Help! Primary School Teacher or Nurse?

[Happygolucky1994]

Sorry wasn't sure where to post.

But which career should I choose?

I am 23 yr old with a 2 year old daughter. I'm on benefits in a council home (nothing wrong with that) but I desperately want to give my little one a better life i.e. more holidays, opportunities, owning our own home etc..

In September I have the option of either begininng a Primary Education PGCE course which will take one year... or an Adult Nursing course which will take 3 years..

I have listed the pros and cons of each career but it's still not really helped.
I know if you want to be either of those career choices you must be passionate for that one thing but I really am passionate about both! I want a job that's rewarding. I love the idea of caring for others in there time of need but I also adore helping children learn new concepts etc.

I understand that teachers have to work evenings and weekends at home and nurses have to work all kinds of shifts. My biggest worry is not being able to spend much time with my daughter. Childcare is not an issue but i'm with her everyday at the moment so the thought of barely being with her is tough.

I just want to hear what others think of each career. Or if you work in these fields please can you offer some insight to the reality of the jobs. I can't sleep wondering which path to take :/.

Thanks in advance

The course for nursing you've been accepted on, which "pathway" have you chosen? It strikes me with your interest in that direction you'd suit paediatric nursing. This can also be done in a few hospitals as a 2 year post graduate course e.g. Birmingham, Southampton and King's College London. It would be intense but you'd be qualified and earning sooner.

In my DD's oncology ward the staff support each other and are able to request certain shifts on or off. They also get the rota several weeks in advance and within reason can swap with someone of same band. If you have Christmas off one year you work the next and (she doesn't have kids yet) if she has Christmas off she works New Year etc.

Money wise it varies depending on the shifts, in the last year her worst month (no weekend shifts for various reasons) she took home after deductions £1000 and her best £1900. She is band 5 Staff Nurse. This is London so with the weighting.

There was a mum on MN recently saying that she'd changed from shift work to 9-5 and was finding that harder but I can't find it. She said was better doing 2 x 12/13 per week than every day.

I've been nursing for 25 years and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. You're treated as the lowest of all the professions and to be honest it doesn't feel like a profession with all the unskilled tasks thrown at it to absorb. What other profession gets so little control over what it does and how it is run? The worst thing is nurse leaders are generally crap and tread all over their young. Am laughing at suggestions upthread from nurses not taking work home with them. That is possible at very junior ward level but if you want to earn a reasonable wage you work all hours. I'm on telephone and email at all times including on holiday. With the volume of pressure most weekends are spent either working unpaid or worrying about clinical decisions taken with no time to reflect or time for management tasks. Patients are on the whole lovely and make the job almost worthwhile but their expectations are so high considering the depleted resources available. I'm sure teachers will say the same about their jobs. I think teaching is 'respected' in a way that nursing isn't and there is more opportunity to move into the private sector and escape some of the crap. I don't want my daughter to move into any public sector job.

I think teaching is 'respected' in a way that nursing isn't

I think this thread has shown me that both roles are pretty much of a much to be honest, but I'm really interested in knowing your thinking behind this comment.

On mumsnet, there are regular posts where people are disgusted by what's a teacher has said or done to their child and they want to ring up and complain or 'rip them a new one'. The press seem to see teachers as lazy leftie whingers who are waiting for any opportunity for a strike of a snow day. I don't see this vilification of nurses?

Teacher

Pay and hours are better. School holidays off.

I say this as a former nurse who was married to a teacher.

rollon a few observations over the years. In the HCP 'hierarchy' nursing comes way down. Things done to nurses at various hospital trusts wouldn't have happened to other HCPs, it is the largest professional workforce by far yet is under represented at board level. Progression to higher pay and status (band 8b+) as a nurse is to come out of clinical practice, which is totally the wrong model and underpins the low value of nursing. Nursing is still very much viewed by the public (and often by those in it) as a caring vocation which is primarily female, doesn't need university based training and with that comes low pay and status. Of course there are vile aggressive parents, patients and colleagues in both sectors. Nursing carries this 'angels' sentimental / paternalistic tag which leads to nursing at odds to being a profession with rights to good pay, conditions and self determination.

chestnuts
I think you are right in the fact higher nursing grades might take stuff home but band fives don't in the main whereas the equivalent junior teacher would take stuff home - and work more hours.

The relative merits of each profession I think may differ depending on how high up you are looking - one may be better at a junior level, the other at a senior level but I have never been anything Above a band five (nor will I ever be) or a junior teacher so my comparisons are limited to junior ranks.

The NHS do pay for courses sometimes though ( I did masters level ) but I don't think schools do as much.

I think teaching pays more than nursing in the UK. I think the school holidays make teaching appealing. I think nursing transfers overseas more easily. I am in the US and regular nurses with ten years experience get paid $125K a year in the more expensive area for living on our state-which is equivalent to around 90K in UK money. Teachers get paid 75-100k-just teaching, no responsibility. I had the same chose and I chose teaching but what I envy my nurse friends is they only work 3 days a week- 3 13 hour shifts and if they do it over the weekend they only need one day of childcare- so they get a lot more time with their kids than I do as a teacher but this is very much due to the country I am in. If you have your parents near by I would be swayed by nursing knowing how much mental pressure teachers are under-you just do not leave your work at work.

I've just left teaching. I managed 7 years before I had to leave before my mental health destroyed me. Family life was non existent. Despite not getting school holidays and still working full time I see so much more of my children now and I'm not a stressed out wreck.

However, I am a pretty happy teacher. I was at an event where we took the students to an evening and I was chatting to the math teacher and we both said how we get up and look forward to going to work. I really like teens and spending my days with them. I do not work weekends just 7.30 am till 4 every day but I am in a different country - I worked longer hours in the UK. I agree you have to train yourself to be less of a perfectionist in teaching and more of one in nursing. I love teaching and am encouraging my husband to do it but I really love helping teens so I get a lot of satisfaction out of it.

Definitely teaching! I've done both, came out of teaching to do paediatric nursing & hated it. Much of the time it was incredibly boring. I loved the patient interaction, but had no autonomy at all. We were definitely at the bottom of a very long chain. Everything you do (for obvious reasons) has to be signed off twice.

Also, it takes a long time to get to a decent salary. The paperwork was not interesting, though nowhere near as much as in teaching.

I love teaching (secondary - SENCo). Both nursing and teaching have a massive emotional impact. At least in nursing you don't have to do hours of work at home. However, I would never have felt fulfilled by it. There are definitely interesting careers you can go into from nursing, much more diverse than in teaching.

It depends what you want in life? In nursing, you've got shifts - I did 3 long shifts plus one short every week. It was nice to be able to take my dcs to school and book time off to see school plays etc. However, I much prefer having Easter/Summer/Christmas with them.

There are huge pros and cons to both. I know you said that your experience is in schools, I would try and spend some time in the area of nursing you've applied for. I think a few busy shifts on an adult medical assessment ward would be enough to put anyone off. I completely respect nurses who can do this everyday.

I'd go for teaching myself and seemsmany in here agree

Family life so much easier to juggle holidays hours etc. Never working on those precious family holidays xmas Easter bank hols. Six weeks of glorious summer off.

I know lots of teachers with families that make it work They work late in evening or work 3-6 and kid in kids club etc. Still have 6- bedtime to spend with child and every weekend
Maybe working some of it.

Teacher is tiring yes but nursing is absolutely gruelling physical work especially when training. Yes you can specialise but by that time your dd will be nearly in senior school and you will have missed her best years.

Teach teach teach

How is paeds nursing boring? I love that no two days are the same.

Also another thing to think of, as a teacher you will be missing out on all assemblies, harvest festivals, sports days etc etc as you can't book time off. Despite that I still love absolutely every minute of the actual teaching, it was all of the other cap that caused me to give up the job I love.

Chestnuts, just to point out that being on a higher banding doesn't mean out of clinical practice. I'm a nurse consultant on a band 8b and very much clinical

I'm a nurse and Dh is a teacher - I wouldn't want to be starting either of our jobs with a 2 year old! I work in the community now, only day shifts and weekends rather than nights but it taken me 4 years of nursing to get here. Placements as a student are tough, you won't have any say in the shifts you work and will have to also do assignments. 12 hour shifts and nights are tough and most first jobs are like this for a few years until you can specialise a bit.

Dh in a similar position. Teacher training and NQT years were awful and he was spending hours and hour each evening marking and planning, all weekend and all holidays. 4 years in he has a better work/life balance as he has lots of resources he can reuse and is much quicker at marking.

For future opportunities I'd go with nursing, but if you can put it off for a few years I probably would....

Yes Betty but nurse consultant posts are like hens teeth. I work in a huge teaching hospital and we have a grand total of 4 consultant nurses. The one in my specialty does 10% clinical work in a very niche field and is otherwise pulled from meeting to meeting.

I'm just pointing it out, matrons are usually 8a and in our hospital spend about 40% clinical (that's my estimate) . I don't see much point in being a qualified nurse consultant if your not going to spend most of your time with the patients. Waste of clinical skills!

Our matrons do 0% clinical sadly.

That's ridiculous!!

I've looked at the scale but I doeant say role and salary, just band. What would a charge nurse earn?

Count do you mean charge nurse as in male equivalent of sister? If so they would normally be on a band 6. If a nurse with no extra title it would be band 5. There's a few hospital variations with 'senior' and 'junior ' posts but that's a pretty fair rule of thumb

Unicorn (sorry I seem to have lost the ability to reply) from what I've seen nurses in the US generally have a more comprehensive training and take on tasks that here we would expect junior Drs, physicians assistants , ACPs and some of the specialist nurses. Even so their pay is much more than here

Yes that's what I meant

Thanks to everyone who has taken their time to comment. I have found all of your insights and experiences very useful in making my decision. After much consideration I think I am going to go with Teaching. I admire the work Nurses do but it seems that in terms of being family-friendly the weekend/nights/holiday shifts are not ideal. I am also very into the idea of working for a school where my DD would be able to join- I would be able to see her as much as possible then and may mean I can be present during her school plays and sports days. All in all I am preparing myself for what sounds like a very busy and tough next few years. Thanks again

Good luck happy! I personally think that's a good decision. If you do find that teaching is not for you then you can retrain