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.

Yes the child protection aspect of health visiting puts me off no end.

Board Certified Lactation Consultants have to be qualified midwives. There are too few good ones - the best I know of in London keeps cropping up on Facebook as various women recommend her to one another to divide tongue-ties.

Poor breastfeeding relationships between mother and child apparently correlate quite strongly to PND, which was my experience too, and anecdotally supported on here. The volunteer agencies are fine but they are worse than useless when you have a palate or a tie at issue. Someone with your skills and experience could make such a difference to so many women and babies in the role, with presumably a lot less stress to yourself.

It's an option, perhaps? Self-employed, and not badly paid either.

What about a PA then?

Two years training, and you would be earning more than most doctors, and have better working conditions too.

Only pa training is London, ,Birmingham or Scotland and I'm miles away from those but it looks a great job.

www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/wider-healthcare-team/careers-in-the-wider-healthcare-team/clinical-support-staff/physician-associate/

This is a full list. There are some more locations, maybe one of them would be good for you?

I didn't know Sheffield were starting g it, that's definitely closer. Will apply for that as it's something ive been interested in since I first heard of it. Brilliant, thanks.

Glad to gave helped

U2 the few assistant practioners i worked with were just as stressed as the rest of us and their course was bloody hard and i dont think you can progress from a band four? but i am a burntout disheartened RMN who has thankfully got out so my view maybe biased!

I work in antenatal outpatients OP. Not as a midwife but a sonographer but it is relatively calm and stress free compared to the wards and the midwives I work with seem happy in their jobs - work daytime hours and get breaks etc. Would that be an option?

bodicea, , I do fancy sonography and haven spoken to the anc sister about training. They've only funded one person in ten years ive been there to train and aren't planning anymore.

I did apply for a trainee sonographer post at a hospital 50 miles away figuring once the training was done I could come back to my home town to work and just commute for that year. Didn't get the job. You don't see trainee posts advertised often.

Simon all I can find on that case is that the woman died of a haemorrhage. They must have been negligent in some way as haemorrhages aren't exactly uncommon in c-sections are they so must have been prepared for that. Hmm, annoying that it seems like they haven't published more details.

I'm not sure community would suit you either, TBH. You could avoid the safeguarding stuff by going in a posher area but some of the management problems still exist. My community mentor told me recently that she was seriously thinking about leaving as she got called to a BBA and PPH overnight and went to hospital with the woman and stayed a while to finish the notes, help sort her out, make sure she was okay etc. She got a bollocking the next day by the manager, asking why she'd been out so long and she should have been home earlier (this was after other bollockings by managers about various other things). She gets moaned at for having too high petrol costs. I very often worked through lunch breaks when I was out with her and the clinics could be frustrating - I absolutely love the work in community but we had so many appointments that we often didn't have enough time in the slots and we always ran behind and that was with 2 of us! Don't know how she coped on her own. Not that I'm trying to put you off but I think some of the same issues will still be there. There's also the on call commitment to think about and whether you like the idea of going to home births - I know some labour ward midwives who are horrified at the thought of being with a woman in labour with no back-up until the second stage.

That said, I've known a few labour ward midwives who've gone out into community and they absolutely love it and I know another one who loves it for the mostly normal hours and not having to do shift work. You normally have clinics on set days so having something structured like that may suit you better.

Most sonographers come from radiography and ultrasound departments don't like to have too many midwife sonographers as they only do obs and they want the sonographers to have the full range of skills, i.e general and gynae ultrasound too so they can rotate.
There is a new direct access course starting for graduates in Lancaster if that's near your neck of the woods - would do everything though not just obs. Its the only one in the country at the moment.

Pandora, I don't know if you can say the Dr in that case was negligent. But there hasn't been the court case yet and Im Guessing more details will come out then. Maybe they made a mistake rather than negligence? I'm guessing there must be a reason the cps decided to prosecute. But I have seen someone die of a haemorrhage following a section.....it does happen rarely.

Nowhere near Lancaster other.

Ah well. Are there no opportunities to work in out patients where you are? You know, doing bookings,follow ups after scans, pregnancy assessment unit etc.

Your current job sounds really really hard, but I think that's clouding your judgment in what a shop job would entail. I have worked in 4 different shops to do with my interest - both big stores and small independents for about 7 years and I can count on one hand the number of interesting conversations I had about the interest, or sharing my knowledge. It was hardly better than when I worked in shops not to do with it... If anything it was more frustrating because everyone buying the stuff was doing what I wanted to be, and I was working a tedious retail job