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?

When I did my nurse training, there was a primary school teacher in my class. She loved being a nurse and ended up working on a healthcare of the elderly ward. She adored the older patients and they loved her. She said it was the very best decision she had ever made.

I'm a nurse and I love my job. Lots of people have already warned you of the stresses etc so I won't repeat them, but wanted to say if you can move to Scotland to study, it's still free to study nursing here and we still have the bursary. You'd need to be living here the summer before you start to qualify I think but would mean you don't end up with any more student loans etc.

I've known a couple of nurses who have bounced from education to health, or vice versa. It depends on the actual job and employer, sometimes.

Also if you enjoy teaching in general, then you could qualify as a nurse with the aim of becoming either a lecturer in nursing at a uni, or a practice development facilitator. I know people who have done this less than 5 years after qualifying.

Is it true nurses work 3 long shifts a week, covering 37.5hrs or whatever in that time? That sounds like a benefit over teaching to me, where you work pretty long days anyway (not that long but not way off). Obviously not a reason in itself to switch but something I'm curious about!

Have you looked at nursing apprenticeships? Have a chat with your local trust as they may be able to get you trained to band 5 in 18 months you will only have to take a small if any pay cut whilst training too I'm about to do this! Once I graduate in the summer!

It all depends on where you work. I used to do 10 hour shifts, so pretty much worked four days a week.

Yes, in my hospital ward nurses work 12.5 hour shifts, with two breaks of 30 minutes which are unpaid. So 11.5 hours of paid work per shift. If you are full time, you will need to do 150 hours every four weeks, and usually do 3 long shifts for 3 weeks out of 4, and 4 long shifts for one week out of 4.

It sounds great on paper, but you will also usually be switching between day and night shifts. You could be down to work four night shifts in a row, start Thursday night at 7pm, finish at 7.30am on Monday, and be expected to come back in at 7am on Tuesday for a 12.5 hour day shift. Go home at 7.30pm on Tuesday and then back in at 7pm Wednesday for a night shift.

In my worst job, I got switched between days and nights on an average of 6 times every month. It really fucks your physical and mental health.

I don't work on a ward now and don't work nights. I prefer working slightly shorter shifts of 9 - 11 hours in my current job. I don't know any ward nurses who actually work full time: the most anyone I know does is 34.5 hours, because it means you don't have a week of 4 long shifts. Most people work 30 hours, so 2 shifts one week, 3 the next.

Nursing isn’t as bad as teaching. At least people agree that they need to be paid more and don’t call them lazy. And they can earn a decent hourly rate through an agency, and don’t have 3 months a year where they can’t work or get paid.

However, nursing isn’t great either. Nurses are still overworked and underpaid, just not as much as teachers are. In your shoes I’d leave the public sector entirely and get a well paid job doing something completely unrelated.

Have you considered teaching abroad? Adult Ed? TEFL?

It depends on your trust some places do 3 shifts a week 3 weeks then 4 shifts on week 4. Some places give you a longer "break" (you don't get it if busy short staffed) so alternate 3 week 4 week shifts. Some places don't do 12.5 hour shifts it's 7 hours so you have to do 14 hours if you want to double up.

No you don't always get to leave on time , I've had to stay quite a lot as there's not been enough staffing to go and I need to finish notes/incident reports. I've been on shift and no NIC has come to relieve me , Legally.you can't leave a shift until a nurse has replaced you. I do 3 months of nights per year usually one month every 3 months.

I think this is a case of "the grass is always greener". Nursing is just as hard as teaching, and less well paid. If you have a chance to change career, I would never choose nursing, there is a reason a huge percentage of newly qualified nurses leave in the first two years.

Depends where you work in nursing. I have colleagues who work 9-5 in various days clinics and get paid £40k. On the other hand if you work on a busy ward with barely enough staff then it’s both stressful and exhausting. I specialised in emergency medicine and work in ICU. Personally I wouldn’t do anything else. But it’s something you really want to do, it’s not just a “job”.