Nanny with experience at nurseries

[LostAtTheFair]

We are recruiting a live out nanny for our toddler DD and have a candidate who we will meet tomorrow. Her cv says that all of her experience in the last 9 years is as a childcare worker in a number of nurseries. Before that she was a nanny but only for 6 months. She has relevant qualifications.

My question is whether the lack of actual nanny experience should be a concern? I'm not overly concerned about it, as it seems that all the work in nurseries is relevant...
I'm also wondering if there are certain aspects of the nanny job where she would need more support.

Well the main thing is how she is using her own initiative. At nurseries everything will be planned as a team and worked as a team in an emergency. As a nanny she will need to make decisions herself.

I worked in a nursery for 5 years before getting a nanny job for a 7wk old baby. I took over from a lovely but very old fashioned maternity nurse who went through the routine, showed me how to hand wash the expensive items which I never, ever put on the baby and let me know what was expected. I enjoyed nannying, having more scope to go places and my employers had lots of friends with Nannies so I had a great social life.

My friend also went from a nursery to nannying and hated it. She felt isolated and struggled to meet people. It really does vary from person to person as to how they adapt to going from working in a team to being in sole charge. As long as you're happy for your nanny to go to toddler groups and make friends, I'm sure she'll be fine.

You might need to spell out the nursery duties a bit more. IE. Beds changed on a Monday, bottles washed and sterilised at the end of each day, kids washing done so she knows what's expected as, obviously, she won't do that side of things in a nursery.

Loneliness, not being able to take a break, lots of trips out to places of interest to the children... those are things that may cause issues initially. They should adapt in time and if they get out and about to local groups they may make friends with parents/carers at those groups and thus overcome any loneliness they may feel in the job.