To wish I'd gone into nursing instead of teaching

[Cantbebothered31]

I did a languages degree then a PGCE. Full-time teaching is absolutely not for me, the ridiculous workload, horrendous behaviour and constant fear of Ofsted to name a few. I'd be happy to do it otherwise but not prepared to work 7 days per week.
I am doing language tutoring part-time, which pays about £15 an hour. I do enjoy it but it's only part-time and not paid during holidays so it's not stable. I also do some supply teaching, but again it's not stable.
The rest of the time I do care work, for £10 an hour. I do enjoy it, but of course it's very poorly paid for hard work.
People don't really understand why I do this when I have qualifications, and I do see what they mean. However it's incredibly rewarding, I love caring for people and helping them, it's a very important role and it's a shame society doesn't value it.
I'm completing an NVQ to become a Senior carer so that's a start, however I keep wishing I'd gone into nursing instead. I'd be on a much better salary, I know nurses have been striking but I'm only on 22-23k. I'm in my early 30s and feel like I need to progress in life.
Would you recommend going into nursing? Or even becoming a nursing associate?
I can't afford to take on any more student debt nor to go without a full time income so I feel a bit limited.
Not sure if there are fast track schemes, what would you do in my situation?

I'm also a nurse, and if I was go back in time I would have studied something else. It is incredibly stressful and pay is so poor. My hourly pay rate is very close to yours and i am working as a practice nurse. Its very difficult to get hours that work around bringing up a family. I have been qualified for 10 years now and worked in different areas. Working in a ward in a hospital is another level of stress physically and emotionally.

I left teaching and joined the civil service, I would never go back.

Look for executive and high executive officer roles. Either policy or project support roles are an easyish way to get it!

I went from teaching, to being a HCA (I earned more money as a HCA working shifts with enhancements, than on MPS 3. I was also a senior HCA, and then assistant practitioner very quickly due to having a masters level qual.) then onto occupational therapy/OT. Best choice I could’ve made.

OT is everything about teaching (I was a SEN Specialist) and HCA I loved 🥰

I was a nurse,my sister was a teacher ,both are incredibly stressful jobs wouldn't recommend either tbh.

Thanks everyone, this has really given me food for thought. I knew it would be stressful but thought it would be in a different kind of way. I really need to think about it..
I did have an interview for the Civil Service border force and I've been put onto the reserve list until December 2023.. I'll keep trying.

Honestly I don’t recommend nursing, I said that as a qualified nurse of 20yrs. Workload is horrendous, it’s incredibly stressful. Add in unsocial hours. Paying for your pin (licence), you have on going training and will become very skilled for very little pay. That’s just a small part of nursing.

I would also suggest SEN teaching or Speech and Language Therapy with your qualifications, though the latter might cost to train. You should be able to swap straight into SEN and it sounds like you would find that much more rewarding, same pay.

Move schools! There’s no need to be working 7 days a week. I’m bottom of the SLT scale on £61343 and refuse to work a weekend - not even open an email. Granted, I stay until 4.30pm on a Friday but then that IS IT. Any emails have to wait until Monday morning. I work two days in the holiday - internal results day and student results day.
We’re not paid CEO salary, so refuse to work CEO hours. A different school that values its staff is most likely the change you need.

There is a HUGE demand for MFL teachers. Give it a try

Just to add that although speech and language therapy is often suggested on threads like this, it's highly competitive to get onto and is normally via an accelerated (ie relentless) 2 year taught MSc for graduates, or involves starting again with the undergraduate degree, so it is not a free, easy or low stress option. Once qualified it's paid on the same AFC scale as nurses in the NHS, although many now choose to work privately. As everywhere in the NHS there's a shortage in the profession at the moment so I wouldn't discourage anyone from applying, but it wouldn't be quick or cheap. As you're already a qualified teacher it would be worth looking at SEN teaching (or even SALT assistant jobs in the NHS) if you 're interested in working in that area but can't afford to retrain.

Do some supply in a SEN school. I bet you'd love it.

I second OT, a few posters have mentioned.
(I’m not an OT, but that’s what I would pick now if I was going into healthcare)

Except that the OP has literally none of the qualifications for what you suggest

CRA just needs a degree. The best CRA I worked with just had an English degree. She was excellent. The companies train them up. It is mostly software and data capture support, site visits and protocol monitoring.

I've been a languages teacher for 28 years, but was part time for years while my dc were still youngish. I've just gone back full time, age 51. It's very full-on and tiring, but I'm enjoying it. The key is to find a really good school, but it took me a long time to get a job at one! There are basically virtually no behaviour issues
I'd rather pull my own teeth out than be a nurse or a carer though...

I'm a nurse, and have a love hate relationship with my job, but I do enjoy it overall, and am now in a niche area. I work part time as a band 6 and do agency work as well. I couldn't work 5 standard days a week, and like the flexibility I have now.

The thing I love most about nursing is the job variety: I've worked in a few different areas in the same hospital, and they were all completely different. I've worked on two wards, one of which I HATED, and I would rather quit nursing entirely than ever have to go back to, and the other one I really enjoyed and was sad to leave. That said, all of the jobs I have had have been stressful in one way or another.

Before I trained as a nurse, I was a teaching assistant in a special needs school. I went into nursing with the aim of becoming a school nurse, but then massively changed my mind once I started training.

If your main motivation is money, then I wouldn't look at going into nursing right now. You could always look at it further down the road, when you're in a better financial position.

If I were you, I would look at jobs as a special needs teacher. I used to work as a teaching assistant for a special needs residential school. It would probably involve a lot of challenging behaviour.

Oh and apply for a bank HCA job at a hospital, I earned £17 an hour for a Sunday shift nearly a decade ago.

How about an SEN school? Or a school in a hospital?

Or languages in a private or primary school?

I am talking about phase 3 clinical trials. Really interesting job.

Oh, ok.
I am very senior in research from early discovery to end of phase 1 and nearly everyone I hire has a STEM degree. Maybe by phase 3 it doesn't matter?

You trained as a teacher, you’re thinking you’d rather do nursing, and you applied for Border Force.

It’s a little bit like a child’s view of jobs: teacher, nurse, police officer*.

I would step away from “traditional” name jobs for a moment, and look at all the different jobs out there - especially looking beyond public sector. Just seems a bit restrictive to me.

*I know BF isn’t a police officer, but the general impression when seeing your 3 options together

I'm old and still have a bit of a view like that - looking at professions that all need retraining. We should have a thread where it's explained about other jobs and more importantly how to transfer into them!

As part of my nurse training I did a placement in a SEMH school and there was smaller class sizes. Minimal restraints , it seemed an easier job than mine. I've had my hair pulled out, bites , punched in the chest the works. Nursing isn't easy at all.

Correct. The clinical staff in the hospital do everything. The CRA visits all sites, monitors, supports and checks everything. Especially all the legal and ethical documents. They have to know the protocol inside out and be excellent with people generally. And help with all the invoices and supplies as the clinicians hate that bit.