Noreen Brennan Donoghue is a new mature student in general nursing at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Castlebar, Co Mayo.

The GMIT is situated in what was - and partly still is - Saint Mary's psychiatric hospital. It was purpose-built and not a converted prison, as many of these hospitals were. It is huge and still only partly open. Building work is ongoing, but the newly-opened section is really lovely with all the mod cons to aid and improve teaching.

The nursing programme is delivered in the health sciences section. We had a meeting with the head of campus today; Dr Kate Sweeney is one impressive lady. She knows where she is going and the GMIT is lucky to have her. Our class has the distinction of been the last diploma class in nursing, next year it's a four-year degree course.

I did not know it was possible to be this tired and still be alive. We have just finished another full day of lectures and I cannot imagine what possessed me to come here in the first place. Six solid hours a day of non-stop information thrown at us at breakneck speed - chemistry, anatomy and physiology - things I have never heard of before and lived happily without.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and all the stuff I am hearing in lectures was going around in my head, like a brew in a witch's cauldron. I just want to sleep for a week and go back to my normal life.

Each Wednesday we have a late day, not finishing until 5.15 p.m. The last hour is no good to me - my brain switches off long before it is over. I also sit there wondering if I will get home in time to bring the children swimming, clean the house and maybe watch TV for a little while. I miss my teaching job and the schoolchildren. This time last year we were rehearsing the play we would put on for Christmas.

At the end of our first year, we will have completed 50 per cent of our theory, and we are in college 27 weeks out of the 52. That's a lot of theory for someone who has not studied in years.

If I am to keep up I will have to study, but I cannot get my head around the information, the travel, the neglect of family and home.

I thought that going back to study would free me from the world of disputes with employers, but we find ourselves in the middle of one with the Western Health Board over meal allowance.

Students in Galway, who are under the same health board as Castlebar, are getting £47 per week for meals, while we are getting £19.30. I would assume that the answer would be very straightforward. Give us the £27-plus shortfall.

We are talking about the healthcare providers of the future being denied what they are entitled to. Teachers are refusing to accept £27 per hour for supervision. This issue is causing a lot of distress in an already overcrowded course.