Career change... marketing to nursing

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Hi all,

Hoping someone might be able to lend some advice out there. I'm currently working in business, as a Marketing Manager for a bank. Don't get me wrong the job is rewarding in many ways and it's certainly a rather comfortable life compared to nursing, set office hours, weekends to yourself, stable income etc etc. However something is fundamentally missing and I'm considering a big career change having felt I couldn't go into nursing as an 18 year old (all my A levels were in English and Media etc!!!), I had the medical experience and knowledge of a wooden spoon and therefore would have been laughed out of my UCAS application form.

I have a degree in Event Management (yes it really is a degree!) and have 4 years experience in business.... no medical experience whatsoever apart from sort of caring for my housemate who has just had a double lung transplant after many years of serious illness.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has made a career change like this, I can handle being a student again for 3 years and all the rest of it, but I think I need to go into this with as much info as possible rather than rose tinted glasses as it would be a big lifestyle change.

Many many thanks for whatever help comes my way. :) (ps. for your info I'm 26 so feel now might be a good time to make the change rather than when I'm settled and have a mortgage on my hands!)

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Hey im 26 and in first year of nursing... Previously i worked as a chef so a total change in direction lol, i love my course so far (just finished my first hospital placement) id say go for it :)

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Thank you! Have since spoken to my local uni who have recommended I do as much volunteering and work experience as possible so fingers crossed in 18months I'll be on a course, hope your's is going well, really good to hear you enjoy it!

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Yeah volunteering is a good idea, or apply for a job as a hca? I had no experience in care (but id been to uni before) i babbled on in my personal statement about how i feel about mental health issues (im doing mh nursing though im thinking of swapping to adult) and that i know people with mh issues and i feel it should be more out in the open etc and i got in, good luck :) x

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Specializes in ER.

Perhaps working a an HCA would be a good idea, you will get basic training and the opportunity to work in a team providing hands-on patient care.

But I would also urge you to think exactly why you are doing this. Forget all the Florence stuff about helping people, the NHS is not set up like that anymore. As an RN you will be spending more time at a computer that with patients. You will be constantly apologising for not being able to offer basics like pillows and blankets, (I've just been working in a major London hospital for a month and can personally vouch that this is the case), and you will get hassle from managers to get people out quicker. You will be pushed into decisions that you find unacceptable, and find the ethos largely at odds with your own aspirations and values.

Nursing is not the caring profession it once was. Its a business now, concerned only with throughout and targets.

You sound like someone who is used to a challenge and making decisions, you will be stifled by managers questioning your decisions in order to achieve their own targets.

By all means train as an HCA and spend 6 months working before you make a decision.

I am just asking you to be realistic in your goals and dreams before quitting a good career.

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Thanks so much for the advice, just what I was after! So true what you say, I'm aware I really do see the nursing profession through rose tinted glasses, and my actual knowledge of your day to day lives is slim to none.

Really interesting that you raise the point about time spent on paperwork/computers and the NHS is essentially a business...a sad but important point. I'd be trading in (without wanting to sound hideously arrogant - so please excuse) a pretty good career so I HAVE to be as sure as I can be that I'm doing the right thing. There's no point in me going into nursing to find I'm in a 'corporate' world again in no time at all. Also a great point raised about micro-management, that could well stifle me.

The advice about HCA experience is fantastic. I think that experience would be the closest I can get to figuring this whole thing out.

Thanks so much again - hugely appreciated.

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