Time for a change - a big change

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On a very basic level, I cannot see your work / life balance improving by becoming a nurse. You mention work stress levels. You are still going to have to work long shifts often at night with a lot of stress and on less money. You may get more job satisfaction, but that will be it.
 
What does you wife do?
Is her job secure?
How does she feel about her job and increasing her hours?
How do you both feel about less income?
How do you both feel about probably working more hours as a nurse?
Do you have children and would this move affect any decision for them in the future?
 
PapaLazaru said:
On a very basic level, I cannot see your work / life balance improving by becoming a nurse. You mention work stress levels. You are still going to have to work long shifts often at night with a lot of stress and on less money. You may get more job satisfaction, but that will be it.
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Agreed

Trust me - if you want to potentially reduce the stress levels, DO NOT work for the NHS.

Yes it may be rewarding job in some ways, but seeing what my wife has to deal with/put up with on a daily basis in the NHS, I would seriously consider something else.

A great potential life changing move to make - I commend you for that, but working for the NHS is not a stress free or easy job.
 
is there any way you could get some work experience before fully committing to the career change - tis a completely different field after all - might be worth using a week or two of holiday to see if you could get some sort of work placement as aspects of the job could differ from your expectations
 
OP said:
the death of my father, the death of my daughter and the death of a good friend
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These are significant life events so remind yourself of the lens you're placing on your potential new career.

I worked in Health for 6 years and I don't think I ever met a nurse who had an abundance of free time. Do you know any nurses you can talk to in order to get a feel for what might be in store?
 
rollins said:
Wife works at RM
Job is secure
Less income I can budget with, just a matter of being a bit more "thrifty"
More hours is fine, for me i just no longer get any enjoyment from working at RM
2 children, James is 3 and Isla is 1 - move could possible affect where we live depending on placement/job opportunities. We are close to the main NHS hospital in the Highlands, however realistically there may be a move required.
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You don't mention how your wife would feel about it. I'm not asking you to voice it here but have a think about it and discuss it with her. She will likely say she will support you but after a few years of living frugally as the children grow, and possibly seeing you less, then it may begin to wear her down.

Also don't underestimate the value of having worked somewhere for a long time when you have young children. Your current job may be more flexible for childcare arrangements as they go to school etc (half terms and so on).

I also wanted to join the NHS after my father died but now I realise I'd be stressed, unhappy and poor rather than just stressed and unhappy in my current job.
 
rollins said:
All good points, and the reason I posted here.

We made some connections with a lot of the staff in Inverness SCBU - I'm booked in for a chat with them next week to get some feedback and real life info, and I've done some volunteer work with St John's - albeit this is a different situation than qualified Nursing obviously.

I think regardless, I'm making the right decision in moving away from management in RM - it's a very different company that when I started, and after my line manager stated to me "we are a 24 hour company", pretty much implying I should be on call 24 hours a day, it just feels that things are getting a little bit ridiculous.
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Moving away from RM sounds sensible but doesn't and shouldn't preclude any other avenue of employment. Are you sure about the NHS? How is your counselling going? Wife's views on this?

For the little it's worth, the staff at Inv. SCBU are (or at least were) fantastic so you're speaking to good people.
 
As an ex-RN I can give a little insight.. Nursing is a very demanding profession and emotionally/physically taxing. Working full time all I got out of it was depression, the shift work kills any kind of outside work life you might have had. However in saying that lots of people do really well on shiftwork, loving the flexibility. For me it meant working every weekend, forever, losing all my friends. Not all nursing jobs are like this though as it is a very diverse profession.

I re-trained to become a veterinarian, haven't looked back. More responsibility, much less pay (almost half compared to full time RN wage), but better hours and better patients (for the most part, can't say the same about clients :P). I now have a life. But I did go back to do a full-on 5 year degree with a mortgage and did just fine. I worked Sunday shift as an RN raking in the cash due to penalty rates (>$50AUD/hr perm-part time rate, government job).

I haven't worked for the NHS though, only QLD Health (AUS), which faces many of the same struggles. When I lived in the UK I worked as a vet.
 
To be honest, sounds like you're looking through rose-tinted glasses. Ok you got to be there for your friend, which, great, do you really think you'll be able to do the same for complete strangers?
 
@rollins

It looks to me that you've reached a point quite a few people reach where you reevaluate what really matters to you, and for that matter, what you'll put up with.

You've also hit the blockage to doing something about it, which is the fear .... no, not fear exactly, trepidation, of what is quite a major leap into the unknown.

I can't tell you whether it's right, and I wouldn't presume to try. I can tell you that I did something somewhat similar many years ago and while it's had an upside and downside, it turned out to be the best career move I ever made. That, of course, is no prediction that it will work for you.

It looks to me like you've really decided what you want to do, and are just trying to summon the nerve to jump. It also seems like you're unhappy, and getting unhappier, where you are.

So let me ask you this. You've got something probably like 30 years of working life left. Do you want to spend it doing something currently making you unhappy, if not making you ill? Which do you think, when you look back in 30 years, would make you regret your choice the most :-

1) Going for it, and having it not work out, or
2) Not going for it, and wondering what you missed for the rest of your life?

I suspect the answer depends on your personality type. But my view is you only live once, so use your time wisely. Or to paraphrase an old adage, better to have tried and failed than resenting never having tried. And you never know, it may be a huge success. I certainly feel my direction change was. Few things are more miserable than looking forward to 30 years more of something you dislike or hate, and then looking back on a working life you regret for missed opportunities. Obviously, it's a big decision with implications for family, but having carefully considered it, as you have, and discussed it with partner, as you did, I felt that as I only live once, best grab life by the gonads and squeeze all the experience you can out of it.
 
rollins said:
Unfortunately due to various long term issues with staffing and cover, I have zero flexibility at work. Annual leave has been cancelled and odd days that have been verbally agreed have been reallocated.

My wife is supportive, but obviously I can't comment on the future, but we have discussed the pros and cons in detail. But there are always doubts about what ifs etc.
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I will be blunt, your work life balance will not improve as frontline NHS medical staff, it is most likely to get worse. Also your earnings will take a hit, potentially for a long time. I would advise you think long and hard before progressing that option.

Now, 1) firstly, are you working well over and above what is required of your role and contacted hours? As a manager on your salary in a big organisation like yours, 40-50 hours per week is reasonably normal (in retail you would work much more to earn the same) 2) have you spoken at length to your employer about this? 3) it does sound like there may be no light at the end of the tunnel.

I know many people in management roles who work themselves into oblivion; where actually this is simply self destruction or choice rather than the actual requirements of the job. Others do this because unfortunately they are either not equipped properly by their employer, don't have the skills or worse don't have the capability. Sometimes, the working environment is just toxic. When it's the later, moving on is often a fair option.

Management is usually pressured and often very challenging. Stress however, is caused by the environment around the role, other personalities and the individual's state of mind/capability/personality.

Doing a degree sounds like a great opportunity, finding a new purpose in life is often refreshing, changing employer can be sensible and finding a new management role is easier whilst you are in one.

Consider applying your transferable skills to something new in a direct move, then re evaluate again once in a better working environment?
 
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  • 12 hour shifts including nights
  • Hospital wards that smell of ****
  • Violence and aggression on a daily basis
  • Low pay (you'd need to be a deputy sister on the top of the band to pull £34k)
  • Unappreciated by the management

I respect you if you go for it, I work in the NHS and I certainly see the hardships of the nursing staff but this seems like you'd be jumping from the frying pan, in to the fire!
 
I would echo everyone else, you obviously need to make the move away from RM but think you need more advice, feedback, information and everything else inbetween, from more than one person that is, or has been there as a RN. I understand you want to help people and its clear you have your reasons but be forever mindful (and i'm sure you are) of the impact on those around you. I have worked with brain injury and combat stress, among others, and always fancied something more such as a paramedic, but it is with those closest to me in mind, i choose not to.

Hope that makes sense and, good luck.

Jay
 
I work as a doctor for the NHS and having worked alongside many many nurses I can say that it is very unlikely that your life will become less stressful as a nurse. Nurses have to put up with an insane amount of ****. Especially adult nursing. The caring aspect of the job can end up on the back burner when you've got bed shortages, managers breathing down your neck to move patients on or discharge them; I could go on.

There's also more pressure on nurses to get nothing wrong, and fewer safeguards protecting them if they do. I have a friend who was almost suspended because they gave a drug to the wrong patient, the patient came to no harm and she admitted it but still nearly got thrown under the bus. Given the fact that you have to find, make up, and administer every drug a doctor prescribes I'm baffled how so few mistakes actually happen (given that many, many mistakes are made when doctors prescribe). I personally think I'd find being a nurse more stressful than being a doctor in some ways.
 
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It sounds like you've made up your mind about leaving RM. Think very very carefully about becoming a nurse. It must be an amazing job as it seems to attract some brilliant people - the sort that make me smile every day at work and be grateful to work in such a fantastic team environment. However it's hard work and seriously poor pay for what you are doing. Emotionally and physically demanding shift work can really take its toll. It sounds like your current hours might be comparable which should give you some insight at least. Personally I think shift work is a young person's game. There are community and outpatient roles that can avoid this (for how long I'm not sure) but the pay suffers accordingly.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
What you really need is an insight in how nurses work on the ward, the stresses that they are under, but also how rewarding it can be.

Now you could volunteer to work in a hospital but then you would miss out on hands on care. Another option would be to join the NHS bank agency for health care assistants. Then if you have any spare time you could work some shifts as a carer and get an idea of what happens on a ward. Yes this is only the basic care work that you do. But this can act as a good foundation and gives you an opportunity to see nursing life before you commit to university and quit you RM job.

http://www.nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk/Pages/home.aspx

Also as a nurse you don't have to work on the wards, you could go into theatres or into the community or even work in the private sector running your own nursing home.
 
Becoming a postman seems like a good option for you. You know the organisation and there can't be many less stressful jobs than dropping post through people's doors and occasionally chatting to the homeowners.

Also it gives you the option to move back upstairs at some point in the future, maybe when you're feeling differently about things.
 
OP you sound to me like a person who is not really set up for management responsibility (nothing wrong with that) and you are working in an environment that I can well imagine is pretty horrible right now. The RM is a business under significant threat, hence comments like "we are a 24 hour business" which they have to be as the world is 24 hours. If I can go onto a website and order something to be delivered the same day then the infrastructure needs to support that and I suspect when you started that wasn't something people did.

Id also suggest that right now the real appeal of the NHS is 3 years of laid back education where you can learn something new and take the pressure of work life away. We all know, those who have done both, that education is a cake walk compared to work, not least when work involves responsibility of any sort. Are you perhaps looking for a way out and right now the ability to spend 3 years building into something is the real appeal?

I can't help but think when/if you finish the education process you will have a rude awakening and 1 year on the NHS might see you in a worse place than you are today, with less money, more family pressure because of that and bigger problems. I could also see you 5 years down the line working as a postman again after a failed 5 year that wasn't what you hoped.

Having said all that, if you can honestly say to yourself this is REALLY what I want, you fully appreciate the sacrifice you, your wife and children will be making and you understand that it will not be easy then go for it. But I would think long and hard about this decision and right now, this is the time to be really honest with yourself.
 
rollins said:
Biggest concern - if the above timeline is correct, I'll be a newly registered nurse at 39! A student with a mortgage! While my wife is going to increase her hours to cover the bills, it will be a huge drop in our disposable income.
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Have you looked into what funding is available to train as a nurse? My partner works in healthcare and they seem to be falling over themselves to offer bursaries for study and the like.

As for the career change, a former colleague of mine at the age of ~50 gave up a reasonably well paid job (don't know exact package but probably circa £80k salary) as a principal consultant / project manager in IT to go and work as an HCA. I think they were OK financially though so it was really more of a lifestyle change to get rid of the stress and travel.
 
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