Career change advice please?

[Motherofhelios]

Hi all,

I work in academia (social sciences) and am considering retraining. I’m 40 and would like to go into nursing. I’m educated up to PhD level and am looking for something I could ideally do distance learning.

Does anyone know if I would have to do a undergrad degree or if I could do a masters? I’m just looking for the swiftest way so get what I need, and hoping my qualifications will mean I don’t have to go through the undergrad again. There is also the reality that I’d need to enter that labour market sooner rather than later hence my hope for a more fast tract option.

would be very grateful for any advice!

Why don’t you go into NHS project/ change management or policy work? Your social sciences academia background is potentially quite relevant for this sort of role and there are loads of jobs Band 6/7 and up, so higher paid than nursing without any need for training (look at QSIR and prince 2).

If you want nursing you will need to do a 2 year post grad course, there is no faster way.

Google PG Dip (Nursing)

I am 40 and currently in the middle of a nursing degree, there is a masters option at our uni!

Thank you very much. A two year post grad is totally fine - I was just worried I’d have to do an undergrad AND a postgrad. I don’t like to assume anything but hoped I’d get on the postgrad due to my current qualifications.

I’ll see if the open uni do a postgrad option. Thank you.

The open university appear to offer this. I’ve requested a prospectus anyway and have enquired into some other providers.

I doubt you can get a nursing qualification that doesn'f involve placement/practical studies.

Oh yes and that is of course fine. I suppose m’y hope is all the theoretical stuff will be online. I’d want to actually practice in the field so really I’m looking for a blended program. I’ll see what my enquiries come up with.

Can I ask why you want to make such a radical change, @Motherofhelios?

(I made one myself when considerably older than you, but from and to very different occupations.)

Honestly, I really want to do something where I feel I genuinely help people at work. When I’m my early twenties my life took me on a particular path and I was lucky enough to be award a scholarship for a masters and PhD in an area of social science. Having worked in policy and academia since, I become disalloutioned with the impact I can make and our sector is becoming increasingly precarious. For me it’s not to much about the income, but doing something meaningful. I don’t have children so don’t need to worry about that with regards to allocating time to retraining. I just need to find something I can fit around work as I could never afford to pack work in and become a full time student - not many could!

Disillusioned sorry

Sorry if this is naive but surely you have more power to improve the desperately failing NHS through policy, rather than becoming another obscenely overworked and underpaid nurse, barely able to keep a roof over your head?

And it’s a long time since I’ve encountered anyone beyond the first year of an undergraduate degree who says they ‘want to help people’.

Are you sure you know what you’re getting into?

I agree with @CountryCousin that you already have a set of skills the NHS needs to transform policy and services, which you could deliver a lot of positive impact on people’s lives at population level….why not consider building on these rather than starting from scratch?

But if you have a strong calling for nursing then fair play and good luck x

Also the AHSNs are another good fit for your skills and experience and you’d have a direct impact on the NHS

Thank you very much for your comments. I became somewhat jaded during my time working in policy, but let’s just say you can make recommendations, based on evidence, on interventions that work and they won’t be taken up…

Sure, but depending on where you are in the system, and what policies/ programmes you’re trying to implement, you can have more or less impact. I’d say in a provider you can see direct impact faster.

Also, nudging things forward is a massive achievement in such a complex and devolved system and not to be undervalued. The NHS is like a mega tanker heading in the wrong direction and we need lots of visionary people to turn it around…

wishing you all the best with whatever you decide to do

It would be practically impossible to complete a nursing degree without leaving your full time job. Student nurses have blocks of clinical placements which require full time commitment. Some nursing students may work some extra part time hours, but these would need to be flexible given nursing shift patterns - as a student nurse, you would be expected to work nights and weekends.
Why don't you go to a university open day (most will have several nursing open days throughout the year) to discuss your options?

It does honestly sound a teeny bit dilettante-ish not to realise that training to be a nurse would necessarily be a full time occupation.

The UK is busily draining the labour resources of many countries to feed the NHS’s need for staff. I’d imagine 100% of those recruits would be off to something with better pay, conditions and chances of ‘making a difference’ if they held a Ph.D in their pockets.