To feel a calling to retrain to become a nurse or doctor

[belongin]

I'm in my late 20s and work in sales in the pharmaceutical industry. Ever since I was a teenager doing my a-levels I've felt this longing to become a doctor. I always brushed it off and thought I'm not clever enough or outgoing/confident enough for it. The desire has followed me ever since, and every few months it comes up and I just feel like I belong in the medical field. I've worked in the NHS in the labs before and enjoyed being in the NHS and the team work aspect and found the work highly rewarding but I found the lab work monotonous. Now I'm in pharmaceutical sales and I feel like it's interesting and I get to interact with some of the top specialist doctors in the world but it's not close enough to the patient, and more commercial than I would like. I recently had day surgery and spent most of the time just watching the nurses and doctors, and I just felt like I belonged there in that kind of working environment. By nature I'm a very empathetic and caring person, but can be quiet.

I rent but I'm single with no children so I don't have any responsibilities to think about. I have some savings.

WIBU to consider this?

If you have a degree you could apply for a post grad medicine course.

No loads do it. Go for it

Maybe do some work in care to get a grasp of the basic care needs and if that doesn't phase you then go for it.
There are a few routes in to nursing.
Despite all the ongoing pay politics the NHS can be an inspiring place to work.

Have you considered occupational therapy? Less intense, more flexibility and so much opportunity for further development. Very worthwhile too.

Do it! I wanted to from about the age of 24 and didn't and now life has got in the way. You can do an access to medicine course and a graduate route into medicine if you have a degree.

Both hideously stressful jobs but rewarding (DW is a doctor and we have loads of friends who do various hospital jobs including nursing).

If you're already in pharmaceutical sales then you may find the bump down in money significant in nursing, and obviously the ceiling is a lot lower. Everyone has had a shit time in the last few years including DW (who after many years of bloody hard work is a rather specialised consultant). She find it very stressful but she does admit that the pay slip makes it a little easier to bear at the moment.

That apprenticeship scheme for learning-on-the-job for new doctors and nurses is the latest brainchild of the government. Learn while you work and get paid, or something like that.

For people with A levels and those who already have degrees apparently, but can't take on another load of expense.

Or something.

Not unreasonable to retrain.

A bit unreasonable to want to be a "nurse or doctor". They are very different jobs, and you probably need to find out a bit more before making a massive life change.

I don't think there is anything wrong with this, as long as you can afford to dedicate the time and the money to retraining.
What sort of a levels do you have? Did you go to uni?

Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology at A-Level, and a degree and master's in Molecular Biology so definitely along the right kind of direction which is helpful!

Paediatric nursing is the best job ever!

Assuming your grades are good, with an education like that I imagine you'd be able to get a place in medicine. Obviously being a student for 5+ years is going to be tough but if it's what you really want to do, you absolutely should!

Why not do some bank work as an HCA first and see how you feel about ward work? Not only that but it will give you all the basic nursing care skills that will carry you forward and can be invaluable.

Become a PA. Only 2 years masters course, you'll be on more money for a fair few years over a junior doctor (even though you have less responsibility), scope creep means you'll probably be able to do similar things in the future as the gov meets its agenda to plug doctor shortages with lesser qualified but overall cheaper staff, and you won't have to deal with rotations and stuff you'll be a permanent member of staff and likely treated better.

My wife retrained to be a nurse at a similar age, she wishes she'd trained to be a Doctor instead to be honest so put a lot of thought into it as although there are advanced nurse practitioners and other senior positions, that urge to be a Dr can be pretty strong if you're capable and working alongside all the time.
As others have suggested, get onto a ward doing some Bank shifts and get a feel for what you'd enjoy.

With that background you could look at medicine. But research the expense and the very long long hours and nights on call during training. What specialty would you want to do?

Ok, apologies for the essay, but this is my two pence worth.

I’m a doctor in an acute hospital specialty, and I love my job, I really do. It’s intellectually challenging, sociable, rewarding, and ultimately I go home from work most days feeling like I’ve made a difference. However, it’s also incredibly tough, and especially as you’d be going in as a mature student I can honestly only recommend it if you have a burning passion for medicine and there’s absolutely nothing else you want to do.

The degree is the easy part. Once you finish, you have to complete two years of foundation training, then post foundation you choose a specialty to train further in. The general pathway is core training (2-3 years), followed by higher training (4-6 years ish). Training can vary between specialties, but basically you’re working full time, while trying to meet various requirements and while studying for some pretty gnarly exams. Some specialties will also require extra fellowships, which will be time spent acquiring particular skills. Some specialties will require you to undertake research eg a PhD.

For most training jobs you apply through a competitive, national process. You can look up the competition ratios online, but for all but the most under subscribed specialties there will be far more applicants than jobs available. So people take longer to progress through training as they may spend a year or two (or three..) stuck at a bottle neck at various points. Some people never get in, and have to switch to a different specialty. And then if you are deemed appointable for training, you rank all the jobs in the country that you would accept, which could see you being given a job in Scotland when you live in Birmingham, or if you restrict the geographical area you apply to too much, end up without a job even if you’re a really solid candidate.

Once you’re in training, you rotate through different hospitals generally every 4-12 months. You can be sent anywhere within the deanery you’re training in, which can be a vast area. Again, you can look these up online but for me, I could be sent up to about two and a half hours away from my home, and have very little say in the matter. Rotational training also means that you’re constantly having to prove yourself to a new set of people, while getting used to a new department and way of working, in some situations a new specialty, far away from your support network, all the while trying to keep patients safe in a system that’s falling down around your ears. There’s no gentle introduction period, I’ve started jobs in a brand new hospital on nights working solo as the most senior doctor in the hospital covering my specialty, without anyone so much as showing me how to log in to a computer and order a blood test. But if you don’t get a grip of things pretty quickly, patients suffer, so you have to hit the ground running, again and again and again.

It’s also worth noting that the standard working week in most hospital specialties is 48 hours, and you can legally be rota’d for up to 72 hours. This might be evenings, nights, weekends etc. The pay, while not terrible compared to the average person, is just not commensurate with the skills and knowledge you need, and the responsibility you hold. Honestly most of my friends who did a three year degree and went on to office jobs have become fairly senior in the time it’s taken me to get to this point in my training, and are significantly out-earning me. Oh, and all the exams you have to take to progress through training? You have to pay for these yourself, and they can be several hundred pounds a pop. Ditto the portfolio you have to pay for so you can keep track of your progress. Ditto royal college fees. Ditto indemnity insurance. Etc etc.

I don’t regret my choice to study medicine, and there are plenty of good things about the job, but it’s all-consuming. I’m not trying to put you off, but I think it’s easy to romanticise working in healthcare and you need to go in with your eyes open. I’d definitely echo the advice to try and get some experience working as a healthcare assistant or at the very least, a period of time shadowing a doctor before you decide whether or not it’s for you.

I'm a hospital consultant.

Go down the PA route.

Someone modelled it recently. From starting training to reaching pay parity it took those who pursued a career as a doctor 17 years to out earn someone who opted to be a Physicians assistant.

And the person pursuing the medical route had to deal with all the shite outlined above by @NotInTheMorning and progress smoothly through training so never stop for mat leave, an exam failure, parents death or anything. It's really not worth it.

No one has modelled pension income yet but as we are now on career average earnings I'm not sure there isn't going to be a huge advantage of pursuing medical training there either. n

Once qualified as a doctor you will carry a lot more responsibility especially in the consultant years.

I'm only 48 and I'm planning my exit strategy. When the junior docs announced their strikes last night I cried. I wholeheartedly support their pay battle (and have voted to strike myself next month) but I quite simply do not have enough left in my tank to act down as the registrar again.

All we have had are demands on us professionally for the past 3 years - covid, reskill to do ICU, act down as the juniors have gone to ICU, back to normal trying to scale up activity, covid wave 2, back to resident nightshifts as juniors are back on ICU, back to trying to scale up activity, Hospital churns a million burnt out admin staff so usual processes fail miserable but we are still trying to do 105% activity. Demand Demand Demand. Act down as a registrar to cover strikes. Act down as a nurse to cover more bloody strikes. Demand demand more activity. Waiting lists are huge. Act down again as a registrar to cover more strikes. All the while I get paid 35% less in real terms than someone doing my hours would have in 2008.

Why the fuck did I bother. I could have taken my excellent A-levels, attention to detail and done something else that is appreciated in this country.

Thank you all, I really appreciate the honest insights. Ideally I would love to be a GP, but after some more thought I think nursing or PA is the route to go down as I do want some autonomy and choice over where I live.

I had considered applying to PA courses for a few years, and was going to this year but then changed my mind and now I've missed the deadline for the September 2023 entry.

I know for me one of the biggest factors in how happy I am in my job is feeling that what I'm doing is making a difference in someway. I really struggle to stay motivated in my current job as the bulk of what I do is to help drive sales. I was a lot happier when earning minimum wage as a lab assistant in the NHS doing monotonous procedures for 12 hour shifts as I found it a lot more rewarding.

@belongin what was the culture like in the NHS lab you worked at? I know someone who's considering this and I was worried that there is a culture of bullying and pettiness, was this your experience too?

There may be some courses with a January intake. This would let you get all your ducks in a row, save up, get some experience and go for it! You'd have to love diagnosing and being very methodical. OT or speech and language therapy are also very rewarding if this interested you.

Cannot recommend going down the dental rather than medical route enough, especially if you’d rather be a GP than a surgeon!

Not a single day goes by where I regret choosing dentistry over medicine. Better pay, better hours, very easy to shift to part time if you want, family friendly.

I also have a number of friends who do hospital posts in maxillofacial departments if you do prefer the hospital environment.

I would go for it if you want to be a GP. Training is shorter (although still not exactly short), and you would have lots of flexibility on where to train and work once qualified. Also you can choose your working pattern once qualified, and it can be very rewarding, if sometimes frustrating.

Nurse here! It’s a very stressful job, however you are in your late 20’s and obviously very keen so I’d give it a go. I’ve met many amazing and inspiring people during my 30 year career. You’ll never feel lonely that’s for sure, work hard, play hard.

@TrishTrix I appreciate you, and I am very glad that you bothered.

I dread to think where we would all be without our doctors, nurses and associates professions.

PA would be a great choice of career. There are plenty of PAs working in primary care, and PA prescribing is on the way in, likely before you qualify. So you will be doing pretty much everything a junior doctor does, but would only need 2 years of training. You’ll be earning £45-60k for a 9-5 job as well.

What you aren’t going to be doing, and what consultants are paid a lot for, is managing your service, leading research, etc. But if that isn’t something you are particularly interested in, being a PA will tick most of the same boxes as being a doctor.