Please help, if not nursing then what?

[rideordie]

I'm due to start an access course in a few weeks. Then it's onto uni next September.

My original plan was midwifery but it doesn't have as many areas to specialise in and I wanted to do it to support women, which I can do as a nurse. Plus I'm not keen on babies (although yes it's mostly 'with women')

I'm really baffled now. I know Nursing is hard work but every single person I know in nursing or midwifery feels miserable and fed up. 2 close friends have jumped ship and do something completely different. One has told me she feels like cheap labour and inferior to Doctors.

I'm panicking because this was the start of a 'career' for me, one that I considered stable. However, it's extremely costly to do and so consuming, I wonder if it'll be right.

I have a young child who I also want to spend time with for the next 3 years that I'd be studying like mad, consumed also with placements and exams, essays.

If not nursing/midwifery, then what? I want something I can have as a profession out of.

I'm tired of dead end admin jobs I wanted to make something more of myself.

@rideordie - yes the course I'm hoping to do is a uni one, but not a degree, it's a two year diploma which only takes two years rather than 3 for the same qualification

I’m currently training to be an odp. Some unis still do the 2 year diploma. I’m doing the 3 year degree though.

It’s a job that no one has ever hear of but I love it. Yes it’s 3 years training but so is nursing and midwifery. And the knowledge we need to know is huge. Anaesthetics is a lot. You still get to help with delivering babies too (love that part!).

Don’t count it out if it interests you. There is a big shortage of perioperative staff.

Ps odp training is generally more family friendly as shifts are 8-6 4 days a week. When I did my ward placement they let me do the same hours too.

I haven’t had to do any nights or weekends (find theatres much more flexible than wards) mainly because nothing really happens at night. Weekends more does but I haven’t been asked to do them.

Dave Thank you so much!

I'm really interested in the role. I'm trying to find out as much as I can. Only one uni near me offers the degree, and so far I cannot see any options anywhere to do the same qualification for just 2 years?

I'm really excited to discover more

Just google Operating Department Practice DipHE and go to the UCAS page which will tell you what universities do it

Try this from the NHS website. There don't appear to be too many 2 year Diplomas though- most seem to have changed to the 3 year degree.
www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/course-finder?field_leading_to_a_career_in_tid=194&field_qualification_type_tid=All&field_study_mode_tid=All&field_region_tid=4&field_provider_name_tid=All&temp=All

Feel free to pm me if you need anything. I’m in the south east so not many unis down here offer it and the one that did do the diploma has stopped doing the course this year.

Good luck. It’s an amazingly rewarding job. Every day is different.

A bit of a negative one for radiography, I'm afraid.

It used to be an okay job, but everywhere you look now, it's all 12-13 hour shifts, no recognition for speciality, say MRI, which is difficult plus general hands/feet xrays at 4am; plus 24/7 working in all areas, bar Nuclear Med and most ultrasound (which as a specialisation has just failed to be recognised by whoever the professional body that protects job titles is called, so anyone can call themselves an ultrasonographer).

Most of my criticism is aimed across the whole hospital based NHS: the standard of middle management is shocking. We are openly being forced to work down to a price, not up to a standard. Those who 'enforce' this are hoeing into their second chardonnay as you enter hour 9 of a 13 hour shift, dangerously understaffed, over worked and under-resourced, alongside an HCA (if you have any support at all!) when once it would have been a fellow professionally trained radiographer.

My department has xray machines that are older than our newly qualified staff...

The advantage in nursing is that you can find 9-5 jobs in it, still, and the skills you have are more readily transferable into other areas of work down the track. But the training looks brutal (radiography training is at least largely 9-5!).

I am counting down to retirement if I don't get sacked for letting rip to management before then...

Paediatric nursing. It's the best job in the world and so what removed from the stress of adult nursing.

Physio? I know a pregnancy specialist physio who just sees pregnant and postnatal women. Employed by the nhs.

I'm a nurse, and now a health visitor

If you were going to do a midwifery degree what's the difference doing an ODP degree

No disrespect to other ODPs but the scope for progression is limited.
You will rarely see anyone awake (briefly in anaesthetics)
Theatres are also quite odd depending on the hospital, I worked in a large city hospital and theatres drove me crazy. Very cliquey, more politics than in other areas, very insular, I didn't enjoy handing things to doctors and there was no autonomy for me

Actually there is a much larger scope for progression than there used to be.

Some theatres can be clichey yes but it very much a changing environment with non technical skills such as team working and communication very much in the forefront right now (ANTS, NOTSS).

You will see awake patients. Not everyone has general anaesthetic. Plus you are there to be an advocate for the patient when they are unable to advocate for themselves. Plus there is recovery. It’s only theatre when they are asleep.

It’s a completely different role to midwifery. It’s a completely different role to nursing (I’ve done nursing training so I know that).

I actually find theatres less clichy than wards tbh. I didn’t enjoy my nurse training until I had my theatre placement where I found my feet. I loved it. Mainly because there was less clichyness and it was more relaxed. You could have a laugh.

I began my nurses training and never completed it. It broke me mentally and fincancially and it was almost impossible to juggle with family life as well.

I ended up working in pharmacy which is challenging, interesting and more family friendly with hours etc. I'm not a pharmacist so didn't need a degree, just learn on the job.

I'm really surprised I've only seen one mention of Health Visiting on this thread!
It's one extra year after qualifying and you get paid at band 5 while you do it and a 6 when you're qualified. The majority of what you do is helping women, rather than the actual children themselves. It can be mental health, support through domestic violence, safeguarding (my personal fave).

The hours are good, I do 8-4 but others do 9-5 or just switch them around to suit them. I organise my own diary and do pretty much what I want when I want to. It's super varied and every day is so so different. If I fancy getting out of the office I can leave and go for a walk, you're not micro managed or tied to your desk or ward. If I'm not feeling it one day I can switch visits around and have an office day. I love the flexibility.

I'm a mental health nurse. The problems with the profession are largely the same problems with the NHS. Chronic underfunding means that we're all overstretched. I also think that the down grading if roles that people retire out of means you have nurses with less experience doing the job that a much more qualified nurse used to do. This is especially true in community nursing where a band 5 was unheard of (at least in mental health) until recent years.

However I love being a nurse. I'm lucky, I have recently started in a band 6 ward based clinical role (progression in wards can very often be limited to going into managment) and I wouldn't change to any other career but I would not reccomend nursing unless you really had a passion for it.

However, if you are interested in mental health there are lots of womens teams popping up all over thanks to some funding towards maternal mental health. Worth looking into.

@DaveMinion obviously I know they're different roles, I've worked in theatre

What I meant was the op is saying she can only find a 3 year degree option for ODP but was originally planning on a midwifery degree (still 3 years). So didn't understand the difference to the OP timewise

Ooh, theatres.

Used to loathe theatre as a radiographer; all those egos!

And, often being the only 'non-insider', as a radiographer, you could often be the target of 'tensions' within theatre.

I work with quite a few (female) radiographers who only go to theatre under duress.