Teaching or nursing?

[Mildredandmaud]

Neice can’t decide.

Things she wants to get from her career:

-help people (esp children)
-sense of fulfillment
-teamwork / getting along with colleagues
-job security
-variety and opportunity
-being appreciated and knowing she made a difference (she knows both can get a lot of shit, not looking for universal admiration but appreciation by colleagues and those she directly helps e.g. children or patients)

Which job would you suggest?
(I’m suggesting nursing... but I was a teacher and left it, and know no nurses, so am v.biased!!!)

Vote YABU for teaching
Vote YANBU for nursing

Thanks!

Could you get some work experience first to get an idea of what avenue she wants to go down both are very different careers.

Neither? They are both pretty tough and underpaid careers. Would she study business/economics and go down the fundraising or even policy route? Lots of highly rewarding (and pretty well rewarded) careers in the third sector and policy and she could positively impact the lives of others profoundly.

Or IT? A career in ed tech or health tech?

Also why nursing and not medicine? What A levels is she doing?

Physio, occupational therapy, speech therapy? Something along those sort of lines? Im looking in those areas myself. I've worked with children and in care and had places to do teacher training and nursing in the past. So maybe have similar interests.

Either sound good based on what you've described but has she considered children's social work? Based on what she's looking to gain from a career I'd defo explore it! I've been a front line SW for 10 years now and feel all of those things! Of course there are negatives too though!

Her AS Levels are sociology, english, biology and history.

She works hard and will probably get good grades, but she’s not really cut out for medicine and also says she doesn’t want an ‘office job’, she wants to be hands on (thinking more about primary teaching than secondary)

This was me when I was a college, I either wanted to be a children's nurse or teacher.
I did voluntary work at the hospital and as I was doing nursery nursing I spent time in schools. I loved both and in the end I went into teaching based on the most inspiring mentor I had on one of my school placements, if it wasn't for her I would have gone into nursing. There are pros and cons for both, it's hard for others to say which is the best right for her. I love teaching have been now for 16 years. I find it very rewarding and am in a very supportive and forward thinking school. I feel appreciated by our school community, but have learnt to ignore the negatively from the press/government/wider public.
My advice is get volunteering (when she can) and let her find out for her self.

Ooh some interesting suggestions, thanks!

As a teacher. Who made a similar choice out of teaching or midwifery.

I'm not sure I made the right one! Lots of different factors, more career paths and avenues in nursing.

Positive for teachers the holidays but you never really switch off. Can nurses do that better?

Also locum work is good in nursing, whereas supply for teaching this has dried up! And agency are making the profits!

That reminds me when I went for nursing/midwifery as I thought it is my biggest passion.Most of family memebers are involved in teaching on diffrent levels(from nursery to university).
I am still very pasionate but since having children I feel that teaching is a bit more compatible when you are a parent.
Now I understand why my mum could always be with us during weekends/holidays etc. and we never had any additional care like school clubs/childmiders/family members.

Another vote for speech and language therapy here. She could work in a hospital setting or a school, or even a mixture!

In my circumstances, teaching has been extremely hard to juggle parenthood and work as I have to work full time. My children have to go to childminders before and after school. I often miss out on their extra activities such as I never attend sports days and only see performances if they are in the evening. I generally only have one day at the weekend where I'm not working and can actually give my full attention to my children. But I am grateful I get to spend the holidays with them, they love coming into my school and helping me set my classroom up and helping me with jobs. As with all walks of life and working lifes it can seem greener and easier to manage but in reality circumstances are different.

I'd say neither. Both are quite a vocation and if you don't really really want to do it, I don't think it will work. Similar to how if you can't choose between two men who are great on paper, neither are probably the right relationship for you.

What about something like a speech and language therapist, that gives the help / fulfillment side but not crazy hours / shift work etc

Just seeing other responses and I'm not he only one suggesting that apparently!

I think the ‘grass is always greener’ things is very true for me too @Snuggles81 . Like you @itispersonal I thought nurses might be able to ‘leave work at work’ as I found teaching work life balance very hard.

But then, there was also a lot of fun and laughter in my days as a teacher.

I will definitely suggest speech and language therapist! Seems like it might have the best of both worlds!

Has she looked into Radiography or Radiotherapy?

I work in one of these departments, I definitely couldn't do nursing, but absolutely love my job! And I definitely switch off as soon as I walk out our department doors!

I’m a midwife and do lots of on the side stuff through the nhs, during the pandemic I’ve really realised my transferable skills and had the opportunity to do more “nursing” roles such as vaccinations.

To get a degree in nursing would be a great start especially when she is young, it’s not all underpaid and over stressed. There are so many other jobs you can do with the degree that dont amount to ward based care and nursing has branches in every direction.

Teaching is a great job if you enjoy it but what happens if you don’t or start to tire of it? Is there other avenues and opportunities? As a nurse you can go into teaching/lecturing, you HAVE to be a mentor when you qualify and teach further students, teachers can not transfer to nursing!

Also she might want to sit down on the NHS jobs website and look through the available jobs and job descriptions and see what the roles entail and what’s expected - some trust websites will also do “a day in the life” so you can watch interviews with different specialists

Paediatric nurse or midwife

Occupational therapist

There are a lot of different branches for nursing. Once you’re qualified there are lots of different specialities which are very varied. I would recommend doing adult nursing then a top up to children’s though rather than children’s from the start as it opens up more options.
But teaching has better pay, more holidays, nicer working hours (both do a lot of unpaid overtime but there are no 8 night shifts on the run with unpaid overtime after each one).
I’m a nurse, not sure I’d do it again given the choice. Pay really isn’t great in terms of cost of living despite the false claims of 12% pay rise that keeps getting spouted, my pay rise last year (1st in years) didn’t even match my increase in council
Tax bill!

Hiya, thought I'd give you my totally biased opinion as a nurse, though I'm in mental health care.
Positive - stable job with stable pay in a growing sector. Learning about people ,- all kinds, good bad ugly young old and people who are scarily close to your own age. Develop a sense of how much you can actually handle. Camraderie of the 'trenches' and at times almost operating as one unit, as we all have to work together to get the job done. Career progression - further studies, managerial, clinical specialist, you can become a nurse prescriber, health visitor, nurse consultant, or have training to progress up the bands of pay.
Negative - long hours though adrenaline and tea gets you through. You WILL get human waste on you at some point. That's okay though because you're helping someone feel dignified at their lowest ebb. Nasty families - but you get so many more lovely ones. Seeing people struggle to hold onto life - but you get to be part of helping them recover.
God I miss working on the wards! As I said re career progression - I've retrained as a therapist so nursing has taken me much further than I expected.
Good luck to your niece in whatever path she takes.

Occupational therapist or speech and language therapist in a special needs school.

Neither. Another vote for SALT, physio or OT here. I trained as a nurse and am now totally stuck in the job I am in as can’t find another one with family friendly hours. Wish I had picked something with less of a 24/7 shift basis to it. Family friendly hours weren’t even on my radar when choosing a career though.

If she does look into nursing then tell her to carefully research which branch to choose. I wanted to top up to children’s and couldn’t find anywhere even remotely near me that would do it.

If I had my time again I would do physio or pharmacy but SALT / OT sounds great for your niece. Not in a million years would I do nursing again.