What job can I do instead? Devastated

[treetea]

I have been working towards a midwifery degree since 2019 and I now cannot continue due to a health issue that doesn't affect me day-to-day, but that they feel makes me unsafe to practice.

It is my dream, I have never wanted to do anything else. I was going to use the degree to set up my own business.

I am now at a loss? I have a 4 year old DS and live alone with him.

I am generally quite intelligent, but not a fan of mathematics.

I'd ideally like something with high (ish) earning potential, but I'd settle for less if I loved it.

I don't want to be in healthcare anymore.

I just can't see myself starting from scratch, I'm absolutely gutted.

You say that you don't want to be in healthcare anymore but is that because you are disappointed over not being able to be a midwife. How did this not come up before? Talk to your tutor and see what s/he recommends that you switch to. You have already started your degree and will be required to pay any loan back regardless of whether or not you finish or use it.

If not, a friend of mine wanted to be an educational psychologist but was too expensive to get a job teaching for 2 years so that she could go on to do that training. So she did a course in IT and taught doctors how to use their software instead.

Find out if you can pause your studies. Ideally with the pause running for a full calendar year from the start of this semester (or term, if your uni uses three terms to group teaching), so that you don't have to repeat units that you've already taken. My sister did this with the OU to deal with leaving her STBexH.

Would open university be able to give you credit for any of the work that you’ve done? At least you could work and do an OU degree flexibly over a longer period.

Please direct me to where I said it did?

I am saying, that this course has come at a great cost to me. I will also be in copious amounts of debt as a result.

At our trust we are worked and almost definitely NOT supernumerary.

I also did not say I was planning to leave the NHS. Your comments are unhelpful and irrelevant.

Very odd.

It hasn't come up before, because I only had my first fit in January.

I thought nurses and other AHPs had to pay for their degrees these days?

I thought nurses and other AHPs had to pay for their degrees these days?**

We do.

There are funding options outside the usual student loans and you, strangely, are in an ideal place to apply.

You should still have a years funding left.

Also you can now get funding for a second degree if you study it part time, just for the fees not for maintenance but you could claim universal credit (if you don't already).

You DO have options.

Take time out and go back.
Convert this degree to something else at your uni.
Do a new degree.

Someone upthread mentioned the OU. I'm studying with them and you can still take an 'open' degree which is in no particular subject and you can just transfer your existing credits over.

Appeal. Definitely go to the Students Union and ask. The University should be able to either make reasonable adjustments or offer you an alternative degree option. If they can't then you'll need help finding an alternative degree where your studies with count.

Get the degree, whatever degree that turns out to be.

2 thoughts as to what career path might suit:

1. Lawyer. You would be well placed to act on cases at NMC tribunal hearings. You need your degree (any degree) and there would be a year converting it to law followed by another learning the practical skills. Then there's on the job training but you get paid for that these days.

1. Social worker. This may involve starting degree again but if the offering of practical help to women in vulnerable positions is what appeals this may really suit you.

Good luck

Therapist - many options, some quick to train for, work own hours, can be very lucrative.

Clearly you haven't trained in a while. Midwives and nurses pay for their degree like everyone else nowadays.

If you still want to be a midwife, can you not defer a year? Surely they must have something in place seeing they've deemed you as not able to do placements?

On the other side, if you do have epilepsy, it may be that midwifery isn't the best career choice as it really needs regular medication and decent sleep to be kept at bay.

I don't have any amazing ideas or solutions but wanted to offer support for your possible diagnosis.

Independent lactation consultant or tongue tie consultant? NCT practitioner?

Because I already had to restart 1st year due to being the victim of a crime, so I won't be able to get the funding/loans to complete the degree if I take another interruption.

There's an exemption for health reasons so you should be able to get funding for another year if you interrupt and restart this year again once you've been cleared.

Yes but the poster means that doesn't touch the sides of the cost to the nhs of providing the placements it just costs the student the same as eg a sociology or geography degree.

Are you able to take the credits for the study you've done so far and try and do the Midwifery apprenticeship?
Perhaps look into discrimination as a pp mentioned?!

Agree with the PP who said the funding doesn’t touch the sides, just the student has to pay fees. It’s not like when everyone started paying fees we suddenly had more midwives to teach the students! And mentors have to teach around their workload clinically, it’s very difficult to get time on the ward to sit and do the competency documents so people end up doing it in their own time and students end up feeling bad for asking. It’s not a great situation for anyone.

I guess the question is do you still want to actually be a midwife. If you do then fight for the interruption. It might be that you just aren’t well enough at the moment and in six months you still aren’t well enough to start year 2 again which would be crap. But if you are just a bit sick of it all then maybe see if you can transfer your degree credits into something else.

I know people who’ve gone into aesthetics and it’s a bit of a saturated market and not worth the faff from what they have said.

Has anyone discussed the possibility of taking an Interruption of Studies from your degree? This would put on hold your academic position to this point and give you time to see if you remain seizure-free. Interruption of Studies are normally given for a 12 month period of time and is really useful for situations such as longer-term sickness or maternity leave where healthcare students aren't able to practice clinically. Worst-case scenario, you don't go back, and you aren't any worse off than you are now.

If you really don't want to wait and choose to move on, could you consider a career in health coaching?

Feel free to PM me if you would like, as I've got some experience that may help.

Ah I'm sorry, that's so sad that you can't continue. Perhaps a breastfeeding/lactation consultant? I think it would mean more training but may be quicker given the experience you already have? (I'm just guessing).

wouldn't it be better to just go into another graduate career - law/accounting/etc. more money/opportunities.

so i'd fight for whatever deferral they could give me or swap to another course to get the degree (or any degree really) finished.

speaking to student finance is the best option on what is possible. Surely its discrimination if you have a health condition which means you can't finish your degree AT ALL and are not allowed to do any other degree?

Lactation consultant
Tongue-tie releaser
Antenatal Class Facilitator

You literally said in a previous response "The NHS don't pay me to train, I pay.". A large number of publicly funded students (your loans are literally funded by taxation) are never repaid - your studies are publicly funded until you've fully repaid them.