medical social work or nursing - career change help

[Lisa B]

Hi there,

I have worked as a social worker for more than 10 years in the child and family welfare field. I've had several different positions and loved them all. The problem is that I want to change jobs and possibly careers. There a few things in my current job that I"m sick of and those things aren't going to change. I've loved working in child and family welfare type careers but I can't think of anything else in this sector that I want to do. This makes me think that whilst working in the sector has been great that I'm probably at the end of the road in the sector and maybe I should make a change. I've been thinking about possibly looking for a job as a medical social worker or even returning to study and retraining as a nurse.

Has anyone on BB worked as a medical social worker? If so, did you like it, what were the good and bad things about the role, what are the career advancement opportunities like.

If you are a nurse, how do you get a good family and work life balance with shift work? What are the career advancement opportunities like? Also, when you were studying how many days a week did you have to attend uni and did you work as well and what did you do for work whilst at uni?

Thanks

[Novella]

I'm a nurse, I went straight to uni from high school. At my uni I had 2 contact days a week then up to 3 days a week in a placement. I worked at woolworths doing nightfill and ordering and worked around 30 hours a week but that was before I had children and my workplace was very flexible

A lof of graduate nurse positions are only offers full time which can make for a difficult twelve months. I currently work a set roster so I do Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and every second weekend. I still have to do night stuff but I Only do it on weekends due to child care. I lose two weeks annual leave a year so 4 Instead of 6 weeks but being able to have regular shifts is worth it for me. It really depends on your work place and your uni

Good luck with your career change

[HotI]

Have you thought about genetic counselling? It is a postgrad clinical masters

[Lisa B]

otI - do you know what the employment opportunities are like for genetic counsellors?

Sararose - studying nursing sounds very demanding, with a child I think it would be hard to work and study. Your roster sounds good though

[Traveller]

I'm a student nurse/midwife. So far the uni work and hospital placements are working fine around the kids and there are so many areas to specialise in that if you are focussed there will be lots of career opportunities. I usually attend uni 3 days a week but I need two more days for study so my kids are in daycare fulltime. Placement is 5 days a week but next year it will be 3 days a week all trimester long so it depends on the uni.

[feeb]

I am nurse, midwife and studying mchn.
I did nursing straight from high school so had no worries or kids etc I lived on campus and had Uni 5 days a week and we did placements in block modes which involved lots or travel and accommodation organizing as Uni was in bendigo so placemats all over place.
Midwifery I had Uni 2 days a week and placement 2 days a week with a few weeks block as well, I was at same hospital all year.

Mchn I am studying with 2 young kids and is mainly online study and placements. It's hard but is doable.

Good luck with your decision.