Is anyone here a nurse?

[Hilary]

I spend some of my thinking time wondering what I will do when I 'grow up' (despite the fact I am 26 with two children!) I didn't have a career as such before having ds1. I have considered many things and have recently thought of nursing. I have been looking it up on the internet but wondered whether anyone could give me the lowdown from a personal point of view i.e. what the training is like, what the job can be like, how it fits in with family life etc.

Would love to hear any views on whether this is a good career or not. Thanks.

Hilary, not a nurse, but there was a thread not so long ago about fitting in nursing with family life. It's here

Thanks for that, I didn't check the list of topics before I posted, did I?!

Still interested to hear from anyone else too though...

my dp is a nurse and he thinks the advantage of training to be a nurse is the opportunity to do extra paid nursing assistant work while you're training means it doesn't have to be too dire financially (obviously this depends if you can fit it in with your family)

All the nurses we know use different strategies to fit in with kids - one dad works nights so that he can take kids to school and pick them up sleeping in between time (after a quick pub visit!) You would usually do 7 nights a fortnight so it's not too bad.

Shifts can work in your favour if you have the flexibility, dp is buddied with another man who also has a young child so they can arrange at least one day of the week to be free for childcare. Alternatively there are places where you can just do 9-5

In general we find the flexibility useful.

Hope you decide whether this is the career for you and good luck

I have a friend who is now in her final few months of training and for her it has been very hard. She is a single mum of 1 and fortunately has her father living almost next door so he has been able to help with childcare. Her training has been a university course combined with in hospital training. She gets an awful lot of written assignments and during uni times she spends most of the week there. Whilst on placement she has to work the same shifts as the other staff which can mean a 6am start or 10pm finish. She is paid a bursary (not very much money) and up until the new tax credits has not been eligible for any other help (other than for childcare) as she was neither a full time student or 'employed'.

I don't know if training is any different in other areas but from my friend's experience, I would say that unless you have someone else who can look after your children during those anti-social hours and you have another source of income you will find it very difficult. The government are crying out for more people to go into nursing but they certainly don't make it easy. Once you are trained the wage is much better and you can often find a suitable position to suit your own hours.

That sounds really hard. Has she done the training in three years? You can do it in longer in some places. Whereabouts are you?

We do have an income already as my dh works full time but his hours are odd as he is a church minister so he works evenings and weekends and daytimes...all the time really, though he can be flexible sometimes.

Hmm, I've got a lot of thinking to do...

I'm in W Yorks, she is doing her training at Huddersfield University. I think it is a 3 year course as she started it just after her dd started school and she will be 8 soon.

Don't just take my word for it, speak to local careers advisors and ask around to see if you can find anyone who has trained locally. Training might be different in other areas but in my area it certainly isn't easy if you have children to care for. There is also a very high drop out rate from the course.

Not too far from me in Lancashire but probably a different health authority. Thanks for getting back about that. I am gradually amassing information from different sources and, as usual, Mumsnet is one of them!

ninja, were you with your dp when he trained?

I am a nurse - a ward sister - I love my job , it is very rewarding. However, I will say one thing to you 'quality of life!'. I took up this position before having my two children who are both under three. The advise I give my staff when they ask me is think of all the options. There are lots more other careers in the health profession that offer better hours, no bank holiday working (i.e. xmas etc.), term time contracts (though some positions in nursing you can get this).Have you thought of Occupational therapy or physiotherapy or something similar?
Not to put you off or anything, nursing is a great career but your family life is important too.You just need to weigh it all up. If all of the above are not a problem then go for it. The option for training are bursary or some health authorities offer a secondment to nurse training for support wokrers so they get paid their salary whilst training. Maybe joining a nurse bank and working some shifts in hospital or taking up a support worker job for a bit may give you some experience to make your mind up (i.e. are you going to be happy etc).
Preaching over - hope this helps - good luck , new career exciting!

I'm not a nurse, I'm a midwife, and I love it. Luckily for me, I trained prior to having my daughter (now 22mths). I work 24 hours a week, which is split into 2 12hour shifts a week. I do these on my husband's days off, so I don't pay for child care. I am lucky as working part time is easy - NHS is so desparate for nurses and midwives, you can almost write your own contract!
My dh is hoping to train as a nurse. We looked into it and concluded that we will have to wait until our kids are at school, and my parents are retired so can look after the kids when necessary. I would have to work full time. There are additional bursaries if you have dependents, but even with all the help offered, it still falls way short of a 'wage'. You need to be financially secure beforehand!! If you can find a way, it'll be worth it, but, as floops says, it may be worth looking at other areas of health care work. Good luck!!