Care/Nursing/new Career after redundancy/maternity

[Justanticipating]

I've been made redundant at the end of my maternity from my financial admin job career path. I hated it, sitting at a desk, feeling like my job is pointless, corporate environment and jargon, low pay, unable to progress, competition in finding new admin jobs. It's been a blessing to get paid to leave!

I want a job that eventually pays decent, (£25k-30 is good for me to be happy) and feels like i'm making a difference. The world is my oyster really, and I want to start from fresh so have been considering the care/nurse/maybe midwife route.

Where do I even start? I'm thinking of trying a care home/support job and seeing how I like it, but then what? Am I being unrealistic? Could I go on to do a health care assistant role after working in a care support role to get experience in a hospital?

Care support and HCA are basically the same thing, surely?

Do you mean something different by care support?

@QueenOfPain

Care support and HCA are basically the same thing, surely?

Do you mean something different by care support?

My understanding was you had care home workers who were based in just the care home and then care support did visits so drove around? Thats what i'm indeed calls them haha

@QueenOfPain

Care support and HCA are basically the same thing, surely?

Do you mean something different by care support?

Sorry and just to add to that, I thought HCA's were those who provided support within a hospital environment. And they were a step up from the care home/care support role as you need more experience and at minimum a qualification to apply.

I doubt you would earn 25-30k by being a support worker. Are you mixing that up with a nurse? Or are you planning to go on to do a degree?

You wouldn’t even earn 25k as a newly qualified nurse....never mind a carer

Oh, I think that’s all semantics. They’re essentially the same job I guess, just a HCA in a hospital might be able to do things like bloods and cannula and take vital signs.

Where do you stand qualification wise? Have you got the entry requirements for nursing or midwifery?

She wouldn’t be far off £25k as a newly qualified nurse or midwife. Start of band 5 is £24,907 and with shift allowances for unsocial hours she’d do £25k easily.

@picknmix1984

I doubt you would earn 25-30k by being a support worker. Are you mixing that up with a nurse? Or are you planning to go on to do a degree?

Sorry I should have been clear, I know I wouldn't get anywhere near that until i'd done a degree and worked within Nursing for a while.

My mum did her nursing degree after working in care home and support worker jobs and then went on to earn about £24-26k as a community nurse, that was about 5 years ago. Unfortunately she passed away so I can't go to her for advice on where to start.

@QueenOfPain

Oh, I think that’s all semantics. They’re essentially the same job I guess, just a HCA in a hospital might be able to do things like bloods and cannula and take vital signs.

Where do you stand qualification wise? Have you got the entry requirements for nursing or midwifery?

Yeah i've got those terms from google and indeed but im sure theres more official names haha

I have zero, I'm really starting from scratch. I was a workplace first aider though (will experience pull from anything! haha) But thats why I thought starting in care work would be the right start, after being on low income from maternity, I do need to start work and bringing in some money, even if it's minimum wage but want my job to help me move into a new career. Job adverts do say no experience needed and NVQ training can be worked towards.

You could easily get a job as a carer in the community and then with that experience get a band 2 hca role in hospital. Training as a nurse would be harder, you can take 3 years to do it full time or some trusts are introducing the nurse associate role which is 3 years but paid as working throughout. That leaves you as a band 4. It’s a further 18 months to qualify as a nurse (band5.)

@AluckyEllie

You could easily get a job as a carer in the community and then with that experience get a band 2 hca role in hospital. Training as a nurse would be harder, you can take 3 years to do it full time or some trusts are introducing the nurse associate role which is 3 years but paid as working throughout. That leaves you as a band 4. It’s a further 18 months to qualify as a nurse (band5.)

Thankyou, thats really helpful, i'd not heard of the nurse associate option.

When I was reading online, it read like you have to chose which nursing degree you want, like just adult, just child, or just mental health ect. Isnt the nursing degree just a generic one? I'm not sure if id want to work with adult or children for instance, so do you just do top ups to work in the other areas, or have to start again? I guess i'm thinking too far ahead, I may realise through my years of working which id want to do.

Look on nhs jobs for an HCA job. If you can get one you can then do your nursing degree via an apprenticeship route so 1) you'd be paid to do it and 2) your degree would be paid for.

You'd need a level 3 relevant qualification or two relevant A levels. You could do a nursing associate foundation degree first or go straight for the nursing degree I think.

Nursing Associate is a 2 year foundation degree, paid at a Band 2 level as pp said. Minimum entry requirements in the trust I worked for was a GCSE grade C in both maths & English, an NVQ Level 2 or above in Health & Social Care and 6 months experience as an HCA.

Most care jobs will give the option of doing NVQ Level 2 at some point.

Our nursing associate apprenticeships are paid at band 3, we're a community trust though so not sure if that makes a difference?

You apply to take a single route in nursing adult, child , mental health....but there’s always ways round things eg an adult or mental health nurse can then do a post grad and become a health visitor, for example, then they would be working with children and families

@CoffeeRunner

Nursing Associate is a 2 year foundation degree, paid at a Band 2 level as pp said. Minimum entry requirements in the trust I worked for was a GCSE grade C in both maths & English, an NVQ Level 2 or above in Health & Social Care and 6 months experience as an HCA.

Most care jobs will give the option of doing NVQ Level 2 at some point.

Thankyou and to @WreckTangled too. I don't have any qualification so i'll have a look at where offers doing the minimum of level 2 nvq too.

Feels like a lot of steps but at least its not like in admin work where nepotism usually gets you a promotion, at least it's something to work for!

@Kitkat151

You apply to take a single route in nursing adult, child , mental health....but there’s always ways round things eg an adult or mental health nurse can then do a post grad and become a health visitor, for example, then they would be working with children and families

Great thanks, thought that might be the case, another big (financial) decision to make. I'm sure id know by that point.

Ours definitely requires level 3 but you can do that as an apprenticeship too. It's such a brilliant way of doing it. You'll have a job and a full time wage whilst gaining a qualification, so even if it takes six years to get a full degree it wouldn't matter as you're not having to take time out of work and get into debt at the same time. You've just got to get your foot in the door really.

@Justanticipating. Once you’ve qualified as a nurse....most further study can be funded by the nhs.....eg if you wanted to be a health visitor....you would apply for a secondment, for example and do a years training fully paid for....and you would come out with a post grad diploma..... and I think they are doing a bursary again now for nursing courses?

Have a look at ODP which is sort of like nursing but in theatres. The course is shorter I think.

In my local trust you can become a band 2 HCA with just 5 GCSEs at grade C and above. No previous experience necessary. They advertise regularly for each intake on the NHS vacancies website.

You do a 2 week training course then you are let loose on the wards 😊 You can then either apply for a substantive position or you can work days/hours that suit you on the nurse bank. If you work for the nurse bank then you pick which wards you want to work on - I would advise going this route at first if you think you may like to develop your career further as it will give you more experience and also help you decide which departments interest you more.
You can also choose to work nights/weekends which will boost your pay significantly due to the enhancements you get for working unsocial hours.

Nursing Associates are paid at band 3 in my trust during training. They have stopped the 18month conversion course though to turn the NA foundation degree into a Nursing degree. I’m not sure if that’s just my area though.

@WreckTangled

Ours definitely requires level 3 but you can do that as an apprenticeship too. It's such a brilliant way of doing it. You'll have a job and a full time wage whilst gaining a qualification, so even if it takes six years to get a full degree it wouldn't matter as you're not having to take time out of work and get into debt at the same time. You've just got to get your foot in the door really.

That would be so ideal, We couldn't afford for me to take time out to study without being paid.

@Kitkat151
I think I read that theres a £5k bursary for full degree, with maybe a further £1k for certain low intake areas, but obviously things may change by the time/if I decide to do it, i'm hoping this last year being the shitshow it's been, maybe the goverment may increase it further to get more people in to train, so may be even better but thats wishful thinking.

But overall I'm not entirely sure, the apprenticeship options sounds like the best option so far though.

There's loads of support roles in the NHS so worth hanging around the job pages for a bit. They're approving apprenticeship framework for different qualifications all the time, I think they recently approved one for a dietitian which was interesting. Wonder if there's any in therapies 🤔

FYI you can apply for dual reg course like
adult/mental health
Adult/child
Child/mental health
Learning Disability/mental health.

There's a few different combinations but these are a few. These courses normally take 4 years full time

@FinanciallyUnsavvy

In my local trust you can become a band 2 HCA with just 5 GCSEs at grade C and above. No previous experience necessary. They advertise regularly for each intake on the NHS vacancies website.

You do a 2 week training course then you are let loose on the wards 😊 You can then either apply for a substantive position or you can work days/hours that suit you on the nurse bank. If you work for the nurse bank then you pick which wards you want to work on - I would advise going this route at first if you think you may like to develop your career further as it will give you more experience and also help you decide which departments interest you more.
You can also choose to work nights/weekends which will boost your pay significantly due to the enhancements you get for working unsocial hours.

Nursing Associates are paid at band 3 in my trust during training. They have stopped the 18month conversion course though to turn the NA foundation degree into a Nursing degree. I’m not sure if that’s just my area though.

Thats interesting, ill have another look. i'd much prefer to go straight into this. I had a look on the NHS website though, and for my trust it does say I needed a minimum of ' a work based NVQ level 2 in a health- related subject' Although not sure which they expect! Assuming health and social care one would do?