Family friendly NHS jobs

[Anonymouseky]

I’ve been a SAHM for the last few years and have been thinking about retraining to do something in the NHS but have concerns about shift work/ irregular hours. I’m a single mum and my ex husband works irregular hours and I have no family nearby, so childcare is all on me. The careers I’m particularly interested in are physiotherapy, genetic counselling, regular counselling or physician associate. Does anyone know if these jobs are family friendly (as in set hours, no night/ weekend shifts?) Are there any other NHS careers that offer this? I’m looking for a patient facing role rather than office based. Thank you

Occupational Therapy is pretty family friendly. Lots of flexible part time roles

Are you already qualified?

Oh sorry somehow missed retraining!

I think most of the AHP roles apart from nursing are pretty family friendly in terms of fixed days/shifts. So OT, PT etc although there will be exceptions depending on what area you work in within that. Speech and Language Therapy is another.

I used to work with clinical psychologists who worked office hours. They did have 6-7years training + degree.

Physiotherapy can definitely be family friendly. If you took a job in the community or working in a school, it would typically be 9-5 M-F with part time options. Term time only is often an option if you work in schools. Some physios do weekend work and on call over night, but you could avoid applying for those jobs. OT would be similar or Speech and Language Therapy (I'm an SLT). I'm not familiar with your other jobs to know, but they sound like good options too.

@Mumof1andacat

I used to work with clinical psychologists who worked office hours. They did have 6-7years training + degree.

Clinical Psych is a HUGELY competitive area to get into. The people you worked with were the tip of the pyramid of everybody who has sutured psychology wanting to be a psychologist! And often they work for years as an associate psychologist too. Unless OP is tremendously motivated and finds it her life's calling, I'm betting there jobs that are easier to train for and get!

*studied psychology!!

Thanks everyone. I’m also interested in being a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, but I’ve seen some posts advertised that say occasional evening and weekend work will be required. A few of the NHS physiotherapist jobs say the same. Even occasional evening work could be a problem for me as the children are so young and I have no family nearby. Nightmare ☹️ I’ve also been looking at the STP programmes and like the look of clinical physiology too

Physiotherapist jobs will vary by clinical area. My friend has worked in intensive care and had to do some shift work. I work with physios in paediatrics in the community (in clinic and in special schools). That wouldn't require shift work. So you could do it and choose your jobs accordingly.

Thank you be bendingspoons, I’ll definitely keep it as an option then. I think I’d prefer the community based work too, so that could work out well.

What age are your children? AHP courses all tend to be 3-4 years of university and possibly by the time complete you may be able to do shifts/the odd weekend?

They are 2 and 5. I’m hoping to do one of the 2 year pre-registration masters or an STP as I’m not sure I could stretch to studying for longer than that financially

Is the NHS still paying undergraduate fees? I believe radiography get theirs paid

@Newchances

Is the NHS still paying undergraduate fees? I believe radiography get theirs paid

No, but some degrees you can get the £5k bursary (non means tested).

Have you got a sciencey undergraduate degree? I retrained as a sonographer and dont do any evenings or weekends as i am also a single parent. Im not a radiographer and there are several ways in.

Podiatry, it's 9-5 with weekends, christmas and bank holidays off or you can work part time. Some of our staff have shorter lunch breaks and go home at 4.30.
I switched to it from nursing as I was sick of the 12 hour shifts and endless weekend working.

Also everywhere is always desperately short of pods so you can pretty much count on a job afterwards.You can also move to private podiatry once you have a couple of years NHS. My friends who do it can and do earn up to 5k or more a month.

I have just started a degree in a similar field (sorry don't want to say which one it is).

I'd start with making a list of of how long each study is (3,4,6 years) and how much is costs, also whether you can do it online (if needed), then how much practical is required (if you work FT you'll have to fit it around your work). Then how much experience is needed or if you can go straight into working in that field. Finally, if study costs are partially subsidised by the government.

Some health roles require 6 years of study plus months of practical whilst studying, then experience. On top of that it's highly competitive and costs more than the average degree.

Thanks all for your suggestions. Some of them I hadn’t thought of so I will look into those. I do have a sciency undergraduate degree yes. I think I need to do a bit more research and try to get some work experience when restrictions are lifted