Any Social Workers, nurses or midwives here?

[jofeb04]

I've got another thread in Student Parents about this, but basically I am so confused on the direction I want to go in once I have finished my Access Course.

Have any of you got any pearls of wisdom to help me decide!

I will be filling in the Uni forms in sept, so still got time to decide, but how am i meant to decide when I don't know what the jobs entail (well, I don't know what Socail services entail).

Thanks

[MamazonAKAfatty]

Social work is incredibly varied. There are very different roles.
Children and family, Youth offending, vulnerable adults, adoption and foster care....etc etc

what was your access course? i know there is access to social work, access to nursing and access to social care...was it one of these? i would have thought that each course would have had an emphasis on a specific path.

Maybe you culd ring your local services and ask if they would mind you shadowing them for a day? that way you could see "a day in the life" sort of thing.

whichever path you do finally choose don't allow yourself to be pushed on way or another. the roles you are considering are all high stress but deeply rewarding...if you getthe right one for you.

good luck

[movingmadness]

You need to be completely irresponsible, have no common sense and need a social worker yourself to actually be one.... or is that just in this area ???

Sorry, being serious, choose carefully.... All depends on the environments you want to work in, i.e. inside all day, travelling a bit, in other people's houses, part of a team or solo, babies to elderly.

Whatever you choose, good luck and most of all - ENJOY !!

[jofeb04]

Thanks for that.
I was always interested in midwifery, and thats why I went onto the Access to Nursing and Healthcare professions. Then I started to think about child nursing and Health Visitor.

Last week a social worker came into college, and that placed another job in my mind.

A big thing for me is that as a Doula and Alternative Therapist (and being self-employed), I would like to keep that up as well (I must be mad!).

[MamazonAKAfatty]

movingmadness - you must live where i worked then

[MamazonAKAfatty]

I think if you are already a Doula and enjoying it i would have thought you are probably best suited to midwifery.

social work is very much paper work and red tape whereas midwifery is all about the hands on contact and interaction with people.

Plus you already have a wealth of experiance to fall back on.

[jofeb04]

I was planning on midwifery, but if I go down that route, I would have to give up a job that I love.

Bloody hell, why did I change my mind!!

I am really nervous about "settling" for a degree and career iyswim.

[MamazonAKAfatty]

I really wouldn't look at it as settling.

many of the skills you will learn are transferable as all the careers you mention are within the health and social care remit anyway.

[3andnomore]

You don't have to be a paediatric Nurse to be able to become a Health Visitor...but you must have a certain time working as a Nurse after your Training is finished to eb able to do the course for Helath Visiting.
Not sure how they do it now, but at one point all Nurses/paed Nurses and Midwifes did their first year togehter and there was sometimes still a chance to change your original plans...but, I know they have changed it all around so, probably isn't working like that anymore.

[nailpolish]

nursing - you will never be stuck for a job, and its very very useful for so many other things

[kiki81]

what is nursing so very useful for? What else can you use it for?

[McDreamy]

Where would you you like me to start kiki

developing people skills
management - both time and people
teamwork
enhancing patience
diplomacy
empathy

there is so much more to nursing than anatomy and physiology. I have learnt alot of skills from my 12 years that I use every day.

[kiki81]

No I meant more in other careers - as it's quite specialised can it be used for other positions

[lou031205]

Kiki it's all about transferrable skills. In nursing you demonstrate your ability to deal with difficult people, prioritise, think on your feet, and the fact that you have attained a level of education, to start with.