giving up profession

[Pieandpeas3]

Hi,

I am a nurse considering giving up on the profession and quitting. I love the time spent talking to patients (mental health) but the workload and stress of the job makes me very stressed and I feel so drained and exhausted after a day at work, I feel that I don't have any energy left for my family. I already work part time so can't reduce my hours. I don't want to be a nurse anymore but not sure what to do, has anyone left a profession and done something totally different? I need inspiration!

I'm sorry to hear this. You sound exhausted. I wanted to tell you you aren't alone. I'm in an associated professional and we are losing experienced staff too because of workload/changing ways of working.

Could you negotiate some decent time off to give you the head space to consider your options?

Off the top of my head - health visiting? Lecturing? As a MH nurse is agency work an option?

Yes but it was a very different profession to yours. I was a sales rep for over 20 years, on the road with impossible targets to hit. Doing a full day of appointments on a large territory and working for 2 hours before I left in the morning and at least the same again when I got home doing admin/phone calls, then at least half a day at the weekend. Driving approx 4000 business miles per month. I was exhausted and very stressed and anxious. I now work in an office, in a completely different role, working regular hours. I earn less than half what I did before but my priorities have changed and my mental health and work/life balance are better. The key thing is to consider your transferable skills. For example, being a great communicator etc. Having worked in mental health, you will have those skills and more by the bucket load op. My suggestion would be to have a look at the job descriptions/person specifications of jobs that interest you, and write a job/person spec for your current role. Say to yourself "I currently achieve x by doing or being y " then say "which means that..." when looking at the description of the new role iyswim. Good luck!

bluesheep8 thanks for your reply, I will start looking around at jobs and see what's out there!