At a crossroads with work - please help me decide the best option

[Mercuryfreddie]

I have been working as a dental receptionist for the past 5 years. I started as an admin assistant and have done some further qualifications and worked my way up. I'm comfortable in my job and a respected member of the team. I work 4 days a week and it works around my children. However, over the past few months I have been so miserable at work. Patients expectations have gotten higher and the pressures of my job have increased massively. There is a high turnover of staff and we have been left significantly understaffed over the past few weeks. This has made my job extremely stressful and most days I am unhappy at work lately. I have mentioned this to my manager and they recognise the issues but don't seem to push for real change or listen fully. I feel very undervalued and unappreciated by management.

I began looking for other jobs a few weeks ago and applied for a position at a local hospital as a healthcare assistant. Before having children, I was at university training to become a nurse but I left due to getting pregnant with my youngest. I'm not sure if this is something I would like to get back into but I found my training gave me great job satisfaction and a real purpose. I had an interview and I've been offered the job which I was 100% set on going for.

I spoke to my manager to advise her she would be receiving a reference request (we have a good relationship and I made it clear I wasn't handing my notice in, just speaking to her out of courtesy rather than her just getting an email). She has since spoken to the senior manager and they really don't want to lose me and want to know how they can support me and what they can offer for me to stay. They have suggested career progression such as training as a dental nurse. They can't promise things will get better in the short term but have promised they are looking at recruitment and long term changes. The job is a 5 minute commute, works around school hours, no weekends/bank holidays and it's a job I do very well with opportunities for career progression. I get paid just over min wage.

The health care assistant job is shift work, a 50 minute commute and will mean no set pattern to my week. My husband is able to help with childcare. I will get slightly more money with shift allowances but I will have more petrol costs, parking and I'm not sure on how much overtime I will get. (I can currently work around 10 hours a week OT) It is only a 12 month fixed term contract so no guarantee of ongoing employment and I'm not sure if I want to go back to train to become a nurse anymore. My life is different now having 3 young children. I know I would enjoy it more but its a risk although I may love it and it might reignite my passion to go back to university.

I am so torn and I can't decide the direction I want to go in. What would you do in my position?

I would pin down a specific commitment to professional training supported by your current employers. And an increase in your pay to reflect the increased pressure of work. The options for training and further career progression outlined here seem encouraging:

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/dental-team/roles-dental-team/dental-nurse

Obviously it depends where you are in the country but it might be sensible to arm yourself with details of the most appropriate degree level course, and the soonest possible starting date, before your next conversation with your managers. Ideally you’d want something in writing before turning down any other option.

But it would seem detrimental to take the new job - short term shift work nearly an hour away - unless it’s a clear path to a professional qualification you really want.

You might also find it helpful to browse the

Mature Study and Retraining board

where there may be threads on Dental Nurse or related training. There will be countless threads on returning to academic / vocational / professional training in the midst of family responsibilities, so you should find plenty to encourage and inspire.

I tend to think that if you have to resort to announce that you are leaving for an employer to finally do something about career progression then it just shows that they were only too happy to undervalue you and exploit you before that and probably will continue to do so one way or another...

There is that …

Has the dental practice supported any other dental nurse staff through degree level training? Do those people still work there? Can you speak to them?

If they’ve never actually offered this to anyone else, or have no successful outcomes to back up their offer to you, I’d suggest you do some research. Find out how things work at other local dental practices - how do they pay and support staff to progress their careers? You need concrete examples of how your options might play out.