Which job, academia or NHS?

[NHSorAcademia]

So I’m currently a senior lecturer. I enjoy my job as in the actual work, the students, the flexibility of the job, the lack of micromanaging and being treated like an adult. I’m department head so lots of responsibility but also quite a lot of freedom.

My department is short staffed, this is unlikely to get better as the Higher Education world seems to be hurtling towards a financial crisis. I think my job is very safe unless the university decide to bin my course (unlikely) or go bust (no idea how possible that could be). But workload is only ever going to increase and can be a bit crazy now. But in a way the flexibility makes up for that. I wfh on average 3 days a week.

I’ve been offered an 8b position in the NHS. I’d rather not say the job title but I’m a registered healthcare professional and it’s a senior specialist role. It would be strategic, office based. I could have some patient contact if I wanted with specialist clinics. It’s not managerial, but a lot of leadership of a large department. I think the job has the potential to be interesting but also potentially frustrating. I’ve obviously worked for the nhs before and I’m aware of the barriers you can face when trying to change things. I’m also cautious about the toxic culture of the nhs, the micromanaging, the blame culture, the bullying. There would be no shift work, no ward work but I would have to physically be there 5 days a week. Potentially if there is an adverse event the role could stressful, I imagine there would be a lot of chasing difficult and ever moving targets.

im currently on 50k as not yet on top of the senior lecturer band, i think in a few years time id be on 55k. The nhs job would be about 65k so quite a jump in pay. But we have a comfortable life now so i don’t need the extra money. Pensions, sick pay, leave is comparable for both roles.

I went from academia to the NHS recently, similar situation to you. Academia was very very stressful in comparison to my NHS job...but I am missing it now and thinking of heading back to academia before too long.

I was shocked by the culture of the NHS. It just seems a lot less trusting. For example, I am in senior leadership/management with no-one impacted by my leave, yet I have to get it approved by two separate managers. At my former university we just arranged our cover ourselves and told the department administrator when we would be off. No approval needed. I have also witnessed bullying behaviour in the NHS which I never saw in academia. It went unchallenged so I think it isn't uncommon. This may be specific to my role now, but I felt a lot more comeraderie in my university position, probably because I was a key lecturer on a couple of courses and module leader etc so was quite integrated.

But the main reason I want to get back to academia is the intellectual stimulation. My NHS job is ok, my pay is better but it is far less demanding and I am really missing the research and academic side of being a lecturer.

Something to be aware of if you want to do research though is that much of the NIHR funding being channelled in to nurses, midwives and AHPs is for people in clinical practice, so academics can't apply.

So, pros and cons, but I would think really carefully about what you can get out of your NHS job that will benefit you in the long run.

I don't think I would go back to the nhs in your shoes. I think what you have sounds so much better.

I am also in a similar position as OP. I was wondering what the decision OP made. I found it is getting worse with academia with more responsibilities and no corresponding pays. I found doing research is getting more and more difficult with little support. So I am actively looking for jobs, including NHS jobs.

Stayed in academia and not sure it was the right choice. We’ve had more redundancies, so increased workload, next year will be hell as we’re on 60% staffing compared to last year. And that change will be permanent. Students are increasingly talking about lack of support, etc.

I decided to leave academia - but not necessarily move to NHS since I feel that both sectors share similar bureaucracy issues. My last straw is the management and feel more like a number than a human these days. I also fed up with worrying about things at night and couldn't sleep well these days. So I am leaning to any job that allows me to leave the job behind on a day-to-day basis as long as the pay is reasonable.

I am not like OP, who seemed to being much rooted in the department and is taking much more responsibilities than me. I tried to minimise additional, unpaid roles since they often take much of my research and learning time. Most of them are not rewarding nor increasing the pay either. I really think the university should stop forcing us taking on these unpaid 'leadership' roles and embedding them in the promotion criteria.

Compared to OP, I have less teaching responsibilities. However, most of my teaching experience are not very positive - more like a chore. I do like research but feel very difficult to find good researchers to share the job these days. I feel that I won't progress as fast as my peers with many factors after thinking about my career to date. At the same time, I am in my 40s and feel this will be a few last chance for me to change my career. I just don't want to rant like this for the rest of my life.

It is always hard to know what is the best choice without looking back after a couple of years. While I did not expect that I would stay in academia that long and got a permanent position, I did not expect to be a grumpy, frustrated person after working in academia for a while either. I know I should not mixed the management of my school with academia. They should be separate issues. But I cannot find other nearby institutions with the same position easily. Every university is very tight with their recruitment at this moment. And I have my personal reasons not being able to move around. Also, after seeing recent Labour government's position towards the higher education sector, I just cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. So I decide to quit eventually and start something new before everything is too late for me.