Teacher/nurse/midwife/paramedic/social worker

[Niffler29]

I am looking to go college/university next year. I am nearly 30 and I am a single parent to 11 year old DS. I have always wanted to return to education as my current job, as much as I love it, offers no progression and is poorly paid. I just don’t really know 100% what I want to do and any friends I talk to in the above professions don’t sound very happy there 🫣.

I know they all come with extreme difficulties but there are a few for each that concern me slightly more:

• Teaching - I’ve been reading online that newly qualified teachers are struggling to get permanent positions are their first year and end up having to relocate. This wouldn’t be an option for me and I would be worried about working my ass off for years to just not be able to get a job at the end of it.

• Nursing - I’ve read and heard a lot about bullying in the workplace being really common which is the main thing that puts me off.

• Paramedic - Friend’s have advised me that in the beginning when you get a position your shift pattern can be all over the place as you will almost be covering colleagues holidays until a permanent shift pattern opens up.

Can anyone who works in those professions shed any light on their experiences? I want to find a career where I am helping people in need, something that I can be proud of doing and that will make my son proud of me but preferably something that doesn’t destroy my mental health at the same time. If such a thing exists! Thanks in advance for any advice.

Paramedic you may get a rota line straight away however, I can't really recommend the 4:30am starts 2 days a week followed by 2 night shifts! And you will rarely finish on time, makes childcare tricky. Missing Christmas, birthdays, parents evenings etc....plus the ambulance service is crumbling along with most other areas of the NHS, it's pretty stressful!

Apart from being public sector, those jobs are really all quite different. Why are you focused on those, specifically?

I think you need to narrow down quite a bit. There are many, many ways to help people in the world. What are you good at? What's your editing experience? How good are you at handling pressure?

Those all sound like jobs you can only cope with doing if you have a passion for them.

*EXISTING experience, not editing experience. Shut up autocorrect

Social work would be better, but it depends on you, your experience and what you have to bring to social work.

I agree - what job satisfaction do you want OP?

These are all challenging roles as are most jobs in the public sector that require a qualification and pay above minimum wage. So far you have mentioned pay and education as benefits but not why you want these types of role.

What about supporting someone and their family at the end of life. It's an incredible privilege, but would it be something you would get satisfaction from?

What about helping a child who was really struggling to read a simple sentence or learn their times tables? Is the glow you feel worth being physically attacked and having to deal with difficult parents.

What about reassurance to someone who is drunk and homeless with mental health challenges, could you offer advice and signposting but walk away, knowing there is ultimately nothing else you can do?

I honestly wouldn't go into teaching. I have recently left. (I was late into teaching after various high pressure jobs). Nothing prepared me for the intensity and long hours and constant scrutiny.

Thanks for replying. That sounds pretty brutal. DS would be a teenager by the time I qualified but I’m not sure I would want to sacrifice so much time with him. Out of the NHS careers paramedic appeals to me most as well but most friends have really advised against it.

I wouldn’t go into nursing or midwifery unless you have a burning passion for that career.

Those jobs are vastly different and not comparable at all. You need to think about what you actually want to be doing at work day to day and then decide.

I've been nursing 13 years and my shifts are all over the place, it's normal in healthcare unless you work in outpatients or somewhere similar. Pay isn't amazing but it's ok, less than teaching though. I take home 1.9-2.4k per month full time at the top of my banding. I can't progress to the next banding unless I complete a university course or move to another ward.
Bullying is an issue on some wards and with certain cliques on staff.

I agree with everyone who says these are a very diverse range of jobs. I love teaching but can’t imagine anything worse than being around people who are ill and in pain all day long.

It’s worth thinking about what you’d like in 10 years and where you’re child will be. School holidays aren’t such as issue I guess as he’s 11 and will be fairly self sufficient by the time you qualify. I found five weeks off in busy expensive August but unable to have a long weekend for friends birthdays or weddings etc increasingly a massive PITA once DS was old enough to not need me.
I like to move to OZ in which case social work and teaching are skills in demand worldwide.

They are incredibly different jobs and they all IMO require a vocation of some sort. What do you want to do? What are you good at?

I'm married to a paramedic - do NOT do it! The shift patterns are known to literally knock decades off your life.
The working conditions are shit - if you want a day off for something special no-one will give a shit.
You'll rarely finish on time.
The pay is crap and practically everyone works overtime to make ends meet. Anything you do earn you lose an eye-watering amount in tax.
I love my dh and am incredibly proud of him which makes it worth it but it's tough and we all have to sacrifice a lot to make it work.

I am an ED nurse.

Love love love my job although it's not for everyone!
Pros about nursing is it is so diverse you can go into any area prison, theatre, palliative, children, mental health .. you get the idea the list is endless - or you can be a call handler/desk job if thats what you would prefer with NHS24 etc.

I don't find it bitchy as I have no interest in bitching.
I would recommend doing some bank work as a CSW to see if you like the "idea"

I did consider doing paramedic.... but you are stuck with the same person for hourss or end... and if you didn't get on that would KILL me!
Good Luck!

Have you spoken to a Careers Adviser ( or even considered becoming one?!) as it sounds like you could do with talking though all of your options.

My main passion is animals, which is the sector I work in now but unless you are a veterinary surgeon, this sector is very poorly paid with no progression. Combined with the fact massive corporates are taking over veterinary practices left right and centre and profit is becoming more and more of a main priority, it’s no longer a long term option for me.

When I decided I wanted to return to studying I automatically wanted to go into teaching as I would love to help the next generation and living/growing up in a deprived area I understand how important good teachers are. Unfortunately every single person I know in teaching has massively advised me against it. My next thought after that was to look at being a social worker to help children who really need it but again, no one I know in this profession seems to be even slightly happy there.

The NHS type roles appeal to me as over the past 5 years I lost my gran and dad to cancer and my grandpa to vascular dementia. I was very hands on with caring for them and the NHS staff we dealt with in that time were amazing, they were worth their weight in gold. Again though, I have heard such bad things about nursing and paramedic that I considered midwifery as an alternative.

I totally agree that I need to narrow it down a bit, I just have no clue where to start. My true passion isn’t really an option and I am worried that at my age, I need to choose something sensible that I’m capable of doing long term.

Ex Social Worker and work closely with teachers. Both are high stress long hours jobs!

SW perks are getting to engage with families and depending on which team, not as high stress (for example fostering and adoption is generally a different tempo to Assessment and Duty or Child Protection). There is also such versatility to a Social Work degree, can go to a mental health team or school safeguarding etc.

Teaching perks obvs the holidays and getting to engage with kids daily. Downsides huge amount of pressure to obtain results and do work in non teaching time, plus additional safeguarding/Senco or leadership placed on teachers in smaller budget schools

I’m s social worker & love it but I am a very resilient person & put in a lot of extra hours form filling, case notes etc on certain days. There would be other social work roles that may be more manageable. I’m in a duty team so it is whatever comes in when you’re on duty. If you already have a degree have a look at Frontline & Step-up to social work which fund your training & you get a bursary

I wouldn’t advise anyone to go into social work at the moment.

Teaching - only if you’ve worked in a school, preferably as a TA, for at least 6 months and have an idea of what teaching really looks like.

When I decided I wanted to return to studying I automatically wanted to go into teaching as I would love to help the next generation and living/growing up in a deprived area I understand how important good teachers are. Unfortunately every single person I know in teaching has massively advised me against it. My next thought after that was to look at being a social worker to help children who really need it but again, no one I know in this profession seems to be even slightly happy there.

You should consider training to be a Careers Adviser - you kind of get the best bits of these jobs, it's a helping profession, there's a skills shortage at the moment and some sectors pay quite well!

Honestly, I want to help people. My current role/passion is helping animals and it has been for a pretty long time now but I can’t do it forever. Not if I ever want to live about the bread line.

I live in and have grown up in one of the most deprived areas in the country and I would do ANYTHING to help people get out of the poverty cycle there is here.

I cared for my dad, grandpa and gran in the last year of their life through cancer and vascular dementia. I’m really not ignorant to the difficulties that come along with that and it is why working for the NHS appeals to me as well. The staff we dealt with on a regular basis were outstanding. In saying that, I’m not sure I could work with elderly people all day every day but as another posted advised, there are many different roads to go down in nursing.

Helping children struggling wouldn’t phase me at all and I’d love to see that moment when it clicks for them but I admit, I would struggle with neglectful parents and having to keep my mouth shut.

Drunk/homeless/drug addicts are just part of my daily life tbh. My dad was an alcoholic and that was part of the reason he passed away at 51. I learnt a long time ago to not be judgmental and that there is only so much you can do to help, the rest is down to them.

I'm a primary school teacher and got my first role as an NQT and am still there almost 15 years later!

Most teaching jobs now tend to be year contracts in the first instance but there is also supply!

The bonus is having the school holidays off with the kids...

The workload is HARD and a lot of evening work (and some weekend work!).

Will you do the pgce or teaching degree? The pgce is very intense (I did the degree and feel I was more prepared than if I'd done it all in a year!).

Mental health social worker in a community team?

Would you consider Probation/prison service?

Are you a vet nurse OP? Are there other areas of vet medicine you could move into which don't involve being a vet surgeon?