To give up a well paid career for a NMW job?

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Ive just kind of applied for a job in a shop. Not sure of the wage but it's not going to pay well. But it's a shop related to a hobby of mine and I'm genuinely interested in it and think Id find it interesting.

I'm currently a midwife. I feel burnt out. I'm sick of the long shifts and the night shifts, I'm sick of the e rosta giving me 50 odd hours one week and 20 the next.. I'm sick of the paperwork and the pressure and the overwork/not enough staff/too many women.

More than anything im sick of the fear culture and investigations. I'm a good, experienced midwife but I see colleagues been hauled over the coals for really minor stuff which a few years ago no one would have batted an eyelid at. Medication given 30 mins late, etc. one of the matrons asked me to come and see her the other day and I felt physically sick as I went to her office.....turns out it was nothing at all, I wasn't in trouble. But I can't spend my life feeling like this.

Dh earns enough that we can cover bills no problem. But it's the nice things in life that would be a struggle....holidays, clothes, hair cuts, new gadgets. Id also have to go full time and at the minute im part time....so Id work more hours for less pay. It's nice having an extra day off for meeting up with friends, going to the gym, etc.

Alternative is to just to stick it out as long as possible until I do have a near breakdown, and at that point think "fuck it" and walk away.

I'm so sorry you feel like that - and the many other HCPs that have posted here. The health service as it should be is crumbling and it's taking some of the very best staff with it.

Unfortunately I'm the breadwinner so it really is a jump off a cliff for me - you have a parachute (your DH earns well, there is bank work easily enough available) - so go for it. You only have one life, if you have stopped enjoying your work, you can change things. I feel like there's sometimes a culture of owing our professional working lives to the NHS. It's not true.

Take some time off and do bank. You sound v tired and stressed. Try not to think in 'all or nothing' terms. Give yourself 3-6 months and really take care if yourself and then see how you feel.

Does work have a counselling service? Most NHS trusts have systems in place for a confidential support telephone service. I am a senior NHS manager and I have encouraged stressed team members to use it and I have been impressed with the feedback. Just talking it through with a trained listener may help.

Do you have a good supervisor? Can you talk to her?

I really feel for you. Hope you can work out a solution that gives you the break you need without burning all your bridges.

Have you thought about training to be a lactation consultant? Good ones are worth their weight in gold, and you could help people so much but without the stress levels, perhaps?

Be very careful. "Easy" jobs can be spectacularly boring and end up making you feel drained and depressed. I was a receptionist on NMW in an office where nothing happened. I had very little to do, and the work I did have was dull. I have never felt so miserable and dreaded work so much as in that job.

I think it's worth looking at how many bank shifts you would need to do to get the income you're happy with, and perhaps look for a pt job that allows you to do them.

Definitely keep registered, and you can always come back to it after a break.

With regards your hobby, is there any money to be made selling your finished product?

its such a shame so many midwives and nurses feel like this, the NHS needs to look at how they treat their employees and patients for that matter. where i worked they were closing down so many wards cutting back on so many staff people routinely couldnt get their breaks on a 12 hr shifts, it wasnt uncommon especially at weekends to be dangerously understaffed but when incidents occurred the manager never looked at that it was always the poor staff that happened to be on duty that got it in the neck!

I have been considering my options for similar reasons. I'm an RMN and the stress and constant pressure is wearing my down like never before.

I feel disillusioned, burnt out and at a bit of a crossroads, just not sure where to go from here.

I would love a 'no pressure' job but I'm not sure it exists! I have mulled over the idea of looking for a role as a support worker or something but I'm not sure I could deal with the loss of autonomy, in reality.

My latest plan is to do Bank shifts only when my DH retires. He's 14 years younger than me so that's only a few years away. I could chose when to work and have time off when it suits me to do a tour of the UK with DH etc.

You have my sympathies op, I think the NHS is haemorrhaging experienced staff due to stress and pressure. It's a great shame.

I have just left the nhs and these posts completely correlate with my experience. I didn't even have the stress / responsibility of direct contact with patients, I was in an allied health role, but the bullying, unrealistic expectations etc just got too much. I loved the job, I am very worried about what is happening to the nhs at the moment and i felt very guilty leaving the organization (extremely under staffed department, so leaving really didn't help colleagues). But the stress was too much. My dh was desperate for me to change jobs because I was so stressed at home. Crazy thing is I have gone from pt to ft hours and feel happier already. It is a move to teaching and I do sometimes wonder what I have let myself in for! But the pros are I will get time off when it matters, Xmas, easter, summer. And I won't have cases, clinical worries hanging over me as you described. I'm managing to keep my registration and that is an important consideration. I really feel for you and I understand how horrible it is. I think reading all posts that going for bank working if possible would be good idea, it would keep you in a profession that you obviously love. Good luck

x2 There is also the problem of filling NQN posts.
NQN are not interested in the stress of ward work and are taking up community posts instead or going abroad
40% of student nurses drop out (on average) without qualifying.
There is a huge problem and nurses from abroad are being employed instead but this is expensive.
Nurses and midwives are not valued in the UK

You could sign up for an agency. You'd probably only have to do one shift per week to match your current wages.

i know in my trust namechangenurse , newly qualified staff found it near impossible to get jobs as there were so many posts frozen, we were losing a great many excellent nurses throughthis often nurse that had been seconded by the trus to do their training [previouslyHCA,S] it made no sense to me this was mental health though so it may be different with general students

Yes this is general nursing.

I know that severe cuts in MH funding have reduced the posts available.
In general nursing we cannot fill the posts and so there has been a massive drive to recruit staff from Europe mainly.

lougle I would be very wary of jacking it in to work for an agency.
Many Trusts including mine are stopping allagency and recruiting into vacant posts from abroad instead.
My colleagues who work agency are moving back into permanent posts as a result.
I think that lucrative ship has sailed !

OP ( not sure what grade you are) there are pros/cons to everything
You can be out for 3 months without any penalty to your pension and pay scale.
So if you took 3 months off and returned to NHS employment during that time and took a band 5 post (example) you would be eligible to be reemployed at the same level on the band 5 pay scale, keep the same holiday allowance, pension etc.

Not sure what to suggest ,its so hard to see the wood for the trees when you feel so stressed.
Can you cope with the challenges of finding bank work, sometimes its a matter of taking any shifts, potentially none and are you financially stable enough to be prepared for no sick pay etc?

OP I've sent you a PM x

I'm band 6.

Ive got about 60k in savings in the bank so enough of a buffer there I think.

Interesting to get so many PMs and see messages from teachers who feel the same. My brother and sil have both just packed in teaching due to feeling similar I think. Neither of them are working now, living off savings for a bit while they reevaluate life.

I would leave. I think what you describe is the culture in which we all work in the Nhs - making mistakes or small errors because of the working conditions and getting into trouble as a result- often from band 7 and 8 staff who think thank fuck I don't have to work like that and who show little understanding of conditions. It also means staff under pressure turn on each other which leads to trouble. I think a lot of us work under unsafe conditions which are a risk to our pin numbers yet this never translates into the staffing numbers sent to the department of health????
Do bank and take a job you like

I am mental health- Nhs. We currently employ 50% bank and agency- often u filled as not enough agency staff

Yes and if anyone tries to argue that any mistake was due to staffing, work pressure, etc being a contributory cause then they're seen as "not having insight" and then they're really in trouble.

My mum is a district nurse (not for much longer) & in her team of about 30 - only 6 of the original team are still in post since a notorious bullying manager came in to post a few months ago. I don't know why the NHS is so unable to get to grips with the utterly toxic management but it seems incapable of doing do.

Could you try bank work? Or is that just as bad?

If not, give something else a go. Having seen the way the NHS treats its staff I'm not surprised there's a stampede out - and yes there is more to life!

My mum was part of a group that raised concerns about patient safety a few years ago. The bullyimg they were then subjected to was horrific.

The above mentioned manager puts anyone who fills in an incident form relating to understaffing on supervision.

The weak, toxic mamagement of the NHS has to be experienced close hand up believe it. You're not alone op.

its such an awful shame experienced, conscientious nursing staff seem to be leaving in their droves, same as teachers

speaking as neither the above, what on earth can be done? is this culture due to government changes? whats going on?

The other thing making me want to leave is the fact I'm 40yo and I can't see me doing this till I'm 67yo which is when I get my pension.

I have a fear that if I don't leave now I'll be too old to be employed elsewhere.

Ssd, in the nhs I think since the Mid Staffs crisis and the problems at Morcombe Bay in midwifery there's a major crackdown on the slightest little thing. There's a big fear by managers that their hospital will be the next Morcombe Bay.

So notes are audited relentlessly, if a set of obs is missed you're called in for an interview. Obviously obs shouldn't be missed but I'm talking about fit, healthy post natal women.....not Sick people.

And if you're looking after ten, 12 women and babies some of whom may still be on hourly obs, some may need breastfeeding support, some need extra monitoring, half of whom want to be discharged, but you're chasing Drs and meds, while trying to induce the two antenatal women, one of whom you're worried about her high BP......yes sometimes something slips.

gosh, that sounds mega stressful.

scary, in fact.

I find this quite interesting.

I have just started working as a HCA on a busy ward (is there any other??) and a few nurses have said they wish they stayed as a HCA because they have less responsibility and paper work. My work load is bloody heavy and it is non stop but of course I am not responsible for people like a nurse is, which is reflected in my pay.

I am currently deciding between doing a foundation degree and becoming an AP or going to uni and training to be a MH nurse. A lot of comments from nurses have put me off to be honest, because it seems like so many of them would much prefer the role I am doing now. I get to interact with patients in a way the nurses on my ward doesn't have time for and any worries I take straight to the nurse so nothing is really on my head.

I am really struggling to decide what to do. I am 34 so I want to decide soon. Reading the posts here make it sounds like going to uni to train to be a nurse really isn't worth the stress (I also have five children).

What is NMW please?