Jobs after Nursing ?

[oooohcarriewhite]

Hi, just looking for any nurses who have left nursing and what you do now ?
I've been in Nursing for 16 years and feeling more and more exhausted and fed up by it.
Dealing with stress, aggression, anger in a daily basis.
I'm currently on a Band 6 and left a Band 7 as too full time and too stressful. Stressed in my Band 6 but not sure I could afford to drop any more financially.
My husband thinks I should stick it out as it'll be a good pension. Will it though ? I've had 2 mat leaves and a break in service ?

Any advice would be massively appreciated. Thank you 😊

[runabath]

There are plenty of industry roles, either pharma or medical device...sales or technical. Definitely worth looking into.

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks @runabath where would you look for these sort of jobs ?
I have a website where I look for nursing posts in my area and don't really know where to look past that ?

[foooookinghell]

A nursing role in domicilary setting which is office based? Community district nurse? Nurses also wit for the companies that assess Face to face PIP disability claims.

[alwayscauseastir]

I employed a nurse similar to yourself who was looking for a change. This was a development nurse post, designed to roll out training to primary care nursing by sourcing and utilising funding streams. She had no previous experience of working in this field, but she had passion and fire to want to make a difference to the NHS. Five years on and she's flying, very highly regarded member of our CCG and respected by her nursing peers. There are development roles on NHS jobs. Admittedly there aren't many, but keep your eyes open. Whether you know it or not, you have skills that primary care needs to develop its services - because you have been there first hand. Don't undersell yourself.

[cinnabunbun]

Have a look at research nursing. It's a lot lower stress with more family friendly hours and autonomy. Most nurses are really good at logistics and project management from all the multi-tasking and fire fighting in a normal shift.

Is there much bank or agency work in your area? Maybe less hours at a better rate would give you more free time to spend with family or retrain in something less stressful. It's good you are noticing this before burning out completely. Unless you joined under the old scheme of early retirement then don't believe the hype about NHS pensions. They are really not all that. Good luck!

[fedup21]

My husband thinks I should stick it out as it'll be a good pension

Hmm, that depends. You’ve only done 16 years-how long until retirement?

[GrandmaSharksDentures]

Could you look at a specialist practitioner role or education perhaps? I now work as a nurse practitioner & it has reignited my love for the job (most of the time )

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks @alwayscauseastir that sounds really good.
I'm just not sure if I'm looking in the right places ? I can never see these sort of posts. Will keep looking though, sounds like a great opportunity you gave.

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks @cinnabunbun I am on the Nurse bank but suppose I'm tied to the financial security of a steady income and set hours. I've 2 children at school and use the after school club so the only thing with the nurse bank is I need my childcare in place. Will have a look though and see if there are any shifts that I could try in an area that I've not worked in before.

[oooohcarriewhite]

Yeah @fedup21 under current guidelines I still have 26 years to work. Which is quite a long to me if I'm feeling so unhappy ☹️

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks @GrandmaSharksDentures my role just now is a Nurse Specialist one and I would be really interested in an education role but really don't see these roles coming up. Or I'm looking in the wrong places ? Or if at uni think you need to have your masters ? I have a couple of masters modules but haven't topped up to full masters.

[Dyrne]

Have you thought about occupational health roles? The ones in my company all have nursing backgrounds.

Be careful before dismissing the NHS pension out of hand though - in the private sector It’s even worse! You’ll probably have a Defined contribution pension, with your employer only matching what you put in to a certain %. I work for a company which is very generous and doubles what I put in, however that’s extremely rare nowadays.

[Floozymum]

I work as a PT aesthetic nurse. Good pay, good hours and generally stress free. Obviously depends if that interests you at all.

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks @Dyrne I'm trying to get my head around my pension just now so I know exactly where I am financially.
I think the NHS is good bit not sure with me having mat leaves, a career break and I work 4 days a week how that will effect everything ?

[oooohcarriewhite]

@Floozymum that sounds good.
I did think along these lines a few years back when I was in Mat leave with my youngest.
Do you have to have specialist training to be able to give injections ?

[shoebedobedobedobedoo]

We sold our £1.2m house to 2 nurses. They had both left the NHS and gone into Pharma, which clearly pays a whole heap better than nursing with no nights or weekends.

[Woofsaidtheladybird]

Hi
You certainly don't need your masters to move into education at uni but it helps. If you didn't they could take you on as a lecturer and help you complete your masters upon which you can then apply for senior lecturer.
I've been in education now for 4 years and will never go back to clinical. I've two children at school and I work full time. I'm not in now till Thursday as I have loads of marking to do but I can do that from home. A 9am lecture to deal with is more tricky but my husbands job is flexible and we sort out drop offs and pick ups between us. My team though usually know not to give me early starts as i have a 2 hour commute each way.
Super flexible though - although I'm plonking myself down in front of the fire today to do marking, but that works for us.
Definitely look into it. You need to look at the uni vacancies websites, these jobs are rarely advertised in the RCN bulletin / Nursing Times.
Feel free to pm me if you want more details

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks @shoebedobedobedobedoo I just had a look at Pharma Jobs online where I stay and the salary's sounds look good but they are looking for experience that I don't have.
I'm not trying to be negative and again maybe I'm not looking in the right places ?

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks so much @Woofsaidtheladybird I always thought that to work as a lecturer you needed your masters so that's really, really interesting and helpful.
I'm going to have a good look on the uni websites today. We have 3 university's where I live who offer nursing courses so maybe there may be something ?
I'm so so tired of clinical nursing. I'm frontline Camhs in a service with hugs waits and every day is so stressful.
I wake at 3am worrying about my day and I've had a cold now for 2 weeks that I can't shift as I'm exhausted.
For the life of I can't find the PM option on my I-phone 🤦‍♀️
Thank you for your reply, it's given me some hope this morning.

[Woofsaidtheladybird]

You're welcome!
Definitely look at the uni's.... and maybe even research the departments and find out the heads of departments and contact them directly.
I was a CNS before, and still teach on my specialty for different departments

[Woofsaidtheladybird]

Also - no rush - if you pm me I can send you an email of the latest UK Uni job adverts in health - and from that you could be able to subscribe to the weekly email job advert thingy

[oooohcarriewhite]

@Woofsaidtheladybird I've sent you a PM.

[Floozymum]

@oooohcarriewhite you can pretty much do both filler and botulinum toxin courses in a a day or two. Which is pretty scary. However, if you want to go into a clinic I'd recommend paying and completing the courses yourself then approaching clinics who should give you further training. Otherwise you could do lots of practise on friends and family and maybe shadow an experienced doctor or nurse in the field?

[oooohcarriewhite]

Thanks @Floozymum I think I may have the option in my current role to undertake the V300 which I think you need ?

[Heidi3333]

Hi I'm also a nurse, have been for 20 years and couldn't imagine working on the wards again. I've worked in outpatients for the last 7 years and it's so much better - better hours, less stress, less responsibility. Is this something you would consider?