Thinking about leaving nursing to become a post woman - anyone done this?

[CakesRus3]

Only qualified 18 months ago. Hated my training but i put that down to it being so difficult as a single parent. I work in mental health. Its definitely impacted on my own. Lots of bullying and im exhausted by it.
Postal workers earn the same as me. Lone working. Exercise on the job. Considering it!

I didn't leave to be a postal worker but did leave Nursing after 30 years to do a different job.

Cakes please don't leave the profession but do find another job, we need all the new nurses we can get .
What things do you enjoy about your job? Perhaps we can help find you a better role but still in nursing?

Having done 30+ years myself I'd say get out now.

Nurse of almost 20 years here. I agree, get out, it's hell. I've a few years on my mortgage then I'll be looking for other employment (assuming I don't have a mental breakdown before then)

There's a lot of threads about postwomen at the moment.

Apparently it's normal to have a fag on, and comment on other people's mail!

Anyway one thing I do know is ... early starts. I couldn't have done it because of childcare.

Good luck.

09Babyroobs what did you decide to do instead?
16Pippioddstocking I can't say anything, I'm sorry. The dynamics of the office are just awful. The work load is stressful and I have had absolutely no support or direction. It's a thankless role. I wish I could put some positive on it but I can't. I work in mental health so very limited areas I could work. Personally I couldn't work in secure or acute services. I have looked at different areas for 18 months and nothing is appealing.
19redgin are you still in the profession? Can you tell me why you advise that also?
24Scabber poor you! That's good news about the mortgage. I wish I had. I have 18 years left. If I had less, it wouldn't bother me what I did. I just need something to match my wage. I'm on 24k and postal workers are on 23k. It does say it can go up, not sure what the responsibility would be for the pay rise.
24JamieLeeCurtains yes, early starts but early finishes too. Loan working. Just yourself to think about. Your only responsibility is to deliver the correct mail in the correct letterbox.

Could you try private school nursing?

They take MH nurses

I worked with a nurse who had trained as a mental health nurse, worked on an EMI unit for a couple of years, then changed to an adult nursing job on a gastro ward. I was surprised that she’d been allowed, but she was very good at her job. This was a nurse qualified in the past 5 years.
Is there any option of you moving to adult nursing, where you’ll have a lot more choice of different jobs/areas?

My husband is a post man. They do not earn the same as a Band 5 or 6 nurse. Where did you get that information from!? I work in the NHS in a band 3 position. He earns just over what I do. That's with an hours overtime every morning and 3 evenings a week.
The hours are long, in all weather, no breaks and no toilet access unless you can find a shop to let you in. Sometimes he has to come home for a poo. He comes home soaking wet because the waterproof trousers aren't that water proof. Freezing cold in winter. Winters are longer than summers in the UK don't forget. He walks almost 18 miles a day with very large heavy bags of mail/parcels. He has blisters on his hands and feet, callouses, foot and back problems. It is only lone working at present due to covid. They still have to go into the depot full of 200 other people to sort their station and organise the days mail before they go out to work. They usually work two to a van and do loops round the area then meet up.
It isn't just a nice easy job walking about in the sunshine getting paid the same as a nurse!

27Iwonder777 not sure what you mean?
29CaptainInsensible I'm not sure how she did that. Adult training is so different to mental health. I would not have a clue. I do think there are more options in general nursing. It took me 5 years to train and now qualified 18 months. I feel like the past 6 /7 years have been so stressful. I just can't see an are a I'd enjoy. Mostly, I have struggled with the bullying and if your face doesn't fit attitudes. So many nurses I speak to feel the same.

38Yogaroll thanks for the heads up. I guess there are negatives to all jobs. I read it yesterday. Starting salary 23k. Lots of negatives to my job too. I have spoken to 2 postmen. One left mental health and he describes it as the best decision ever. Another left a factory job, he loves his round and they love him. He has a 20 hour contract but works over time. He has been there 18 months and never not had over time. I will never be a band 6. I'm a band 5 on 24k.

DH was a postie until he had to be medically retired with arthritis in his knees. He loved it, did it for 10 years and was genuinely gutted to leave. It is true you are out in all weathers and have to be tactical with toilets, but equally you go at your own pace as long as you get all the post delivered and the camaraderie is good. He was an early bird anyway so the 4am leaving the house to walk to work (before we had a car) didn't phase him - we lived 3 miles away from the sorting office. He used to walk about 15 miles a day and was really fit.

I’m not sure how she did it either! I also know a LD trained nurse who is now an adult nurse. So maybe it’s worth looking into?
I think it depends where you work and presumably all areas are not like that? I know a lot of nurses and HCAs who are happy in their work and are part of good supportive teams, so not everywhere is like where you work. Maybe there is hope?
Try and think of what skills you have and what you have learnt and how these could be transferred to another area. I know it’s really hard when you feel trapped but there’s probably something you can do to make things better. Good luck

51AndNoneForGretchenWieners aw bless him, glad he enjoyed. Not many people can say that about their job. The walking bit is actually a motivator for me. I'm now to exhausted mentally for the gym and o know how it feels to not be able to go to the toilet for hours. You would have to use a supermarkets toilet surely?! 4am is early, yikes!

52CaptainInsensible ah ok, I will have a little look into that. Thankyou. Yes, it's not nice, especially being a single parent. I would work in a little nursery or something if I didn't have to just rely on my wage.

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2105545&page=2

Just found this thread on the student room. It’s from 5 years ago but some replies are more recent. It actually mentions mental health nurses being recruited to work on GI wards, because of your experience and training in substance abuse I think. Worth a read though?

cakes I think the contracts have changed now but he had to be in the sorting office for 5.15am and was one of these people who would rather be 20 mins early than 2 mins late. He used petrol stations, supermarkets, community centres for the loo (and sometimes his sister's house). It worked well with our family life because he was finished by lunch and could pick DS up from nursery/school. In the early years this would be in a post van driven by his colleague who lived near us - DS has always called post vans "Daddy's taxis" because of it! They could go out on their rounds earlier in those days though, and finish earlier, it has changed a bit now and I think they can't go out until 9am or something like that.

I’m not a RMN but I’ve done 24 years in emergency medicine and and I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I’d also be careful shifting jobs right at the minute plus I’d be surprised if a postie gets paid over £45k , hats off if they do.

06TartanDMs thankyou, sounds like it all worked well for you little family.
08Shakespearsister I will never earn 45k. I'm on 24k. I will never want to go up the ranking. It's hard enough taking the responsibilitiesof a band 5. If I can match my wage, I'd be happy. It's difficult to know what and where.

02CaptainInsensible sorry posted without seeing your message. Thanks for the link. This is interesting. I will have a read now. However, I have not working in drug or alcohol services. I will look. I do struggle with shifts though as I do not have child care.

Sorry, I have no experience in either profession (though find postwoman appealing, too). I just wanted to add, that you could always go back to being a nurse, possibly in a different setting or team, if being a postwomen does not work out?! But would say go for it, because you will never know unless you try it.

Tbh I thought the same when I was training ‘I could never do this, I will never be able to do that, I will never be a sister’ I didn’t particularly enjoy my training and I hated the academic side.
After 2.5 years of working in a supportive environment, I can imagine that my next move but one will be to band 6.
So maybe you’ve just been unlucky in where you work, or maybe it’s really not for you. But maybe you need to move somewhere else to find out for sure.
As a PP has said, the earning potential in nursing is likely to be more. I’m closer to £28,000 after 2 years, which definitely feels better than £24,000

58Cheesecake53 I actually had that thought this morning, thankyou. I'm going to call the NMC today to see how long I can be off the register for. Another thing I have to consider with that is if I did go back, they would wonder why I left. They would also think, I haven't had the experience.

00CaptainInsensible it sounds like you are definitely progressing within your role, well done. What do you do? Yes, that's another thought. I have only experienced one team. I didn't realise the wage goes up so quickly.

Have you actually applied for a job as a postal worker? You seem to assume that you'll definitely get one, which I think is unfortunately unlikely to be the case given the current economic situation - they're going to have a lot of applicants who will see the pay/benefits in the same light as you. If you want something physical and low-responsibility there are lots of options but a lot of them will pay a lot less than you currently earn (which will also be the least you ever earn if you stay as a nurse, whereas pay progression will be very limited with some of these other options). But again, depending on where you live you might find that it's not actually that easy to find a job in a supermarket etc - people assume that there are endless such jobs and they'll take anyone but that isn't the case, especially if you really need full-time hours for financial reasons but can't work shifts. If you have a mortgage and dependents then by all means start looking for another job but don't leave before you have one!