Jobs… I don’t want to leave but I do..

[FTMFML]

Anyone ever felt like they don’t want to leave a job but they have to, to come back at a later date more grateful for the job they once had?

Background is nursing, current role I LOVE but the pressure is EXTREME and I getting fairly burnt out with it with no changes in sight.
Im thinking of leaving a a different more relaxed nursing role but thinking I will be bored eventually once I learned how to work in the other role, and that I will pine for the job I once had and want to go back.

wwyd?

I've been in your position and understand how hard it is.
Could you move to the new role as a sabbatical if it's in the same Trust?

No help, but I recently left a nursing role on a lovely ward to a challenging and very stressful role. I was thinking if I could do it back, would I.. i don't think I would... I just to get the experiance from current role and find something else

I really sympathise. Right now I desperately want to leave my job (teaching) but it’s due to a short term situation that I know will, at least partially, only go on for 6 months. But right now I’m anticipating those 6 months of extreme stress/distress and wondering whether it’s actually beneficial to anyone, me going through it. But I know (unless this 6 months kills me) that by next Christmas I should love it again.
I really don’t know what to do for the best.
is it possible for you to take a career break/sabbatical to rest and recharge?

I left teaching last year, I miss my colleagues, miss the buzz of the school but I have such a great work-life balance now it's unreal, yes I'm a little bored but I can fill my evening with something more exciting or go for promotion once I'm a bit more experienced in the role.

With teaching there were days that were fantastic and really enjoyable but there were more days that were ridiculously stressful or unpleasant. I'm on an even keel of contentedness nothing exciting but nothing really awful either.

I'm not sure if sabbatical is the correct term for what I've suggested...What I'm thinking of is whether you could move to the other job for an agreed period of time e.g. 1-2 years with the intention of going back to your current post after that period. If both jobs are in the same Trust and have some common skills and competencies but different opportunities for development then maybe you could convince your current department that you would gain experience and skills in the other role that you could then bring back and apply within your current role/dept. Does that make sense? This type of arrangement would allow the Trust to retain an experienced and valued member of staff (you) and possibly allow another team member to act-up/gain experience in your absence. Retention of staff is a massive problem in the NHS at the moment so they should be open to at least discuss this type of situation. Who knows, they might even suggest some other opportunities within your current team which would allow you to stay, develop but be happier too.

Failing that I think you need to identify your priorities i.e. what's important to you...job satisfaction, patient contact, working environment, office hours/flexible working, more/less responsibility, recognition, travel time/commute etc.
Then compile a list of pro's & cons for current job versus new job.
That should help you see some aspects more clearly. Just the process of writing it all down and thinking about it might help guide you.
Life's too short to be exhausted and miserable because of work and there are so many nursing related roles out there to consider and go for. You can always go back if you don't like it.

A secondment is what I meant, not sabbatical, I knew it'd come to me in the end! Sorry, I'll go now and let someone else offer advice

Thanks all for advice, have queried a secondment anywhere but I need manager approval and have been told the department we are too short staffed for anyone to be released for secondment… but that’s never going to change when we have so many staff leaving!

You're right, that's very short-sighted of them. If you went on secondment they would have money to fund staff to back-fill your post but if you leave they'll lose you and all your valuable experience, and have to recruit and train someone new from scratch.

I think the NHS focus too much on recruitment and increasing apprenticeships/up-skilling for roles that were traditionally degree based; and ignore the all important retention of experienced staff. There needs to be a balance of both. Experienced staff have so much value but often get so burnt out and downtrodden that they lose their spark and either go into zombie-mode, sleep walking towards retirement, or leave altogether.
Find something that you're passionate about and makes use of all the fantastic knowledge and skills you have and go for it!

If you always do what you've always done, you've never get different results.

I guessed this would be nursing from the title!

I am in a similar situation but don't want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire!