Full-Time Slacker - Official

I am currently 18 months into a four year course, which will eventually lead to my qualification as a mental health nurse. I am being sponsored to do my training by a ward I work on as a health-care assistant, which means I carry on getting paid but unfortunately it also means spending an extra year doing the training (supposedly balanced by a requirement to work one day a week on my ward). It seemed like this would be worth it, as un-sponsored students doing the full-time three year course receive a pathetic bursary of around £5k a year and therefore end up working their arses off just to get through it (not my style).

I spent the first 17 months of my course regretting this decision, because although I was getting paid the course just seemed to be going sooo s l o w l y. For example, for the last six weeks I have been attending lectures at uni one day a week (9.30 to 3.30 with two hours of breaks). I haven't even had to do my one day a week work on my ward, as I still had lots of annual leave to take before April. I've almost had too much spare time (almost).

Amazingly, just a couple of weeks ago the university actually realised that stretching the course out over four years for sponsored students was a stupid idea. In a complete U-turn, they've given us the option of switching to the full-time course while still receiving our monthly wage, and as you might have gathered from the title of this blog I have just taken them up on this offer. This means that I will finish the course six months earlier, and now for the really smug bit...I get full student holidays (8 weeks for summer, 2 weeks for Christmas and Easter)...PAID!

I realise most of you will be seething at this (apart from the teachers, obviously) but hey I'm going into a very highly-stressed under-paid career so I'm gonna milk this for all it's worth...

The only downside of the switch for me is that I no longer need to work one day a week on my ward, so in effect I've kind of limped out of working there. I've been there for over three years and didn't even really end up saying goodbye to most of the people I worked with. Also, the hospital itself is closing down in a few months and being relocated in the City.

Barrow hospital has been there for 70 years, back to when psychiatric hospitals were all built in the countryside (out of sight, out of mind). Admittedly, it is in a state of disrepair. There's legionella in the water, asbestos in the roofs, and just a few months ago part of the ceiling collapsed in the elderly unit showering a group of 'older adults' with plaster. However, it is a beautiful place full of very valuable and rare trees, wild orchids, deer, rabbits, bats, ravens and hundreds of squirrels. Perhaps this is why the NHS is able to sell the land, build a new hospital in the city, and still make millions of pounds out of the deal.

I went to Barrow hospital for the last time just a couple of days ago for a meeting to confirm my switch to full-time student status. While I left grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of paid holidays, I couldn't help feeling slightly sad that I would never be returning there again. In fact, I even took my camera...

The grounds

Road and trees...

Pathway

More grounds (regretting doing captions)

My ward, John Carey House + orchids