Can't be a nurse anymore

[Burntout65]

After 11 years, I'm done. I'm completely burnt out, going home in tears. So stressed all the time. I need to change careers.
However, I also have a mortgage and bills to pay. Has anyone changed career from nursing to something else and what do you do now? Thank you

I'm so sorry to hear this. That's must be so hard for you.

What kind of nurse are you?

Hi OP

I'm really sorry and I don't blame you in the slightest.

You don't say what you do? Wards/community/ something else? I left the NHS because I couldn't look after people safely in the environment and I didn't come to work to give substandard care.

If you want to keep your PIN, they're are she'd loads of opportunities out there, CHC assessor, case manager, benefits etc. If you are not in LinkedIn I steering recommend don't so asap, I often get approached by companies.

Good luck!

How about look for a gp surgery or community position.

Could you work for private Healthcare?

I hear you. This was me some years back and I speak to loads of nurses, junior and senior, everyday who are saying this.

But I’m still a nurse and like a completely different person after changing my working conditions and role.

What’s your situation? Obviously don’t share if you can’t or don’t want to but it will be helpful so we can give you appropriate advice

age
AfC band and role
family set-up (kids etc)

When you feel rubbish, it’s easy to think to just jack it all in but you put in a lot of hard work to get your registration and you may be able to make changes so you can keep hold of it.

As pp said, there are lots of choices and opportunities in nursing. You have done 11 years of hard labour, take a step back.
Consider clinical nurse specialist roles either in hospital or GP.
Practice nurse
Occupational health
Research
Teaching.

Thanks everyone for your replies, its really appreciated. I'm a band 6 gynae nurse in outpatients. I've done community and acute care too. I dont want another nursing job, I cant do it anymore. @NT2018 what did you change to?

Possibly, I dont know anything about work in private healthcare. People say the pensions are bad?

Grown up kids so no dependents. Single, sole homeowner so I'm 100% responsible for the mortgage and bills.

Thank you so much. What do you do now?

So sorry to hear this. I know someone who has moved over to private sector. Mental health assessment. £20k more and totally different. You could look at private providers? Or try training, research, fertility? I left the NHS (non clinical) for the private sector and it was life changing. Life is too short to be captured by the pension and salary is better

I can only tell you about a relative of mine who kept her registration by becoming a house mother in a private boarding school and loved it. She no longer does this and has moved away from nursing altogether.

One of my colleagues works as a PIP assessor, good pay and wfh. You could try and get a role with the nmc, sometimes they have vacancies for tribunals. The private healthcare companies put out jobs for people to assess the insurance claims (does their package cover what they want.) You could do Botox/vaccinations working for a private company. Teaching?

And the working environment is much better than NHS.

Total career flip, but a lot of nurses I know have branches into aesthetics-would this be worth looking into?

Further/adult education teaching
Expert witness
set up private travel/vaccination clinic
pip assessor
drug rep
customer helpline for pharmaceutical firm

Some other ideas if you wanted to keep your pin
-Clinical research/trials
-Private fertility clinics that do IVF or gynae services such as bpas
-Join an agency. Depending on where you live and experience, you might get to try different wards/clinics both NHS and private.
-This time of year, several companies start looking for nurses to give flu vaccines over the autumn/winter season. BUPA/Nuffield and you'll often go to corporate companies and vaccinate staff. NHS hospitals often look for additional staff to do the same, but to vaccinate their own trust staff
-Pharmaceutical rep

Move into nurse education in a university? Roles can vary from teaching posts to clinical skills teaching. There’s not as many jobs as there used to be but there’s still some advertised

Two people I know gave up hospital working. One was fairly recently qualified and decided ward nursing wasn't for her and she's now very happy as a district nurse. The other was a sister of many years who was effectively bullied out by a new manager and his cronies. She left the NHS and is a rep for a drugs firm, doing really well and enjoying it.
Do either of those interest you?

check out the National Careers service - they can help walk you through options.

You'll have lots of transferrable skills

I left nursing in 2012. I got a job with a health care charity. From then I moved to three other charities, getting promoted each time. I'm just about to start a deputy CEO role for a fourth charity on a six figure salary. Your communication skills and empathy and ability to juggle multiple demands at the samentime are all excellent transferable skills.

I have lost my PIN but I realised very quickly that I never wanted to go back anyway.

I used to be a nurse. Like you totally burnt out after 25 years of it. I. Now a podiatrist and love it. Ive been a podistrist for 20 years now. I wish Id done it instead of nursing.
9 to 5 weekends and bank holidays off. No nights or stupid long shifts.
Better job security as there are so few of us.

My sister went into sales for a pharmaceutical company and then back into nursing in the middle East. She eventually went into nursing education after being in a private school. She hated her private jobs.

So I was very senior in A&E. Started at 22 and was done in by 34. I had to leave the NHS for my sanity. For me it was everything…pressures to manage a ridiculously small budget but provide a gold standard service, abusive patients, toxic colleagues etc.

I worked everywhere but the NHS for a long time - charities, commercial companies, universities- but all using my nursing registration.

I now run my own business supporting young people and clinicians to make the right decisions about their careers in healthcare and I absolutely love it.

What is it about your role that is making you so unhappy? Lots of ward nurses I know are dying to get into outpatients so it’s interesting but dreadful that you are so unhappy.

Very happy for you to DM me if you’d rather.

Whatever you do, don’t make any rash decisions and hand in your notice if you have financial obligations. There are, of course, opportunities for experienced nurses but it’s important to make sure you have the requisite education/skills under your belt for quite a lot of them so use this time to get your CV in shape.

No experience looking for a job. I’m an AHP too, but my experience working with carers for my Mum living at home with dementia makes me wonder if there are openings in management for such agencies. Someone who knows how to assess needs, assign tasks and monitor notes would fit such a role.