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.

An AP at my hospital is an assistant practitioner. They do a two year foundation degree.

On band 4, so between an HCA and a registered nurse. They can't give medication but can witness it being given, but they seem to do pretty much everything else.

I planned to do the Return to Practice course last year, having last worked as a Band 8 five years ago.
The course was 7 study days, 100-200 hours on the ward to be completed in 3 months.
In reality there was a £500 bursary, 12 hour shifts, zero flexibility and when it came to applying for a job I'd have been appointed at bottom of Band 5. I would also have had to do internal rotation to nights (8 every 6 weeks), and hours were averaged out over the month.
My experience on the ward put me off for ever.

I'm now very happily working for a charity, 30 hours a week on half of my previous salary and and happier than I've been for years.

Money and 'luxuries' aren't everything, my sanity and health are far more important.

Arrrrrgh, wish I hadn't read this thread. I'm only just literally starting out! I haven't started as a proper RM yet and I am shitting myself - at least as a student you always have a mentor around somewhere as a back-up. My mentor's brilliant as well, am currently panicking about how I'm going to cope without her!

One of my old mentors is retiring soon and she said she's going to look for a phlebotomist job so she can keep some of her skills up, gets to work with people but with a lot less responsibility. I suppose the problem is the pay aspect though. What about transferring to ANC? Normal Mon-Fri office hours, bank holidays, weekends and Xmas off, no labour care, baby latching issues or grumpy visitors. I'm assuming you'd still get band 6 pay although I'm not sure. Or does your trust have any computer expert midwives? Not sure what her official title is but we have one who spends half her time sorting out the computer problems eg. birth entries that have been put in incorrectly, inputting notes that haven't had time to be completed, auditing etc. The other half of the time she does clinical work and she seems a lot happier now she's not doing so much hands-on care. Or a research role although they're not easy to come by. I do also know one midwife who works in chlamydia screening but she's not a nurse so not sure how she got into that. I expect she gets band 5 pay.

I don't blame you for not wanting to leave though. I shouldn't really be saying that when I haven't even started properly but it's not the kind of job I can imagine doing constantly for the next 40 years. You can burn out so quickly and I do think it's a good idea to take a break from it when you've been in the NHS for a long time. It's easy to become institutionalised. I'd go for it but carry on on the bank - enough to keep your hand in and so people don't forget you but not enough that you're stressing over it. If you find you don't enjoy retail or are struggling with lack of money you can re-assess your options then.

Oh and please tell me it's not that bad for NQMs and I will be perfectly okay.

I've been there. I left midwifery to be a sahm. At the time h earned enough to pay the bills etc and we were just happy for me to not be so stressed all the time.
I loved the work, I just didn't love the hours, stress and blame culture. I had a very unsupportive manager who wouldn't consider me dropping to a 4 day week so I handed my notice in.
I have returned to work but not as a midwife. I'm now an accountant. It's not exciting but the hours and pay are better and I'm nowhere near as stressed not even at end of quarters/tax year.

I did do bank for a while but found that just as stressful as no guaranteed income and the same pressures as working in the unit. Like you my local hospital was the only one I could realistically work in so had the same issues with the same staff and management.

I think maybe I will drop the idea of shop work and look for something which uses my brain a bit more. Maybe phlebotomy or lab work. Ive always fancied been a school receptionist, working with people, problems to sort out, helping people. Bet they're like gold dust though as people want school holiday friendly jobs.

Pandora, maybe it will be different where you are. I think with more supportive managers it could be a lot better. I wouldn't be so scared if I knew I wasn't going to have someone on a witch hunt. People do make minor mistakes, people are human not robots. I think the culture of blame in the nhs is going to carry on increasing though. I see an Obs Reg has been charged with manslaughter after the death of a mother during a lscs recently!

Having read this full thread I now know I won't ever go back to the NHS as a clinical worker. It's brought back so many awful memories, I really feel for you OP.

I got out three years ago although in my case it was to claim Carers Allowance as my son is autistic.

I have been looking around and considering a Return to Practice course. Having read through this thread though I have crossed that off my list.

No more nursing or midwifery for me.....am going to look at the private sector.

I've just lost my job in a lab in an NHS hospital. Earlier in the year I spent several months very unwell as an inpatient in a mental health hospital. During that time I had an ill-health hearing and was dismissed.

It's amazing though. I genuinely think that job contributed to my mental health issues. And now I'm free of it.

I recognise all these posts - the completely unreasonable expectations, impossible time-scales and quantity of work, horrific blame culture...

I'm lucky in that we can just afford for me not to work, the DC are 2 years & 4 years old. So I'm going to be a SAHM for a while, enjoy the
kids (although eldest starts school this year - will be great to take him to & from school though, instead of having him in breakfast & after-school clubs 7:30am-6pm, & I think better for him), while I work out what I'm going to retrain as.

You do have to use your brain in retail, Simon

Retail isn't as easy and boring as people think. It is stressful (no, not as stressful as someone dying) You have loads of targets to meet and if you're part time you most likely wont know what hours or pay you're going to get from one week to the next. Customers are, most of the time, assholes too.

The grass is always greener.

Criminy, I'm glad you're getting better now.

microchips. Sorry, didn't mean to insinuate that you didn't need to use your brain for shop work. I did used to work in retail and enjoyed it. I had a Saturday job as a teenager in an ironmongery shop which I guess wasn't the most exciting place but I liked working out what customers needed.

Then I worked two days a week in an outdoors shop which I loved. I had a lot of knowledge of different types of boots, waterproofs, etc and I enjoyed been able to advise people.

I just don't know if full time, long term I would get bored.

Ex-Reg Psychiatric Nurse here, and happy to be so! I work as a Teaching Assistant in a High school. I work a full school week, across all the subjects areas with a few different children with various issues.

I love it. The day goes by quickly, I have some lovely relationships with kids who benefit from a stable adult in their lives, and I enjoy working with the teachers. The money is poor (£9ph) but I leave when the bells goes and forget about it until the next day.

I remember years ago when I was nursing I was pulled up and disciplined over a very minor drug error (became a test case because it highlighted a procedural issue) and I ended up at my GPs with stress-related problems. His wife was a midwife. He said that was why the Doctors couldn't view the nurses as true professionals - they were so keen to catch each other out rather than support their colleagues in a difficult job.

dotdot. Id love to work in a secondary school, not a primary school but a secondary. I nearly applied for a pastoral assistant post a bit ago but didn't and wish I had now.

Interesting what you say about Drs opinions. I hear lots of midwives moan that Drs never get into trouble for anything while midwives are crucified. But surely if it's a minor thing and lessons are learnt and it's not a repeated pattern of behaviour then isn't that the more mature/professional solution?

It always does seem to be the nurses that are hung out to dry and the less senior frontline nurses at that! I've been through a serious incident investigation following a tragic event on the ward when I was in charge. I was commended for my actions in the end but the investigative process nearly broke me. I couldn't sleep, I carried such a burden of responsibility and the stress was horrendous.

As is typical of mental health nurses, I couldn't admit to the stress I was under and did my best to keep going. Don't even think DH knew quite how bad I was sleeping and how much of my life was consumed with panicking about what might happen to me. I felt ashamed to admit it to anyone.

I live in fear of it ever happening again

So yes, I need to get out.

Nice one there! DotDot.
That's it isn't it, nurses in management positions seem to think it's ok to abuse their colleagues in any way they can to score points.
Doctors do seem to have a more mature attitude to managing themselves, it would seem.

When my mum & colleagues were being bullied after raising concerbs about patient safety one of the GP's they worked for write to the head of service saying how appalled he was at the way they were being treated & saying what excellent nurses they were & how he fully supported their concerns.

He got a right telling off. And meanwhile nothing was done to improve patient safety. I've honestly never seen such shocking behaviour from management as I have in nurse managrment here. Textbook how NOT to manage, both for the sake of staff & patients.

And outright lying seems to be endemic. Shocking.

Devil, tell me about it.

I had an incident recently where the shift coordinator took me into an empty room and said that Id been given a task by her to do and that Id asked colleague x to do it for me. Which was unacceptable. Colleague x had told her Id done this.

But I hadn't at all and said so. She apologised and said she had been misinformed.

I mentioned it to the ward manager who seemed to be of the opinion x would be lying and said she didn't know how Id manage not to thump her.

I asked colleague x about it and she's adament she never said anything of the sort.

One of them is lying and stirring. I'm sick of shit like this. There's no need for it.

God simon it sounds awful.

My mum always loved her job, it's become progressively more difficult - especially over the last 5 years & the last year has been ridiculous. She's looking forward to leaving.

I second a suggestion upthread about looking into being a lactation consultant if it might interest you.

When I struggled to breastfeed (despite the best efforts of community midwives etc- they just didn't have enough time to spare due to their busy schedules), I searched online for a lactation consultant but due to the fact that I am in a fairly rural area there wasn't a single one I could employ, even though I would have been happy to pay decent money for someone with relevant skills and qualifications. If there aren't many lactation consultants in your area perhaps that is an opportunity rather than a negative? Even though I wouldn't say we are hugely well off I figured that if I was able to crack breastfeeding it would be worth spending on professional help for the savings on formula milk.

Good luck whatever you decide to do. It's hideous how dangerously understaffed maternity and general nursing wards are and there are many tragedies waiting to happen I fear.

Another RMN here. I may be going against the grain here but I would give working in the community a try before deciding to leave the profession altogether. When I left the wards I was so exhausted, demoralised and burnt out that I was considering jacking it in altogether. I ended up working with a community team part time (thinking I'd do it for a few months while I made a plan to get out) and was much happier. I've been working in the community for a few years now and still enjoying it. It's still stressful at times but being able to work regular hours can make a huge difference to your work life balance. Knowing that my evenings and weekends are my own makes it much easier to handle the stress of the job and it means you can make plans in advance (giving yourself things to look forward to is so important) without worrying about the dreaded off duty. It's well documented that shift workers are more vulnerable to stress, anxiety and depression and in my case I think I underestimated the impact that working unsociable hours was having on me.

I should also add that, while I certainly recognize the "blame" culture and obsession with targets at the expense of patient care mentioned on this thread from some of my previous jobs (particularly on the wards) it's not like that where I work now. I feel supported by my colleagues and by management and I know that my contribution is valued. So, if there are still elements of the job you enjoy, maybe the answer isn't necessarily leaving the NHS or the profession itself but finding the right team.

Haven't RTFT but I'd say don't give up your ability to lose your skills to earn money. You never know what may happen. If you do decide to change, check what the NMC minimum requirements are to keep up your registration and do that as bank staff. I am a GP and know a lot of doctors, mainly women, who are bitterly regretting a career break as they can't get back in without working 6 months for free to cover their supervision. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I suppose ive just always disliked the thought of community as the safeguarding aspect of things doesn't appeal. Community midwives I know say they feel more like a social worker than a community midwife.

I guess I could try it though......nothing ventured, nothing gained.

What about retraining in a related field, for example nursing or a health visitor?

Health visitors have big child protection workloads these days though (so from your previous comment you may not like it).