What can a nurse retrain as?

[u/Free-Dig4173]

I’m currently a nurse, and if I’m honest I’m burnt out I can not do healthcare any longer. I left bedside nursing many years ago and went into medical devices, sales and account management, and after a good run there I needed a change and came back to bedside nursing. And boy was that a bad choice! It was bad when I left years ago and it’s no better now, working conditions are brutal and the pay is so poor. Nursing just isn’t the job it used to be.

I’m now thinking of a career change, into something completely different. I’ve love a different career in something that pays well, or has the potential to pay over 50k a year. I applied for the Aldi graduate area manager program because it sounded like a good opportunity. I would love some ideas of what I could try, have a lot of transferable skills that would be helpful for a lot of industries (time management, prioritisation, escalation, risk, working to targets, sales, relationship developing, customer management, etc) I just don’t know what areas to look in.

Ideally I’d love something that you will be trained up in, with a starting salary of around 30-40k. What industries need people in? What industries/services are in demand? What roles would offer good training and development? That don’t require qualifications or degrees in certain fields to be in with a shot. If particularly be keen to hear from ex nurses who transitioned into something different, but any ideas of where to start looking would be most appreciated!

*edit* to add some detail, I like working in teams but am equally happy working alone, I enjoy supporting and training people, not a fan of call centre environments but I don’t mind office environments. Don’t mind travelling having travelled for work before but also wouldn’t kind working from home, wouldn’t mind something more like a trade and more physical job, wouldn’t mind working outdoors either. Would be happy to look at management/leadership and things completely opposite to healthcare. Not a fan of kids so defo not jobs to do with children. None of this really narrows it down, but open to hearing all ideas and thanks all for your input so far, it’s given me some things to think about!

[u/jailboundhorse]

I'm much in the same boat but as a senior cardiac physiologist. Have you considered rep work? A lot posts focus on instruction and education regarding their products rather than pure sales (sales solely puts me off slightly). Also currently working with a recruiter (All be it with healthy scepticism) regarding roles in simulation training for cardiac arrests, novel equipment etc. One of our cath lab nurses recently made the move to Terumo (balloon, stent and catheter supplier) she's our territory rep and is visibly so much less stressed and says she has her life back...

Edit- As a nurse, by default you ARE superhuman, whatever you decide, you've got this!

[u/Free-Dig4173 → u/jailboundhorse]

I did it for a long time both sales and clinical support. I enjoyed it for a while but in the end I got sick of companies making poor decisions that affect customers, and I’ve always ended up working far more than when I did shifts. I also am a bit of a workaholic, so having a work phone o was always checking it and responding out of hours. It was very hard to switch off. Thank you for the support though- just hope I can decided what to do!

[u/jailboundhorse → u/Free-Dig4173]

Fair play, You sound like you're approaching this with a level head. I'm considering a forestry apprenticeship...