Re-training as a Nurse

fsdss

the nurses i work with (community) are so demotivated - and some wouldn't even recommend training as a nurse - i doubt whether the NHS can survive to the next generation at the rate it is going - some nurses are paid peanuts even with super qualifications / experience with degrees / masters.

Oldernotwiser

vixarooni wrote: »

It fails me as to why you would need experience before doing it!

I didnt have experience of business or tourism before i started doing mine!

Training for nursing is hardly comparable to doing a course in tourism or business studies! Why post about something you understand so little about!

laalaa

I would very strongly recommend getting some experience as an auxiliary before you start to get a proper insight into nursing.

I really feel strongly that being on placement as a student nurse does not give you an accurate insight into the real world of nursing. As a student, you always have your mentor to help you, to make the decisions, to back you up.

I always thought i wanted to be a nurse, trained for 3 years, worked as a qualified nurse for 3 years, and left 2 years ago!

I felt that with current staffing levels i was putting not only my nursing registration on the line, but also the lives of my patients.


I know this isnt what you want to hear, but its just to illustrate how important it is to get some experiece before you start


I guess i just couldnt handle the stress of making decisions that were literally life or death.

shockingmoment

NHS staff (nursing at least) are so demotivated and frustrated its scary. A lot only stay in the job because they see it as a vocation. This aspect is exploited to the extreme. Can you see the Police force tolerating the cr4p that the nursing staf have to put up with? We have two police officers as neighbours - their pay and conditions are incredible compared to my wifes.

Nurses unfortunately just accept being abused, intimidated, exploited, dumped on and walked all over. My wife works on a neonatal unit, her patients are prem babies. She absolutely loves caring for her patients - its the only reason she has stayed so long.

Her problems are caused by the !!!!witt unit managers (incompetents) and the parents.

She gets so very frustrated.

Rant over!

babs

I would also see if they do "taster" days at the university to get an taste of the level of study that you will undertake - if you did your GCSE's years ago and you haven't done any study recently, then forget it as its almost a compulsory entry requirement. Also make sure that if you get accepted for interview that you read up on all the buzz words as they are hot on them, they may also ask what have you been reading, so its worth reading a couple of books.

I also agree about getting some experience as an auxillary, its a completely different environment to that of an office. I qualified as a direct entry midwife 2 years ago (started training at 36) after giving up a nice little office job and if you haven't had any experience nothing can prepare you. Put it this way, its not like telly!

Short staffing is a major problem, management offers little support and the work is physically hard and you will be lucky to if you get chance to chuck a coffee down your throat most days (oh for the days when I sat at a desk next to a coffee percolator and a packet of biscuits!), Its shift work, (can you get up at 5.30am to start work at 7am?), this doesn't suit some people, don't forget you will be working bank holidays as well, like Christmas Day. Ask yourself it you want to be working at 3 in the morning when you are 60? I personally, don't think the pay is that bad, but as a midwife I am on band 6, where most nursing staff are band 5, which is a fair bit less.

Just don't go into it with rose-coloured specs. That said, In the 5 years I've been in midwifery I can honestly say I have never been bored like I was with office work. When I turn up for a shift, I never know who I will be looking after or what situation I will be facing, It could be a breeze of a day or emergency buzzers could be going off left right and centre with a few dashes to theatre.

Good luck whatever you decided.

minxystar

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond, I really welcome your feedback (especially the comments advising me to think carefully and providing an insight into what life in the NHS is really like).

My next step will be to get some auxiliary bank work so I can get a real taste of what life might be like if I did re-train. I need to think this decision through carefully as I don't want to do my training, then hate my nursing job and end up returning to office work a few years later. However, I also don't want to get to the end of this year having gone through another 12 months where I have done absolutely nothing about changing my career as I have been talking about this for 4 or 5 years now!

I'll keep you posted as to how I go...

karren

go for it girl!, im a nurse and have been trained for 10 years, yes its hard and dont go into into it expecting thanks or credit for a good days work, you'll be expected to do the most bizare things and often get critism all the way, but one good comment makes up for all the crap you get too! if you do the bank work you'll get a realistic viewpoint and see the role through the eyes of a nurse and work alongside some fantastic nurses and some truly awful nurses, but the bad ones will make you work harder to combat them, and the good one's will set you in the right direction.
good luck x

inkie

I am a nurse and midwife and worked for the NHS for 15 years. I am now a vicar.
When I applied for nursing - competition was fierce and they wouldn't consider anyone who had not had some health care experience. You need to get some care work experience so that it stands you in better stead of getting a place, and more importantly confirms to you that this is the right thing for you.
I note that you have kids - have you thought how you will work out doing shifts/potentially not being able to leave when you should be leaving - having to stay on to work the following shift because there is no-one to take over from you? Sorry to beh higlighting all the negatives, but these are things that you need to work through. In my last clincal job, I worked as a community midwife and was on call 12 hours a night - I could be in bed all night, out all night or in and out of bed all night. What I was working the next day would be infulenced by what happened during the night, and so was virutallu impossible to make arrange for the kids on that basis.

moggitymog

I am a mental health nurse, love my job and my team, however the responsibility is sometimes huge. One of my friends works in admin for the NHS and is paid the same as me, i dont begrudge her the earnings but feel that the two jobs are not the same, plus i get to pay for the pleasure of being a nurse this is now £76 per year or i lose my registration, definately considering a career change.

Rupa

Just out of interest, what is the take home pay for a newly qualified nurse?