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!

I had the exact same dilemna at 18... I trained as a nurse for 9 months before leaving and then went on to be a teacher.

I chose nursing purely because to train to nurse then was funded by the NHS so no uni fees. However, I couldn’t stay. I had too much heart and nursing needs more of a stiff upper-lip. Ultimately, I hadn’t met many nurses who I didn’t think were caring enough. I am not saying all nurses are like this but I had many instances where I thought they were fairly heartless. For example, the nurses would call the A-F bays the ‘A - Death bays’ because F bay was where people would be placed when dying. It didn’t help that my grandparents had died in ‘death’ bay in the ward above just weeks before.

Teaching however, is all about care. You care for students and how they are doing in school, how they will achieve goals and get on with a good start in adult life. And this is generally the consesus within that. As people say, no one gets into teaching for the holidays or money... Students are so keen to gain an insight in to life and it’s lovely to engage them in that as well as your chosen subject. Also what I like is that you can have as much or as little involvement with your department as you wish. It is very self-driven profession where you largely organise your time and commitments yourself.

There are a million other options in-between. My parents gave me the option of teaching or nursing, I chose nursing regretted it! I started looking into teaching and worked at a school.

Now I wish I had just exploded the things I enjoyed.

Things to consider - teaching is pretty much Monday - Friday. School holidays off. You can’t pee or drink tea when you need to/want to as you need to wait until break/lunch. You can’t take holidays/days off for weddings etc unless during school holidays - I know this is obvious, but I didn’t think of it when deciding to go in to teaching at 16/17 and it meant in my 20’s missing out on girls holidays (in June) and weddings if they were on Thursdays or Fridays - theses things seem less relevant now, but had an impact on me at the time. Also teaching is quite isolating - usually just you or you and TA in room so you are often quite alone and some staff rooms are not the friendliest of places. Nursing you can do 3 12hr shifts and that’s you finished for the week. There’s the ability to actually work alongside other adults as part of a team and different specialties for variety. It might mean working weekends but having the flexibility to have a weeks holiday between shifts and it not even be annual leave.
So is she the type of person who likes variety /do shift work, working with different people or would she prefer to know Monday to Friday her day starts at exactly the same time every day, but is a shorter day, but more work at home in evenings. I think often people think of the bigger picture - wanting to help people/ caring role etc. which is great to think about about it’s important to think about her personality and what suits her. I wish careers advice would start with Would you prefer to working alone or with other people? Inside or outside? Etc Before actually thinking about specific jobs.

I'd say occupational therapy.

You can work in schools, hospitals, social services, private practice, there is a local day centre to me that does paediatric developmental delay diagnostics and interventions and does sensory work, looks like a lot of fun lots of crawling around with the kids finding creative ways they can practice their coordination, balance and dexterity.

They can work in collages, care homes, day centres, mental health services and charities.

It's good because if you find the specific area of OT you have chosen isnt for you, you can just try something else without retraining (you might have to start from the bottom again though but can build it back up fairly quickly.

I'm an OT only qualified for 7 years.

I started in hospital medical settings, then went into a private head injury rehabilitation supported living, then to children and adolescent mental health services to a private company offering assessments for grant's and housing adaptations. And now I'm a case manager working with injury claims from solicitors and do private therapy sessions.

Out of my 3 OT friends two work at schools, one a private school and one at a special needs school, the other works at a memory clinic. They all love their jobs.

Hello

Here is my biased opinion, I’m a nurse, currently training to be a nurse practitioner! So many fields in nursing and specialisms to go into. Once I’ve finished my training I’ll be able to prescribe, diagnose and treat. So there is definitely scope for masses of career progression! It’s super rewarding and I love it! As a nurse your never out of a job!

However need to consider shift work, I’ve worked nearly every Xmas since been qualified and I have kids. One other thing I’d say is it’s a lot of responsibility and you definitely can’t just leave it at work, I work in the community so a lot more autonomous but I tend to do a lot of extra work after my shift finishing documentation. If your with someone poorly you can’t just clock off particularly in community, you stay till everything’s in place. The profession is extremely short staffed the plus side of this is there’s a lot of overtime to be had... I could work 24 hours every day if I wanted it’s always going. Also you can see some really sad things.

I second the OT, physio, speech and Language routes all great options and social work and of course Nursing, there’s also paramedic. You could look up Physician Associate quite an up and coming role becoming popular in the medical field.

I really suggest try some work experience! She could volunteer nhs wise atm, even as a steward for the vaccines. Also maybe some work experience in a school. Either way we all have opinions and experiences but she may not experience the same so I’d say it’s what she’s drawn to ultimately. X

Neither. I didn't want an office job, but I wish I'd been more driven by money. And that I knew people who actually worked in offices, as opposed to the typing pool, who could have explained the vast world of jobs out there. I'm not really the caring type, but I'm good at my subject and at teaching it.

Can your niece work as a health care assistant to get a feel what it’s like working in the hospital?

A lot of people mention nursing.... there’s Physio and OT too has she looked into these options.

If she ever wants DC then not nursing. It's incredibly difficult to juggle unsocial hours with childcare. Not something you consider at 18.
The NHS has been very family unfriendly too IMO.
Consider the allied health professions instead.

I think it depends on how creative she is and how much she enjoys that sort of thing. There is a lot more scope for that in teaching, perhaps? Imagining new activities and doing things your own way -reflecting your personality. I didn’t realise I needed that in a job when I was that age at all.

Huge shortage of educational psychologists and speech therapist where I am.

Teacher, yes to most of the list of pros, except increasingly not being appreciated.

I think it depends on how creative she is and how much she enjoys that sort of thing. There is a lot more scope for that in teaching, perhaps? Imagining new activities and doing things your own way -reflecting your personality

Unfortunately less and less.
Very data driven, targets, outcomes, pressure for children & policies to follow.

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

I'm not sure I made the right one!

Wow I'm EXACTLY the same, I often pine for the midwifery career I should've gone for. I mistakenly thought teaching would be easier. Ha. Hahahahaha. Hahahahahahahaha

Health Visitor ticks a lot of her boxes, so nursing first, not guaranteed to get a place on the course, no unsocial hours and despite what most posters seem to think educated to masters level so could use that qualification in another line of work

Interesting comments about the working hours and holidays...I'm a nurse and I LOVE working 3 x 12 hour days/nights/weekends. I wouldn't apply for a 9-5 job as I feel that wouldn't be family-friendly and would be difficult for childcare. The annual leave is generous in nursing and you can potentially work as many extra shifts as you want/need or just take your annual leave and rest.

You do take nursing home with you emotionally, but on my days off my colleagues are doing my work - I don't come back in to piles of work that needs marking or prepping.

There may well be a shortage of Speech and Language Therapists but that is likely to be down to funding rather than supply of qualified SLTs. I retired from SLT 7 years ago but there was a huge shortage of jobs and loads of newly qualified therapists unable to find work due to funding cuts. Not sure about the current situation but might be worth checking it out. Also be aware that it's very competitive for university places (or was then) so would definitely recommend trying to get some work experience (realise that's easier said than done at the moment though which is tough).

As careers go, I enjoyed 85% of the work (just not the increasing admin and all the other crap that took me away from working with actual children). On the whole it was a really fulfilling and enjoyable job. It was also pretty family friendlyb as female dominated and in my service the majority of managers were mothers and were used to enabling members with flexible working etc. (Just in case that's important to your niece in terms of future plans).

Physio
OT
Midwife
Paramedic
ODP
Police

Haha I had the same decision when I was applying for uni...nursing or teaching because I wanted to avoid tuition fees and have a ready made career when I finished uni.

I went with nursing and love it, lots of different specialisms, lots of movement for progression and it’s been a very successful career to date for me.

I’d say both options are extremely demanding and require you to give a lot of yourself to the profession.

I am a teacher. My sister is a nurse. Two VERY different jobs requiring two very different personalities. Both incredibly difficult and underpaid, nither of which you go into without talking to people who work in the profession and will tell you straight about the workload and life commitment. You have to be pretty solid commitment wise, and in your mental health, for either of them.

Another vote for therapies of some kind! I'm also an SLT and really enjoy it. More variety of clients and areas to specialise in and less long days than teaching and nursing!

She really need to get some work experience in both and follow her gut on which, of either, seems right. They are both jobs that you are either cut out for, or you’re not! I’m a teacher, no way could I be a nurse.

My first thought was speech therapy. My SIL is one and adores it.

Some work experience would be very useful.

I am applying for nursing this year. I tried teaching for 8 years. I think your personality has to be right whichever you do (and whichever branch of nursing you pick). I can't say nursing is better for your DN as everyone is different, but it is the better choice for me and I wish relatives (nurses who regretted it) hadn't talked me out of it 15 years ago because it's my vocation and now I have to pay tuition fees to do it.

Also allied professions look really shiny, but look at how many jobs there actually are in SALT, OT etc at any one time. It's very competitive and she'll need to be willing to move around a lot. Speaking of recruitment, in teaching you basically have to audition for every job (including some supply roles) so if she doesn't like performing in front of senior management in a room full of random variables (aka kids) it's not a great choice. But if she's not drawn to nursing or going in with her eyes open, she won't be happy in it. As PPs have said, experience would go a long way.

Teaching!!!

Paediatric nursing is the best job in the world. And unlike teaching my time out of work is my own.