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?

@Ggeemerc

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

Great thank-you, I know someone whose done this and loves it.

@TraineeACP

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

Brilliant, thats better, seems tough to just do the one! And learning disability was the one I missed.

@WreckTangled Theres LOADS of mental help jobs going in my area, most of the page is full of it, must be a big push for it atm. I'm not sure thats for me though.

I've just started a nursing degree. I worked in a care home as a HCA for two years before applying. Without experience in care, you'd need a level 3 in health and social care or similar to get in. Unless you already have a degree? I don't have any care qualifications just experience but they accepted my (completely unrelated) degree.

FWIW I am so glad I did it. I am enjoying it so much. Good luck 🤞

Mental health will be a big part of any nursing role so would be a great area to start in.

@CrackersDontMatter

I've just started a nursing degree. I worked in a care home as a HCA for two years before applying. Without experience in care, you'd need a level 3 in health and social care or similar to get in. Unless you already have a degree? I don't have any care qualifications just experience but they accepted my (completely unrelated) degree.

FWIW I am so glad I did it. I am enjoying it so much. Good luck 🤞

I do have a degree, but it's in the arts field so also not relevant haha I'd be hoping that my employer would put me through the qualification, but id not ill probably just do anyway if I enjoy it.

@Thirtyrock39 I'm not sure id want to do mental health specifically, it might be a bit too close for home for me. Most of the jobs i've seen need qualifications anyway

Mine is in photography! It just demonstrates that you can work at that level academically. The course itself assumes you have never done care work. And as I've found, even if you have, there's lots that is new.

@CrackersDontMatter

Mine is in photography! It just demonstrates that you can work at that level academically. The course itself assumes you have never done care work. And as I've found, even if you have, there's lots that is new.

Mine is also photography! haha that's definitely reassuring thank you, glad to hear my degree will go to some use haha I'll have a look at look thank you

I have just been offered a HCA job in a hospital. The pay is around £19k but then you have to consider that if working nights and weekends that could boost it up considerably. I think when I was working as a qualified Nurse before, the unsocial enhancements boosted pay by about 25-30% on top of basic.

@WreckTangled

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 🤔

I have been looking at Band 4 roles and just applied for one to train as an assistant podiatrist and one as a cancer support worker working alongside clinical Nurse specialists. there seems to be a lot of interesting opportunities at the moment.

@Babyroobs good luck with the applications! I think a lot of it is because everywhere is so short staffed that they're going to start having more lower bands and have them working their way up and doing training. Also they get the government levy for apprenticeships so they might as well use it.

@Babyroobs

I have just been offered a HCA job in a hospital. The pay is around £19k but then you have to consider that if working nights and weekends that could boost it up considerably. I think when I was working as a qualified Nurse before, the unsocial enhancements boosted pay by about 25-30% on top of basic.

Sorry didn't see this! The HCA seems like a good step if I can get in! I am actually looking for more unsocial hours anyway so I can have more time at home during the day with my little one. Do you mind if I ask, how come you went from nurse to HCA? Isn't that a step down?

Yes it's a step down - I left Nursing a few years ago to do something completely different and let my Registered nurse registration lapse. I could do a return to Nursing course but thought I might work as an HCA for a while in different areas just to see if being a qualified Nurse is something I could return to !

@Babyroobs

Yes it's a step down - I left Nursing a few years ago to do something completely different and let my Registered nurse registration lapse. I could do a return to Nursing course but thought I might work as an HCA for a while in different areas just to see if being a qualified Nurse is something I could return to !

That makes sense and seems absolutely reasonable, I can imagine this is more common than people think. Reading your other comment though it looks like you've got some exciting plans, and good that you've got the option to try go back if you wanted to. Good luck 😊