simpler way, or so I thought, of getting to be a Teacher.

I am still going to talk to the Tutor at the local Poly and see exactly what she has planned, but at the same time I am going to apply, very quickly, for the next intake of the Bachelors of Education.

Will keep you posted on how things go....?

Bac to Skool

I am British and have lived in New Zealand for 12 years.

I have been married for 2 yrs to Steve, who I have been with for just over 10yrs.

I am a mother of 2 little boys, Ben almost 7yrs and Alex just turning 5.

I turn 40 this November and for some strange reason I want to go back to school and retrain as a Primary School Teacher!

I am a registered nurse with 15 yrs experience.

To train to be a teacher I have 2 options....

1. I can complete the 3yr Bachelors Degree Course in Primary School Teaching
2. I can complete the 1yr Grad Diploma Course in Primary School Teaching

with my given life at present, giving everything up and returning to be a full time student for 3yrs is not compatible or suitable with the family. I could do the course part time, but placements would not fit in with my working life and so not achievable.

To complete the Grad Dip I need a Bachelors Degree (in anything).

I do not have a Bachelors Degree!

So this is the first step in my quest, obtain a Degree.
I have been having my nurse training and other qualifications assessed to see if I could get recognition of prior learning towards obtaining a Bachelors of Nursing.
The local polytechnic does the Bachelors of Nursing and I currently have an application submitted.
The Head of Health is currently assessing my application and is in the process of working out my credits, which in turn would then show how many modules I would have to take to be able to be awarded my Bachelors of Nursing.
She is currently swaying towards 1 or 2.

So my quest is currently in limbo at present whilst I wait for my application to be taken to a committee meeting, where the Head of Health will present my case. In turn she is hoping they will accept the credits she wishes to award me and then will be able to advice me on which modules she requires me to undertake, which will then enable her to award me my degree.

If all goes well, I will be able to start these modules in July of this year and have them completed by November.
This will allow me to apply for the Grad Dip Course that is starting early January 2011.

I am now in a waiting game which I can do nothing about....!