Help!!!!!! I need to decide what career to go for.

[OrlandoInTheWilderness]

Hi everyone, thought I'd post in here as not getting anything in chat.
I'm a 36 year old mature student with a 9 year ols daughter. I started college in Jan to do a pre-access course with a view to nursing. Since then, I've flown P-A and done my functional skills level 2 maths and English.

BUT

I'm really undecided what to do next!! I've loved being in education again (I left school at 14 due to bullying and never sat any exams). I've spoken to my tutors who have said they are very supportive if I wanted to do something that requires more study and in their experience and opinion I am more than capable of achieving the grades required. I have looked into VetMed but also considered medicine.
So my options are as follows....

1. Access in September followed by Nursing. There is only one uni near us who would accept 2 functional skills, and one more that would require a top up of 1 GCSE which may delay application for a year. 3 years at uni. Good availability of jobs. Not the best pay but looks like good opportunities for progression, and I like people!
2. Vetmed. a year out to do 5 GCSEs followed by access to science. The GCSE year would also have to incorporate work experience time. Uni would require a move, luckily my parents will move with us to sort childcare. On research the industry has worrying problems and many vets I've spoken to have said they wouldn't now chose that route. Let alone the huge stress. I have spent my life around animals and if I'd stayed at school this is what I would've done. Salary reasonable but not mind boggling.
3. Med. Again, a year to do GCSEs followed by West Anglia access to med. (Well accepted) and UCAT. GCSE year will need to cover experience. 5 years uni plus 2 'trainee' years. Good prospects but intensive.

I love biology, science and maths. I like working with people and generally get on with everyone. I'm cheerful, not easily riled and I cope with stress well. I'm also a determined, slightly stubborn type!

I have to make a decision soon. I know all these careers are vocational and you are meant to automatically know if you want to do one, but honestly I'm talking myself around the houses and every street in between!!!!

ANY opinions gladly received and listened too.

In my opinion (medicine admissions tutor), it's going to come down to what your strongest motivation is.

Veterinary medicine, clearly, is the right choice for a fairly small number of people with a very strong commitment to working with animals. It might be worth noting that entrants are predominantly female (75% of new graduates) but senior vets definitely aren't. The survival rate is very low: I read that only 50% of veterinary graduates are still working as vets 6 years after graduating, but I can't remember now where I read it. You also need to be able to move about during the course to complete the required extra-mural studies.

Medicine requires total commitment to patients who are often difficult, sometimes uncooperative and occasionally hell-bent on making themselves ill. While a vet has to deal with demanding and distressed animal owners, it's rarely the animal's own fault that it's ill. Being able to treat people on the basis of what they need and can benefit from, not what you might believe they deserve, is a major challenge of being a doctor (or nurse, or physiotherapist, etc.). Working in the NHS - even in general practice - is also very different from working in a veterinary business, one some good ways but also in a lot of bad ways. You really, really need to be motivated to care for patients to be able to put up with the incompetence and utter madness of some aspects of the organization. You might have a wider choice of places in the country to study but, again, you'll have to move around for clinical placements and then move again for foundation training.

As you have identified, to keep as many options open as possible (unless you decide on nursing), you'll need to get GCSEs in maths, English language and combined science or three sciences and then do a specific Access course. Veterinary medicine is slightly harder to navigate, as veterinary schools tend not to be so explicit about which Access diplomas they'll accept (if any). If medicine is your prferred route, you don't absolutely have to move to King's Lynn for a year (I'm assuming you don't live near there already): the same Access diploma will be available in Harlow (Essex) and Truro (Cornwall) next year, and there are other fairly widely accepted Access to Medicine diplomas delivered around England (e.g. Manchester, Dudley). Some medical schools don't accept Access at all, though.

UCAT will be a nightmare no matter what. No vet schools require aptitude tests.

If I were you I'd do Nursing. I think VetMed is overhyped for most people and the reality is very different. It's competitive and you'd need experience in all sorts to get a place. There aren't many vet schools. I aspired to be a vet when I was younger, but the reality of seeing a TB test end up with over 20 animals (inc. Calves) sent to slaughter, and seeing a beloved family pet pts, was too much. It wasn't something I wanted to do daily.

I say go for nursing because once you have done your nursing degree (3 years) you can do your post grad medicine (2 years for nurses as it's a related undergrad) if you find your heart is in being a Dr. It also means you can leave education after the nursing degree and 're enter the workforce if you need to. With your situation and the entry requirements for all, I think nursing is the safest bet. Though research under grad and post grad funding as that might be a push to direct medicine.

Thank you @SirTobyBelch!

Regarding access, I've made myself a very comprehensive spreadsheet detailing which vet or medical schools accept access and different requirements required by each. I'm as well informed as possible. Actually I am about 45 mins from kings lynn!

UCAT looks horrible, I have a couple of books and have done a few practice questions. I didn't do too badly I think - my verbal reasoning test paper is the only full test paper I have taken and that came out at 730.

The long training isn't so much of a concern as DC will be 16 by the time I move into F1/F, but I have seen a few Doctors saying how horrific those years are and how intensive they are.

But if I go down the nursing route, will I always be hankering after Medicine, which does a huge disservice to nursing as a profession as well!

Vet wise I have lots of friends who either are vets or have been. The ones who still love it are older and either partners or have their own practices.

Aargh!! I think part of the problem is I am TOO well informed! I've lost the ability to be objective about it.

I say go for nursing because once you have done your nursing degree (3 years) you can do your post grad medicine (2 years for nurses as it's a related undergrad) if you find your heart is in being a Dr.

I'm not aware of anywhere you can do it in two years. You usually have to do four years, even assuming you can get a place on a graduate-entry programme. Otherwise it's five.

An acquaintance of mine from university did a conversion. It was an internal move only from that university's nursing course to their medicine. In a similar way to the conversion from biomedical sciences to medicine. Although, it may have only been a pilot course. And apologies OP if it was and not available! All I do know is she and 2 others are now qualified Drs and are currently FY1(just finishing). Only did the conversion in 2017

Have you tried a career questionnaire?[https://www.prospects.ac.uk/planner] is quite good for graduate jobs and choosing courses. It may also include other aspects that you haven't thought of yet.
I would say that from my friends experience that nursing seems to be more flexible at fitting round family life. Some dcs need more parental input when they become teenagers!

There's a healthcare-specific career questionnaire at www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/FindYourCareer

Medicine is not 2 trainee years. The shortest path (GP) is 5 trainee years. All other specialities are longer. I was a trainee for 13 years. Only go for medicine if it's the only thing in the world you can imagine doing. It tends to rapidly burn out people who went into it half heartedly.

Vet med is incredibly competitive and a lot of students have to try twice or three times to get a place, so bear that in mind. How would you manage with that? What would be your Plan B if you didn’t get in?

Medicine i think has to be something you feel is a vocation to do. Have you looked at where the hospitals would be for your placement at the universities you might apply to? Are these reasonable? And how do you stack up against their entry requirements - some care more about UKCAT, others interviews. Medical students need to make a strategic application for the places they’re most likely to get in, not choose based on location. How does that fit in to your plans?

It strikes me that you say you like people, and that makes me think nursing might be the best option. Look into the career progression opportunities for nurses, there is a lot more out there than you’d think! Even opportunities to go into research if you find, as you progress through your study, that your love of bio/chem takes precedent.

Thank you all for your input, I'm going to take a week or so to really get my head in gear. I am really leaning towards nursing, it's just finally coming to terms with not doing something I wanted to do since school but I think nursing will be a better fit, and as a single mum (albeit with fantastic support) the sooner I qualify the better for us really.
I did think about theatre nursing as an area I could find very interesting.

Look into the nurse practitioner role too!

Thank you @Stillabitemo

If moving to Preston would be an option you could also apply for the 4-year integrated master's physician associate programme at UCLan after completing an Access to Medicine diploma.
www.uclan.ac.uk/courses/mpas-hons-physician-associate-studies.php

Your parents sound wonderful, offering to move with you to provide childcare, but can I just put in a little plea on behalf of your DD and her education? Yes, medical (and service) families do manage it somehow but the practicalities of moving schools can cause problems, especially if you are still needing to move around once your DD has started her own GCSE years. At that point, if you need to move for work, you might want to consider just you moving for the duration, with your DD staying put with your parents if she and they would be happy with this. Moving into a different school for (or worse still, during) year 10 can be difficult and year 11 an absolute nightmare.

Have you considered dentistry?

How about some of the allied health professions rather than nursing? Dietician? Radiographer?

I always wanted to be a vet as a child but somehow ended up as a lawyer. When our cat was ill recently I realised that 50% of being a vet was really hard nosed business - inadequate insurance. Vet had to tell us what they could do and how much it would cost, and what they could do cheaper etc... not a great experience. Cat survived, but I was glad I wasn’t a vet as it would upset me not to help an animal survive just because of money...

Vet is probably more people focussed than human medicine. Especially as you need to be business minded as well. Pay isn't great either...

It has similarities with paediatrics as your patients aren't great at communication, so you have to get history from others, so you do have to be great at communication.

That said vet is more varied than human medicine as most do both surgery and medicine, even assuming you specialise in a type of animal. Bit like being a GP but you get to do a lot of routine surgery!

Do you like the idea of doing surgery? Do you prefer diagnostics, or a mix?

I'd certainly consider medicine.