New career working Christmas as single parent

Management taking individual circumstances into account in 24/7 services usually looks like if you worked a late shift last year you'll work the early shift this year, or the night shift - it's not possible to extend to having the whole 24hrs of each bank holiday off. In the long term I think outpatients would be more suited to family friendly working but you usually need to get some experience on the wards to have the experience wanted for those roles.

How old are your children? You might be able to enquire locally for a babysitter who'd be willing to do extended hours as a one off, though it would be expensive unfortunately. I do have friends in the police who have adapted to single parenthood by creating a network where they look after each others children on opposing shifts but I can imagine that would be difficult if you've got five!

Sorry I know it's not what you want to hear but it really isn't a job that can accommodate childcare needs unless you've got the experience/specialism to move into a 9-5 service (eg community nursing or specific areas that have day patients only) You might need to look into how you can keep your PIN and taking up a full time nursing role when they're older.

I would look at community nursing. They have newly qualified posts these days. Hours are better and generally a bit more family friendly. I also have a friend who got a practice nurse job as a newly qualified nurse.
When I qualified you always use to have to do ward work for a bit but they seems to be more opportunities for newly qualified nurses now .

People don’t mind as long as you’re willing to do a turn - it’s when someone literally refuses to ever work Christmas that it becomes a problem. I did 8 of them on the trot because of such colleagues and by that point you don’t give a fig about their personal challenges.

I don't think you can do that until you have a bit of experience. When you first qualify it's a massive learning curve over the first few years.

Congratulations OP- it’s a fantastic achievement.Some people volunteer to work Christmas Day. I can only hope that if you publicise your request as widely as possible that someone will help out. Hope you can get a job somewhere like outpatients where the hours are better, otherwise it’ll be a nightmare trying to sort childcare!

Do not join the Bank or agency. There's no work at the minute... and with 5 kids OP likely needs a solid income.

If you are full time I very much doubt you would get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day off. You would probably have to work one.
I always use to request to work New Year's Day as lots of the staff without kids wanted that off.
Also the ward I worked on tried to avoid 12 hour shifts over Christmas so everyone got a bit of time with family.
Maybe work nights and get a night nanny? It might be a nice job for someone if they are older and sleep well.

A live in nanny earns more than a nurse. How’s that going to work exactly?!

Another option could be bank or agency Nursing then you could choose your shifts and most wards don't rely on bank staff as much at Christmas time as all annual leave is cancelled.

Can you look at getting a live in nanny? Might not sort Xmas out, but how are you going to handle night shifts?

Have you thought about community nursing or public health nursing eg health visiting or school nursing services? Many employ staff nurses at the moment and these services don’t work nights or bank holidays.

if you have to have some ward experience for these roles (and you may not as many areas are now taking newly qualified nurses due to difficulties in recruiting) ask your xh to do Christmas this year. I know it will be tough to miss Christmas with your dc but think of it as one year.

The wards I worked on often did short shifts on Christmas Day so I would work 7.30 - 2 or 1.30 - 8 rather than 7.30 to 8. You could ask what they normally do.

Do you celebrate Christmas as a family? If you do you can’t leave your children with a babysitter/childcare even if you can find it, that would be bloody awful.

I have a lot of friends in nursing, all rely heavily on spouse, family and friends. It’s just not possible without that support network. You can’t possibly earn enough to make the cost of paid childcare for those shifts worthwhile.

I’m sorry that you have worked so hard for it @ItsSpookySeason but I don’t see this being a viable career for you.

Hats off to you OP for doing a nursing degree with 5 DC under 12!

How will you have all year round in general for the school holidays? I'm a single parent and I've been working for NHS for 13 years plus now. It's been trick and I only have one DC.

Usually you are expected to work either Xmas or NY. You will find very few holiday camps open in the run upto Xmas.

Our trust has an emergency childcare service staff can access. Maybe something like that? Not sure what the chances are for Xmas day but worth a look.

I'm a bit confused. So you have a childcare provider who works nights, weekends, Bank Holidays, can have your children if you start at 7am and don't get home until after 7pm, the only day they can't do is Christmas Day? What kind of childcare is this??

I worked in Nursing for 35 years and usually we either got Christmas or new year off. I guess if your eldest is not old enough to babysit the others you are going to have to look at paying for a nanny or something. There may also be other staff from other cultures who don't celebrate Christmas who would willingly swap shifts with you. Some people will be glad of the extra money that working those key shifts brings in.

Could you do a 9 to 5 in a different nursing role? Outpatients/clinic work? Who will do childcare when you’re doing shift work?

Even if you’re spared from doing nights and holidays, who will take care of 5 children if you start at 7ish and get home 8pm?

The pp said that you can request it under the new law. It isn't a given.
Personally, I don't think it should be.
The request would be for childcare, but the requester doesn't have to state why they are asking. This means anyone could ask for Christmas off without having to give a reason so where would the managers be?? They can't allow everyone off. And sure as shit you can't expect other people to just suck it up and cover for you.

OP - I would see what type of jobs best suit your circumstances, as others have said. It totally sucks you don't have support from the children's other parent. There will be other NHS workers in the same boat, they may be able to help with suggestions.

It still isn’t written into law. The act simply makes changes to the rights to requests it, you now need to be consulted before it can be refused and they need to give evidence for their refusal rather than just saying no for business reasons. And they have to make the decision faster and you don’t need to have worked there for a minimum term or whatever it was before, 26 weeks I think.

The act does not provide a new law guaranteeing anyone flexible working. You should understand that before you start telling people they are entitled to flexible working.

Employers can still say no for lots of reasons;
The reasons are:

• Burden of additional costs
• Detrimental effect on the business’ ability to meet customer demand
• Detrimental impact on quality and performance
• Unable to reorganise work among existing staff
• Unable to recruit more staff
• Insufficient work during the periods the employee wishes to work
• Planned structural changes.

Very easy in an NHS ward to say that they cannot shift the burden of night shift and Xmas shifts onto other staff.

Yes but that doesn’t mean she has the right to have flexible working, only to request it.

@ItsSpookySeason are you on a ward, what are your options for night shifts?

With 5 children, no family and shift work, I’d be looking at getting a nanny, or else hosting a student and offering free accomm in return for occasional childminding. What age is your oldest - old enough to look after the others? If not, you might have to put nursing on the back burner for a few years, particularly as their dad is so useless. I’m sorry, OP - it sucks.

Can you look for jobs that don't need shift work? Like outpatient clinics?

Day surgery, outpatients, Gp surgery. You can’t work on a ward, there are various patterns, all of which are incompatible with being a single parent.

Sorry can't edit on my phone
Flexible working act became law on April 6th 2024, to the poster who said it wasn't written in law