Career dilemma

Maralice2019

Hi folks-for all the nursing/midwives out there. I’m looking to leave my current position working in a delivery ward. Between the anxiety and stress of the job, managing family life and shift work I’m not able for it anymore. I’m considering a move to an office based telephone role. Anyone else made the move from clinics to office before? I’m afraid I’ll lose my clinical skills and get tired of the office role but I need to change something. Any ideas? I’d love to work in a practice or do public health/community nursing but alas they don’t seem to employ direct entry midwives so my options are limited.

Jim2007

Maralice2019 wrote: »

Anyone else made the move from clinics to office before? I’m afraid I’ll lose my clinical skills and get tired of the office role but I need to change something.

Well I know nothing about nursing, but this is a common issue for anyone moving from a professional role to a managerial or administrative role. Many people I know have taken the same route as you - they feel they can't cope with the stress and an alternative role looks better. But what the fail to see is that the other roles also have their pressures and stresses as well, they are just different ones...

From what I have seen I'd say that people who love their job tend to be better able to deal with with the stresses of the job, than people who are doing the job because it was second best to what they really wanted to do.... I'd suggest not making any decision until you had a week or two away from the job so you have a clearer picture.

And if you do decide to go, you can still probably get back to where you were within the for two years or so....

I wonder if there is any chance you could get some kind of a job rotation or a couple of trial days in the other role, even if it was unpaid, so you could get a feel for what it would be like?

My father-in-law (RIP) did this one time. He was very stressed out as a teacher and an admin job at another school looked like the answer. He managed to get a week's trial and after day three he had enough. He realised that the job involved a lot of issues that were not visible from the outside and were far worse that what he had on his plate.

GalwayGrrrrrl

Are there any roles within your department that aren’t shift work? I work in a large hospital and we have one midwife who looks after and teaches antenatal classes. We have another role which is between mental health services and maternity looking after mothers to be with mental illness. Keep your eyes open for something like that.

TrixIrl

Direct entry midwives are very limited unfortunately. But you could look at something in clinical audit, insurance, research etc. Even Caredoc require a general nursing qual. If you wanted to go into the community you would need an RGN too but they may take you on for school immunisations, best to contact the local DPHN or else an agency like Nurse on Call.

Maralice2019

thank you all for your suggestions, you've given me a few ideas.

Grace13

Hi OP,

i went from clinical psychology to an admin role due to work related stress. It is definitely a big jump going from clinical work to admin and being located in an office environment. Some entry level admin positions are great if you need a breather and it gives you time to think what route you might want to go while giving some routine and less stress. There is a lot to be said for leaving at 5 and not thinking abut work until the next day. However there are sacrifices to this - pay isn't great so longterm that would be a consideration, and also after working clinically and on a busy ward you may find spending most of your day sitting with paperwork quite difficult. Again, depends how long you plan to do it for. As a stepping stone it's great.

I do find at times find that I miss using my clinical skills however the thought of working in a clinical capacity again also fills me with dread... You will always miss some aspect of something that you've worked hard for but you have to weigh up the pros and cons. There will always be sacrifices. If you wanted to return to midwifery again down the line you would have no problem going back to it, I wouldn't worry about losing clinical skills, you will always have them, it would just be a matter of getting used to using them again.

Maybe as another poster recommended you could do some specialist training in midwifery? There will be a lot of funding going into Perinatal Mental Health in the coming years, a clin psych friend of mine recently mentioned that within clin psych there is now a huge emphasis on developing the area over the coming decades. Maybe specialist training in Gestational Diabetes? Or could you change wards? Something more day based like clinics? Make sure you look after yourself if you feel you need a break.