Teacher or Child Nurse

[Okaythen2]

Not an aibu but what career do you think has more prospects?

I think both are very hard jobs but both with good prospects.

Teachers I know seem stressed and take a lot of work home evening and weekends. I don't know one teacher who seems happy in their job in the current climate.

Children's nursing is very rewarding (I work with children in NHS) but the NHS is in difficult times, with staff working under massive pressures and I have seen experienced nurses crying with the stress of turning up day after day to understaffed wards with children with complex health problems.

Do some work experience if possible to see what they are like.

Depends on what jobs are like in your area, what the career progression is like in your local hospitals, how much competition you have and how much you want to progress. There are always newly qualified jobs.

I’m a children’s nurse btw.

Nurse.... more progression options

Teachers are better paid and have more social hours.

Good luck with getting accepted onto Children’s nursing. The world and his uncle wants to be a children’s nurse. Why don’t we have more places in uni I hear you ask? Because we do not have the placement capacity to support the students. Less poorly children than poorly adults thankfully.

They are are very different careers, OP- despite the obvious crossover! Defo second doing some work experience. Good luck- I am an eys teacher and sometimes wonder what children’s nursing would have been like; I’m certain you won’t be alone in considering between the two!

If you progress within nursing, you probably will be in a managing role rather than working clinically.

What do you actually want to do?

Definitely worth getting some work experience in both, I think both careers have good prospects. However with Tory austerity both are extremely stressful at the moment.

Are you changing your mind about going into nursing?

Is it just that you want to work with children or do you actually want to be a teacher or a Paeds nurse? There are plenty of child related careers, physio, OT, social worker, dietician, nursery worker, and others.

I don’t think either is a job which you should go into on the basis if prospects.

Thank you for the replies . I want a professional career working with children. I’m worried my options are limited with child nursing due to maybe lack of jobs. This is my one chance to get my career right as I’m no spring chicken . I have done work experience with both and still can’t decide. I’m very indecisive. I will be in my forties when I qualify.

There are loads of jobs for newly qualified band 5s. Which area are you in?

Well they are very different jobs. For me though, I would go for teaching if those were my options.

I do work in the NHS but with the elderly. I couldn’t work in paeds. I couldn’t handle children dying, or discharging them to a hospice or home knowing that they were at the end of their short lives. Death is never pleasant obviously, but quite a few of our elderly patients will actually tell you that they are ready to go. They have lived their lives & just want to be pain free/sleep/reunited with their loved ones. It’s sad but nothing like seeing a child in the same position.

Do you have DC? Are you able to work unsocial hours?

I don't think finding jobs is likely to be a problem unless you are very remote? theres a huge shortage of nurses including in paeds areas. Maybe do a pros and cons list for both? They are hugely different roles.

I’d imagine teaching is significantly better paid in the long term, if that matters to you. Getting a job in teaching st the moment should be fairly easy as teachers are leaving in droves!! Most schools are struggling to recruit.

Teaching what age?

Work pattern very different for both. What suits you? Night shifts and unpaid overtime dictated by clinical need? Work during day only with unpaid overtime worked when you can fit it in. Autonomy over your time versus little autonomy I guess.

More opportunity for progression for a secondary teacher, particularly in a shortage subject.

Career progression in teaching is not good at the moment-I’m presuming you are thinking primary?

There is NO money. The automatic pay rises that used to happen so longer can because schools have no money. All of our younger teachers this year stayed on the same pay scale this year and last as we can’t afford for them to go up. There are no TLRs for anything and if you were to get into the Upper pay scale, you’d probably find yourself on capability for some spurious reason, just for being too expensive. You can be deputy/assistant head or head-that’s your career progression.

If you want to go part time, you are totally at the mercy of your head. It’s much cheaper to put an HLTA in a jobshare with another teacher than have two expensive teachers so that may not be an option either.

My friends who work in the NHS (who are equally over worked and undervalued) do at least seem to be able to get to work the hours they want.

I’ve had this internal debate too op.

I know some teachers who have absolutely had it with lack of support from head teachers etc, BUT, they are in demand and the hours are great, especially if you have children of your own.

I think I would go with teaching.

I would find Children’s nursing very difficult. As well as being squeamish, I think I would find it very hard to see lots of sick children, especially if I was unable to help them due to lack of staff etc.

How about midwifery?

BUT, they are in demand and the hours are great, especially if you have children of your own

I disagree!

Well, these are people I know. Maybe it’s the area I live in, but they do get better hours than the only Pediatric nurse I know. But I only know one of them. It’s hard to say unless you have been both 🤷‍♀️.

BUT, they are in demand and the hours are great, especially if you have children of your own.

In one sense, yes. There is a lot of evening and weekend work but it can be done at home. You don’t have to find childcare for shifts and nights, or for the holidays. OTOH there is no flexibility in term-time.

Career progression is better in secondary than in primary.

I like my hours as a Paeds nurse. Yes I do 12 hour shifts but I’m part time and do two a week. It means that I actually get quite a lot of time to do the school run, go to things at school and can take the kids to their activities. Their are pros and cons with both.

In one sense, yes. There is a lot of evening and weekend work but it can be done at home. You don’t have to find childcare for shifts and nights, or for the holidays. OTOH there is no flexibility in term-time.

Yes, this is what I mean about ‘better’ if you have your own children. I have no family to help with childcare, so a term time, with daytime only hours job would save me £££££. But I still couldn’t be a teacher. Hats off to those that do it. Especially secondary - no thank you.

But if you’re really considering it seriously and want pros and cons, like the op seems to, then the standard hours with teaching are a big pro. Even if you’re marking and lesson planning at home, you do not have to pay for childcare. So that, for me, would be a pro.

My dh does a lot of work in the evenings too. He works in an office which works with another office abroad, so they call him at all hours. It’s not nice, but if he has to be, he can still be in charge of the dcs while they’re sleeping as he works. I imagine it must be the same with marking etc.

But, pros and cons aside; what would you prefer to do day to day op?

And I guess, what would you be better at.

The nail in the coffin for me when considering teaching was that I don’t do that brilliantly with public speaking. I couldn’t hold the attention of a class of children easily I don’t think.

I’m now considering adult nursing or midwifery. But I need to do some hands on experience as certain bloody things make me quite squeamish.