Advice needed on work

[ktjj84]

I'm a full time student nurse who is working 37 hours on a hospital placement at the moment, but throughout my training i've worked 22 hours part time in a call centre to support myself. So that would make it 59 hours a week i'm working. Which has been a struggle but now i'm pregnant my body cant cope! I'm 11 weeks pregnant. I finish my nurse training in 5 weeks time and i cant take any time off, or i wont qualify. My part time job wont let me reduce my hours temp, it would have to be a permant contract. But my maternaty pay will be from my part time job so if i reduce my hours i will have a poor maternaty package, and i just cant afford to that.

I've been telling myself its only for another 4 weeks, but tonight i've come to tears because i just cant do this anymore. Plus i hate to think what the stress is doing to my little baby.

Any advice??

Could you go to see your GP and get signed off your part-time job because of stress? I would go and talk to them either way, and see if they have any idea what can be done in your case.
Good luck!!

Hi.
I can understand how you are feeling.
Are you sure you have to get all your nursing hours in over the next 5 weeks? I found that on the whole most nursing schools are pretty sympathetic in cases such as yours.Could you work out extending your palcement over a bit longer and do less hours each week.
Also the people at the DWP are usually pretty helpful regarding advising on maternity allowance etc.
I would speak to as mamy people as you can. You will probably be surprised at how people want to help.
Another thing, I found the extreme tiredness abated a little after 3 months so hopefully that may be you also and that would help.
Good luck

Hi there

You poor thing - I understand how it feels. For what its worth, I worked long, stressful hours (at least 60 hrs) per week during the first 3 months of my pregnancy, and was worried about the effect on my baby. My doctor said that women who work those long hours are just more likely to have a baby that doesn't grow as much during that period (apparently lots of City women have lower birth weight babies - haven't checked to see if this is true, just what he said). But... baby likely to "catch up" when you slow down. Am now 23 weeks and the little one "measuring normal" in every possible way.

Also, I agree w fgpl - for the first 3 months I spent every non-working hour asleep, but then it passed.

Not saying that you should push on, but if you do decide to, it may not have any impact on your little one. Lots of women I know worked silly, stressful hours up until they had the baby, and baby was fine. Again, not saying you should, but think that it can be fine.

However, it sounds like you are not very happy about this, and that's important. In which case, I second the advice to speak to the people you work with and get as much support/help as you can.

GOod luck!

I second Eviebear, go to your GP and get signed off if you can. You should still get your sick leave then, and hours will contribute to mat pay.

And are you sue you have to complete all your placement hours? Have you had much time off sick the last 3 years? I finished my nurse training a few years ago, but during that time I suffered a miscarriage and took a month off and then took about 3 weeks off another time when I was hospitalised with a bad kidney infection. Plus the odd day here and there with hangovers flu. When it got the the end I didn't have to make up any time as all universitys make you work more hours than you officially 'need' by the NMC to qualify, precisely to prevent this sort of thing happening. Make sure you take a look at your sickness recird and go see someone at uni, you might find you can stop working and qualify just on the hours you've completed so far.

x

Thanks for the advice everyone

Thanks firstontheway- I'm going into uni today so i'm going to drop in the placement office and have a chat with them. I did get a letter a few months back saying i needed to make up 4 hours to qualify. However i have not had that much time off. Just a odd day here and there.

Failing that it might be a trip to my GP

xx