Susan Prior, who is in the second year of her degree, decided to follow in the footsteps of her daughter Kirsty by enrolling in Adult Nursing at the University of Brighton.
Kirsty secured a secondment from Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust – where she was working as a Health Care Assistant – to study Adult Nursing. She then encouraged her mother, who was also employed at BSUH at the time, to apply for the same degree.
Susan initially thought she was “too old to start at university”, but she soon came round to the idea. As well as Kirsty encouraging me, staff on the ward I worked also suggested I would make a great nurse,” said Susan. “So I followed in Kirsty’s footsteps.”
Kirsty will graduate in a ceremony at the Brighton Centre on Wednesday 31 July. She said it was “nice to have someone in the family who truly understood the challenges and stresses that came with the degree”.
Kirsty added: “Studying the same course as my mum was great. We weren’t in the same intake, which meant that while my mum was at university I was on a placement, and vice versa. This actually worked out really well, especially for childcare, but also meant we never had the same placements at the same time – that might have been a bit weird.”
Susan said that enrolling in the same course as Kirsty enabled her to “gain an insight of what was to come, what would be covered and when the course may have intense times”.
Mother and daughter both said they regularly speak about the degree, and see each other two or three times a week. “The good thing about studying the same course as my mum was the support we gave each other, like proof-reading essays and preparing for exams,” said Kirsty.
Susan said she and Kirsty were able to “offload to each other at stressful times” and build an “understanding of each other’s coping mechanisms”.
She added: “We have given each other feedback and asked each other questions, which has certainly been beneficial for me.”