Nursing Degree at 54?

[NowOrNotNow]

I'm 54 and burnt out after 30+ years of working in Accountancy roles that have destroyed my soul!! I'm now at a crossroads where I could retire (with some pretty big lifestyle adjustments and definitely no spare cash for holidays etc) but I think I still need something to occupy my brain. My husband would also need to keep working for another 5 years so I think I would be bored and lonely. Sooo I have been looking at possibly applying for a nursing degree. I would get a maintenance loan and a bursary which would help financially, and it's something I think would be really different and I would enjoy. But I'm 54!! Would a university even accept me?? Would I find to too physically demanding as I'm used to a sedentary office job? Is this a totally stupid idea?!?!

This is the other option I was considering. Its so hard to find something new to do later in life!

To add you will be the oldest by years on the wards and not listened to as every other 50+yr old is long gone or gone into management. Management don't want to hear problems on the wards either. Every single day you will be completing incident reports due to poor staffing and poor care and trying to not lose your registration. Shift work is horrible. Don't do it

Harder to get on the courses though I believe?

I'm burnt out with doing something that feels so utterly boring and pointless rather than physically burnt out.

This was the other option I was considering.

I'm sorry @NowOrNotNow but at 54, no WAY would I be starting a Nursing Degree. Nursing is absolutely exhausting, and not for the faint hearted. The shifts and hours are brutal, and the endearing 'oh isn't it lovely being able to help people' novelty soon wears off. It's also a very cliquey environment, and the cute little scenes of banter you see on the TV shows like Ambulance and 24 Hours In A & E, are for the cameras.

The reality is quite different.

NO! I would not elect to do this, and I definitely would not start training for it in my mid 50s! You think Accountancy is a burnout career, but that Nursing won't be?! You're in for a shock if you go ahead with it @NowOrNotNow

To be honest I would play that by ear! Worst case I would do bank shifts.

I guess I want something that interests me and not very much does!

Have you looked at all the courses offered by your local uni? As a fellow accountant I would be into economics or international relations or criminology or even art or sports science ahead of something allied to medicine

you could do anything!

Don't do it OP , nursing is very hard mentally and physically. Apart from that the shifts are hell, especially the night shifts and having to double back the next day after a 12 hour shift I nursed for 40 years hence my opinion .

What about teacher Assistant? Social care?

nurse at 54 doesn’t sound idea

Please rethink! HCA is the hardest chain-gang physical labour you will ever do. At 30 you’d be knackered. At 54? You’d be ruined in two 13 hour shifts and off with a bad back. It’s relentless heavy work hoisting patients double washes turning ppl in beds. Non stop buzzers obs diarrhoea vomit and blood cleaning. Often no breaks. Why in hell would you do that to yourself in your later years? You’d have to be insane imo.

I’ve done both and I didn’t find paediatrics any easier. Less heavy lifting, yes but mentally exhausting and just as busy as general wards. It’s a huge responsibility and you are looking after stressed parents as well as the sick child. Same issues such as lack of staff , lack of breaks, lack of time as in a general ward.

Unless you went for a maternity assistant

To me nursing is up there with being a fire fighter or police officer. If you wouldn’t do them at 54, I don’t see why you’d do nursing. I believe they all used to have standard early retirement because you couldn’t be expected to do them later in your working life

Nursing is soul destroying. My advice would be to not do it. Find something else to do instead.

Eldest DD works as a nurse with an eye to becoming a specilialsit nurse. based on the things she tells me :
Think how would you feel about 12 plus shifts inc crazy earlies and long nights, covering shifts when others have time off for Christmas etc, having the bladder of a camel, no chance to have a break. She is 30 ish and I at a similar age to you could no longer cut do what she does my joints alone would hate me.
Maybe look at something health based that is an ancillary service that is less physically demanding and exhausting. Consider taking a look at Third sector like MIND and similar as others have suggested

I wouldn't get a loan for the cost of other degree as I did a degree 30 years ago. Nursing has different rules, so any other degree isn't an option sadly. Back to work I go tomorrow. I've spent all weekend in tears after a 60 hour week last week where it was made clear that whatever I do is just never enough. Just feels like there's no where to turn without turning my family's life on its head. 😥

Thanks everyone. I know what you are saying makes total sense if I'm honest. I'm just clutching at straws! Retiring now would mean some lifestyle changes that I would feel guilty imposing on the family and I know doing nothing would also drive me insane! So hard to know what to do other than keep trying to cope.

Personally, I don’t think it would be right to take a place on a degree course, when you’re not sure you will then follow it up with a decent amount of work. You’re taking a place that someone else could do and all those hours put into training and supporting you on placements etc. If you don’t work, you don’t pay back your student loan either, which morally isn’t right.

I think I’d be surprised if you were made an offer to study as I’d imagine all the above would be things they consider. We need nurses in the hospitals not people just willing to study it but not practise.

I wouldn’t do it……. And I’m a nurse.
you’d have 3 years of essay writing, exams and full time placements which aren’t necessarily close to home. You’ll have to work nights and weekends.
once you qualify you’ll likely work in a busy ward that is understaffed and dangerous, working Xmas, bank holidays and with little control of your working schedule.

I guess you could consider community nursing but less likely with paeds.

I would really think seriously before doing this. I absolutely love my job now but I’ve been qualified for 14 years and after lots of post grad study and years working in acute hospitals I have finally got a lovely job as band 7 practice nurse in a supportive surgery. I’m under no illusion these jobs are few and far between. I would never go back to the hospital. The NHS is broken

There must be other accountancy jobs you could apply for that isn’t as stressful, could you reduce hours?

I left another accountancy job six months ago. Now this one is awful. I'm losing hope and motivation to start over again.

Came here to say this.

Oh I thought you’d be self funding.

@sunnyhoneybumblebee I don’t know about the OP but for me accountancy jobs are really mentally draining, after doing them every day for 30 years there is a sort of exhaustion that’s more about your brain.