Mental health nursing or social work?

[MoreCheesecakeNow]

Anyone doing either of those things as a student or qualified?
I already have a DipHE in something totally unrelated and will be doing a Level 3 in Health and Social care in college hopefully next year.
I want to know what the work life balance is like, is it doable as a single mum with a school aged child (DS will be school aged by the time I qualify).

Social Work is pretty full on (and MH nursing may involve shift work depending on the setting). Depending on which branch of either you go into, there will be some unsocial hours, sometimes without notice ie: placing kids in homes miles away after school hours. Both jobs are under resourced and stressful. You will need a lot of resilience and back up emergency child care 'just in case'. These days there is scope for some home working in social work. NHS you can retire at 55 (think this is still the case) - local government (main employer of social workers) it's the state retirement age.

I'm an RGN not an RMN but work with a lot of RMN

The 2 professions you state are similar in a lot of ways - with significant

Responsibility
Trauma
Stress
High workload
Extensive training
Slow progression
Team work
Accountability

I love my job and manage all of the above but I do feel the strain a lot and see others break due to it all

You need a good solid work life balance , external support and regular supervision

It can be done - good luck 💐

Forgot to say I would recommend an OT or physio degree. Much better work/life balance, very little emergency work, planned appts, short term work. Pay scales similar to social work.

mental health placements whilst doing your degree need robust childcare, you will be doing long 12 hour shifts and often weekends during at least some of them. Have you thought about OT?

I too would recommend either OT/physio/speech & language. The balance is much better than needing to find childcare for shift work

Definitely OT. Very flexible and huge cross over potential with MH nursing & social work depending on the area you go into, but none of the stress and horrific hours. Placements are usually 4-9 weeks and a few months apart as well.

Thank you all so much for the suggestion of occupational therapy. It looks like the career for me and it wasn't even on my radar at first.

Some universities do short courses as kind of 'taster sessions'. I believe these are online but I could be wrong. Contact the admissions team to see what you need to get intro the course as a mature student as you don't want to waste your time doing a course they don't recognise.

Thank you. I've just emailed admissions to see what they come back with as acceptable courses for admission.

Good luck. Which university are you looking at? There's a mature student section on here as well which you may find useful.

Nurses retiring at 55 isn’t the deal anymore

Northampton, Coventry and Derby as I'll have to commute from home so those 3 are most practical.

@MoreCheesecakeNow Also worth contacting your local hospital/urgent care/mental health hub/etc to see if you could spend a few hours shadowing someone or even having a chat with them about their role. It will help clarify what you want to do and will be good for your uni applications.

Hey OP, I’m a MH nurse have been for over 20 years. Apart from a few years at the very beginning of my career I’ve always worked ‘office hours’ in community based posts.
There are positives to the job, there is scope for fully funded training and career progression, If you are ambitious you can do pretty well. Stable secure employment with good sick pay and holiday entitlement. Lots of potential variety. Interesting work which can be rewarding.
the cons- very stressful mainly due to massive lack of resources in all sectors.
Not being able to help people who need help takes a massive emotional toll and causes burnout (look up moral injury- it describes it perfectly).

Thank you all so much for the suggestion of occupational therapy. It looks like the career for me and it wasn't even on my radar at first.

Have you looked at the NHS Careers web site?

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/explore-roles

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/career-planning

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/FindYourCareer

There might be other pathways you weren't aware of that also appeal to you.