*Bekki*

I think you would benefit from work shadowing or volenteering at your local hospital or at a GP surgery. This way you could see and experience how the professions are in reality and then after that decide which path is the one that you want. You should do what you want otherwise youll regret it in the end. However it is important you make the right choice. Good Luck xx

In the UK you choose a branch of nursing when you apply for a uni course the choices are - Adult Nursing - Child Nursing - Learning Disability Nursing - Mental Health Nursing If you look on www.ucas.com you can look at the uni's that offer nursing degrees but make sure they have the option of mental health nursing when you apply. In England all nurses do the common foundation programme in their first year of uni but you do get some clinical placements whilst doing this which will be in the area of your chosen branch. After that you have 2 years of study in your chosen area of nursing which also has a lot of clinical placements. As for masters degree i know that you can do a masters degree although im not sure about how you would do it, but they may prefer candidates to have clinical experince before doing a masters degree but im not sure. The jobs in nursing. Nurses can advance in their career, you would begin at grade D and then you can work your way up to a grade I. If you specialise within mental health for example with children and adolesants or dementia or substance misuse, then you can work in this area as a nurse consultant or as a nurse practitoner. But to get these jobs it requires several years experience in each specialisation. I have looked on the nursing times website at jobs and the highest salaries that i found were between £38000 - £39000 a year. However most newly qualified nurses are looking at £15000 - £18000 salaries. Good luck whatever you decide to do anymore questions you could pm me love Bekki xx

Hiya I really want to do psychiatric nursing, and i have to wait nw untill clearing to see if i can get a place at uni. However i really dont know if my grades will be good enough so as well i have applied for a job as a HCA in the mental hospital near me. I have got an interview there and i was wondering if you could help me at all with what i can expect questionwise in the interview. Also what do HCA's do in psychiatric hospitals or is it the same kind of jobs i could expect in any hospital such as helping to feed and toilet paitents or is there a difference in psyc?? any help would be apprieciated thanks bekki xx

Girl interrupted is pretty good and it also comes as a film if thats the kind of book your looking for. The author was in a mental hospital for borderline personality disorder and its from the paitent perspective, its really interesting. The author at the beginning attempts suicide and its about her recoverie in a mental health hospital really worth reading and definatly not preachy!! love bekki xx