Would I be mental to re-train in teaching after being a nurse?

[queenofwandss]

That really. I have been a nurse for 14 years and have done a few roles all in the community. I am a band 6.
Financially, I would have to wait before I can afford to retrain as a teacher, which is no bad thing because I need to think it through properly. When I have suggested this to colleagues and family most people say I am mad! Out of the frying pan into the fire and all that. Ideally I would like to teach English literature but maybe child development (nursing field) or textiles (my hobby).
Any words of wisdom?

You would be mad. Here is why:

English is a core subject. All teenagers must study it through to the end of Year 11. This means that your class size will always be close to 30, unlike ‘option’ subjects such as Geography, Music, etc, where classes are smaller because you choose these subjects.

A lot of teenage boys despise reading and their dislike of reading is exceeded only by their hatred of writing. No matter how hard you try to make your lessons fun and engaging, you’ll be battling this resistance and getting more than your share of behaviour probs.

The marking of a core, written subject will completely obliterate all your evenings and weekends.

The GCSE now has four exams (Paper 1 English Language; Paper 2 English Language; Paper 1 English Lit; Paper 2 English Lit). Your own time, outside 9am-3pm, from December to April, will be spent marking mock exams.

Parents will be emailing and phoning to complain that their child isn’t meeting his/ her predicted grade, when the reason for this is that the child does no work.

Every parent will want to see you at parents’ evenings because it’s a core subject, and they will harass you about progress and attainment, even if the child puts nothing into their work and is disruptive.

i could go on, but English has the biggest workload of all teaching jobs. I did it for 15 years and had no time to pursue fitness, friends, hobbies.

Don’t do it.

A great, balanced post.

Thank you for all the replies! Many points I hadn’t considered. It is really helpful to have them highlighted to me as I probably have been romanticising the teaching a little bit.

The main reason I want a change is because I don’t feel like I make any difference in my job. I am a health visitor (same qualification as a school nurse so this is an option and has been offered to me) and I feel so hamstrung at work. I have worked in palliative care (which I loved but it is hard going), sexual health and district nursing. I often have students shadowing me.

I know teachers have an awful time of it and are treated poorly by parents, but this is nothing new to me as I think the general public have increasingly become unfiltered and rude towards staff.

As cheesy as it sounds I think I would enjoy working in an environment that is a bit hopeful and future-focused, with an opportunity to be creative and still be around people.

Having said that, I can’t really afford to do it so it’s probably a good thing to be disabused of the idea that teaching would be wonderful!

Thank you so much for this. I’m not sure I’d encourage my kids to go into nursing. I’m glad I did as it has changed me for the better as a person and in essence I still love it, but I feel a bit trapped in it now!

That's really not the case for all nursing roles. Mine is community based, I do a lot of hours at home as well. I never switch off and there's always something to be done. Not all roles are ward based, where you can hand over.

Me too. There is always something more to do and if I am on holiday I come back to a pile that has accumulated while I’m away. Love community but it’s not the easy option.

Can you take your skills into an education setting. Their is school nursing, but lots of private schools especially boarding have a nurse and they often lead bits of pshe. Special schools so.etimes have a nurse if some of the medical care needs to be nurse led. You could teach nursing.
There are also pastoral roles in schools but they don't tend to pay as well as teaching.

You may find a school that let's you do work experience or volunteer as a mentor for a bit. My DH did for a week and it put him off. It saved a costly mistake.

I agree with the posts breaking down the challenges of teaching.
Also I don't get your reasoning.... HV is one of the most 'future focused ' jobs possible! Since we lost Sure Start having good, knowledgeable HVs that point whole families in the direction of learning could make a huge difference couldn't they?

I think most people who retrain as a teacher do it for this reason - they want to do something that makes a concrete difference. And that is why many stay, even though it is so relentlessly hard.

That's also why there are so many threads on this - teaching is a genuinely worthwhile career where you can make a small but important difference in some children's lives. I actually understand why health visiting might be less fulfilling as you aren't deeply involved in families lives, except perhaps for the most vulnerable families, where it can be hard to believe you are making a difference (though you almost certainly are).

This is a similar thread from a solicitor considering switching to teaching at 50. I wrote about my experience here, but the whole thread will be useful for you.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5274234-to-retrain-as-a-teacher-at-just-turned-50?reply=142160182&utmcampaign=thread&utmmedium=share

Basically, every one I knew in teaching told me not to do it, I did it, it nearly broke me but I stuck it out for 15 years and don't regret it.

However - I've always thought nursing was one of those careers where you had a huge choice of different roles - would it be worth starting another thread asking what jobs nurses have found fulfilling and satisfying?

I’m a teacher, used to work in the NHS laboratories and I’d say go for it. You could teach health and social care and child development. If you don’t fancy school, then sixth forms might be worth considering. I went from shift work to teaching so just that change was awesome. I’m guessing as you’re community base you maybe don’t do night shifts so might not appreciate the difference in working hours as much as I did.

"The main reason I want a change is because I don’t feel like I make any difference in my job."

Speaking as a past teacher/college/uni lecturer, you won't feel like you're making a difference - education is just a numbers game now.

As cheesy as it sounds I think I would enjoy working in an environment that is a bit hopeful and future-focused, with an opportunity to be creative and still be around people."

"Be creative" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 That's the last thing teachers are allowed to be (despite what the job adverts say).

yes this is what drew me into HV. I think if HV wasn’t so ruled by KPIs then I could make a difference. I am trained to be able to set up community initiatives which I would love, but the workload is so high and focus isn’t on this area, leaving me feeling a bit deflated.

That makes sense. The targets in teaching, and the fact you are working with 30 children simultaneously, mean you'd be experiencing the same challenges on steroids though! All the research shows early intervention is by far the most important for making a difference to life chances. Little things you do in your role, even if you don't always get the satisfaction of seeing that difference, could really make it. Building a new mums confidence at talking or singing around her child leading to all the benefits that would bring long term to the child's development and to their relationship....

Schools do employ family liaison workers but I'm not sure the conditions would be as good/protected as your current role which requires you to be a qualified nurse. And you'd be potentially more of a social work/safeguarding link than an educational role.

I hope you get the chance to set up those initiatives at some stage. It's a shame the current system means good people are losing motivation.

If you are truly dissatisfied and unfulfilled with your role then change to some other career if that’s what you want to do. Nursing , especially in the community ,isn’t a job where you can just hand over to the next shift, nor do you just switch off when you go home. I worked my whole career in nursing and it definitely wasn’t stress free. Daughters are all teachers, it’s definitely not stress free either and they certainly do work at home, but the idea they have no work life balance, sorry cannot agree. Youngest is off abroad for a week in Easter, Four weeks trekking in summer, only not away in May as she couldn’t decide where to go, so please teachers, don’t make out you never get anytime to unwind, it’s not really true is it

I rarely had time to unwind, except for a brief three weeks in the middle of the summer holiday. I was always marking during the term-time weekends and evenings. There was mock exam marking during the brief half-term holidays, and more mock marking during the Easter / Christmas holidays. I was secondary English. I’ve left now and would never return. Behaviour was poor. Parents were unreasonable and difficult, but it was the marking that drove me away, no question about that.

Out of interest, what subject / phase are your daughters teaching? I’d be interested to know if I just failed to manage my workload effectively.

I hear that you are wanting to teach the things that you are interested in; English Literature, and textiles. Why don't you do an evening course in one of those and see what you think of the academic structure of how you are being taught (because you will have to teach it like that too), and go from there. To teach English Literature you will need a degree in that subject, then a teaching qualification on top of that, ditto for textiles. So that's one degree, and then another. Having a passion, and spending all day standing talking about it are separate things, but that doesn't rule it out for you. Start as a student in them yourself, and see how that feels?

Wow! Presumably your daughter doesn't have children? For bright, well organised young people, it can be very do-able, though to be honest many of them drop out in the training stage as term time is still beyond exhausting for them. It also depends what kind of a teacher they are and what kind of school they teach at. Some roles in secondary might become more manageable once you get on top of the curriculum, if you don't have to do major planning re-writes. Some teachers find a way to deliver the basics and not go beyond that. If you are creative and conscientious, that's harder to do without serious holiday time input.

But for parents who spend the holidays looking after their own children, it is a relentless slog and no-one should pretend anything different. Not saying that there aren't other careers that are just as hard, by the way, just saying don't choose teaching because you think it will give you work/life balance.

school nurses exist
their holidays are. not like school staff holidays however

You can't live on the salary. If you struggle to save on a b6 salary, no way could you live in 1/3 of it.

(I'm a v resentful B6 having to maintain the family. DHs TA salary (ft, L3 with some l4 hours) barely covers the bills (low mortgage, utilities, council tax but exc. Food).

Yeah agree, it's just called 'being young'. My DS is always off somewhere ( out of term time too so well cheap!) . He works in Dunelm.

He did work in a school and found it very stressful. It exacerbated existing anxiety.

Have a look at local FE colleges. You get students who (mostly) want to be there.

The training is over two years part time while you are working.

If you can teach the Anatomy and Physiology units of BTEC / CTEC Health and Social Care you will never be out of work.

I've worked alongside a few es nurses and some who did an occasions shift to keep their registration.

I'm an ex-nurse and still work closely with midwives (where it is maybe a bit different) but I think you have missed out the pressure and often anger from patients and also relatives when you don't have the time and resources to provide optimum care and also the frequent extremely toxic work environments and blame culture. I certainly didn't recommend my daughters enter nursing.

Wait until teacher shortages REALLY affect your children - when they are taught GCSE Maths and Science by non-specialist teachers or in lecture-style lessons of 60 + others, when they can't do the GCSES they want because they can't get or can't afford the teacher for it - then maybe you'll see the absolute crisis education is in in this country. It's not because teachers are flakes who can't hack it - the workload and expectations are insane and teachers are leaving in droves.

Join a company giving educational workshops for subjects like PSHE? Find a way to work on the periphery of schools without actually teaching.
Only teach if you can afford to do so part time and you won't resent working for free but from home on your days off. Definitely don't teach if you're a perfectionist in any way.

Eldest daughter taught drama at secondary and A level at sixth form college, youngest currently teaches year 5 in primary, eldest has been teaching for 17 years and manages to juggle having kids and teaching perfectly well, youngest has been teaching for 4 years, no family and has always been a very organised individual, she actually says the problem her colleagues have ( including several with no family) is that they simply aren’t organised enough. I tried to make it clear that I wasn’t having a dig at teachers without any knowledge of what they do, but teachers who have no knowledge of what nursing actually entails likewise shouldn’t presume it’s an easy job; interestingly my son works in the private sector in accounting and says none of us have the remotest idea what stress and lack of a work life balance is when having a job regularly working 60 + hours for no additional pay and with four weeks holiday a year