Beauty course to nursing!

[Starbucks88]

Hi everyone, feeling abit strange and back at square one again, ive been so determined to get into the beauty industry for such along time, however it was never "beauty" i was really interested in, i wanted to have a career in alternative therapies such as massage/aroma therapies, but from being at college ive realized i want to be able to really help people and make a real difference to their lives id love to specialize within community/pallitive care, i thought id want a career within private clinics and spas but have realised it can only go so far such as spa manager etc, i wanted to go onto university and study "alternative therapies" such as physiotherapy.medicines but to do that i would have needed a science background, so i then realised i wanted to really become a nurse as it was better then doing aromatherapies, accupuncture etc, its just i have no confidence whatsoever and think that nursing is too high up for me to do as a career,just abit scared ha as im coming to terms with my decision, im ringing my local college tomorrow hoping to get onto an access to nursing programme, just feel abit shocked at my decision ha Is anyone from a nursing background, or have any advice xx im still comming to terms with my choice now ha xx

 

[xxAmyxx]

I'm doing the same as you, started an access course last week! Very daunting but it's exciting

 

[Joely_x]

I'll be following this as I want to retrain to become a midwife, hope you all the best with nursing xx


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[nicole333]

Yep, I'm a Nurse and have been for what seems like forever now! The only advice I feel I should give you is that if you really want this and I mean really want this, then that determination will see you through your degree and will prepare you for working for the NHS.

It's hard work. You will laugh, cry, meet and treat some fantastic people along the way as well as some not some nice people. If you are as lucky as me then you will work with a great bunch of people that you will feel are your extended family as you go through a lot together and the team spirit will see you through the worst times.

You will be frustrated at times, working for a corporation that maybe does not share your vision, going as far as feeling like they are trying to destroy it. Morale will be low at times, but your colleagues keep you going. The media will portray you in all sorts of ways that can twist the truth and feed an unrealistic view of what we do and who we are. We do not bow down to Dr's, we are a team and educate each other.

I absolutely love it, faults and all.

 

[samanthaattard]

Hi

If i am totally honest , I've kept up to date with your questions on salon geek and you firstly seemed so keen to get into the beauty industry and was looking forward to college and your Saturday job . You must have only been in college for a maximum of two weeks and the job a few weeks . I can remember replying to one of your posts about the job and how you found it boing as you are not doing much as you are not qualified. Id like to know whatnots made you change your mind after. Couple of weeks when you were so enthusiastic . I have a feeling it is because you want to run before you can walk and in this industry you start at the very very bottom before you get anywhere near the top. I won't lie it does take time to learn and develop your skills and eventually you will start to love your job. You are very very young and you seem confused for your future, i would suggest hold off any studying for a year or two and get a job and save . This will allow you to physically and mentally grow and gain responsibility and then you can decide what you really want to do. The last thing you want to be doing is jumping from job to job or course to course . I hope this helps , you have plenty of time to choose the right career and choose it without being impulsive. Take some time and decide what is for you x x x

 

[Starbucks88]

Hi

If i am totally honest , I've kept up to date with your questions on salon geek and you firstly seemed so keen to get into the beauty industry and was looking forward to college and your Saturday job . You must have only been in college for a maximum of two weeks and the job a few weeks . I can remember replying to one of your posts about the job and how you found it boing as you are not doing much as you are not qualified. Id like to know whatnots made you change your mind after. Couple of weeks when you were so enthusiastic . I have a feeling it is because you want to run before you can walk and in this industry you start at the very very bottom before you get anywhere near the top. I won't lie it does take time to learn and develop your skills and eventually you will start to love your job. You are very very young and you seem confused for your future, i would suggest hold off any studying for a year or two and get a job and save . This will allow you to physically and mentally grow and gain responsibility and then you can decide what you really want to do. The last thing you want to be doing is jumping from job to job or course to course . I hope this helps , you have plenty of time to choose the right career and choose it without being impulsive. Take some time and decide what is for you x x x

I understand your point from my previous posts as i have been so into beauty, however i have wanted to do nursing for awhile (since leaving school) but was put off as i dont feel confident in myself that i can do it., i only did beauty therapy as a career choice as i thought it was a different way from nursing of "helping people" and that id find other ways to make difference to people. since starting college ive realised that were i wanted to go (alternative therapies) i would have needed a science qualification background which isnt beauty related so i would have been doing my beauty training for 2 years, when i should have been doing a different subject, so i looked into other ways of getting into alternative medicine/accupunctue etc, from looking on the NHS website but then realised that nursing came back into my head again, and just think thats were i should go,i dont want to just be doing eyebrows, nails, waxing etc as its not making a difference to people as much as i want to be able to do, from doing my salon job iv spoken to a few girls there, they all told me the routes that they chose, suuch as beauty level 2 and then massage level 3, and i thought i dont want to be where she is, as its not helping people the way i want and with beauty theres only so far you can go and then when it turns medical its whole different qualifications,

i keep putting it off and only entered beauty to do the holistic side, which even then is not making a real difference to people, well the way i want to do anyway. Iv always been so indecisive in everything so i do worry if im making the wrong choices, but if i continue the beauty then its not going to get me where i want. i also thought that if i can make a career of beauty then 5 years down the line. i think iv genuinely made a mistake going into beauty after realising ive gone down a different path xxx

 

[nicole333]

I should have added that the real world is very different to any romantic notion of what a Nurse is. You need to be able to deliver under pressure, with inadequate staffing levels, juggle the demands of everybody and manage your colleagues and the environment.

Don't expect to be able to finish a drink that someone may have had a chance to make for you and you will need to develop a bladder that can go a whole shift. If you have an inappropriate sense of humour and work with like minded people you will cope with this.

Join an agency and do a few shifts as a Nursing Assistant in different environments. It will do you a favour when applying to Uni.

 

[squidgernetball]

You've had some great advice on here.

I would add that there seems to be a lot of nurses on here who have also gone into beauty and vice versa. There are also a lot of beauty people who have worked with children as a second career so I think these roles are more closely linked than you would at first think.

I must admit that when I started out my heart was with holistic treatments. I started with reflexology and went into massage and aromatherapy. I thought beauty was very light weight and I wanted to help people not paint their nails. I went into beauty so I would have another string to my bow but it now makes up probably 80% of my income, the rest being holistic treatments, and I absolutely love my job.

Do try and get some experience working in a caring environment. My very glamorous friend got a placement in an old people's home. I thought she would last 5 minutes but she had found her niche.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Vic x

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[HelenT59]

I'm not a nurse but I am a trained social worker and the reason I did this was to help people. Working within health care is not for the faint hearted so if you do go for nursing be sure. Health care is a job where u work on good will and not for the money...most within nursing, social work, auxiliary nursing etc are not rich, believe me lol. Iv been a social worker for a good while now and I retrained on the side in holistic therapy. I needed my beauty anatomy and physiology to be applicable to learn level 3 holistic therapies, so for me although beauty isn't my focus it really helped to open the doors for me. My main love is holistic therapies. U said that holistic therapies is helping people but not really making a difference in people, in the way u want it to. I would disagree with this. Iv come from social work to holistic and in reality yes u do help ppl, within the healthcare system, but unfortunately u are bound by targets, funding, policy, procedure and it's horrendously hard work. u need to know this means you will not always be helping ppl in the way u imagine. Holistic therapies for me, compliment the health care system. I see soooo many ppl wth health issues, mental health problems and chronic illness and holistic therapies DO make a difference for them and you can see this. Health care jobs are based on the medical model ie caring for the physical is the main focus. Many clients come to alternative therapies as they need the mind as well as body, treated. There are other routes as I mention acupuncture etc within holistic training that u could go into, which are proven to work Or u can choose nursing. But they can compliment each other too. Be sure u want to work in health care tho, from someone who still works within social work and hv many friends in nursing, it's a tough job and not a decision to be taken lightly.

 

[Cookies]

I think some people have been quite harsh really, yes you may not have found what you want to do,and you may be young, but it's taken me until 29 years old to realise I want to be a cosmetic nurse. I have a background in sports therapy and beauty therapy and I'm now a mother too.

We don't always know what we want and sometimes we stumble across our dream job by chance, and at least you tried beauty and realised it may not be for you.

I would never advise someone to give up and go find a job until they've decided, I think that was horrible advice, you could spend that time training and earning as well as gaining experience.

Personally if I had the chance again to get onto a nursing course when I was younger I would go for it. yes it will be hard work. It will not be glamorous.there will be poo and sick and heartbreaking and stressful situations but there are absolutely loads of specialist routes you can take into adult, childrens, metal heal etc and so many settings for you to work in or if you still like the beauty element things like dermatology are options.

 

[samanthaattard]

To reply to cookies message as it was clearly aimed at me !!! I did not say give up anything I suggested putting something in hold to avoid waisting money on courses until she knew what was for her !!! I did exactly the Same thing and took some time out to travel and really decide what I would want to do . It was advice and not horrible at all

 

[samanthaattard]

And I will also add that I was taking a break from nursing when I decided what I wanted to do . I am a qualified child nurse that worked on a neonatal unit , I decided it wasn't for me whilst I took a break and it was the best decision for me . This site is full of annoying people

 

[bubbles121]

Hi, after 20 years in nursing, including a and e, cosmetic, dermatology and infection control I am now retraining as a beautician and opening up a room in my house. Nursing is very hard work. I started at 17 and it was tough. I feel I have now burnt out and willing to try something new and more for me. Good luck in whatever you decide but honk long and hard about such a change. X x

 

[Pinkbunny28]

I have decided to retrain as a midwife since completing my beauty level 3 four years ago. Oh my 4 years is a long time. I could have been a band 6 midwife by now

Anyway the first piece of advice I will say is if you really want to do it you need to get some care experience. Volunteer within a hospital if you can, work in a care home, become an HCA??
My volunteering really drove me as I knew how hard midwifery is going to be since my mum is one! so I had to get on the wards and make sure it was what I wanted.

Finally, if you are really considering applying for nursing then get on your access and apply NOW! Before ucas closes on 15 jan!! I have had to wait all blinking year to get my application in and my personal statement is still pants lol

Good luck x

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[totalbeautyabz]

I've gone the other way. I was a biomedical scientist in the NHS for 14 years and now a beauty therapist, though I'm wanting to go more holistic. I completely understand where you are coming from in that respect. I'm more of a healer than anything else!

Piece of advice. The NHS is a very, very difficult establishment to work in. Very difficult. I loved my job to begin with, but the bureaucracy began to overtake the actual care of the patients and staff and it got extremely frustrating. I'm so glad I'm out. The NHS is meant to be a caring organisation, but they don't give 2 hoots about their staff.

What holistic therapies do you provide? Is there any way you could volunteer at a Maggies Centre of Macmillan Centre? x

 

[Cookies]

In response to your post Samantha attard, I'd rather be an annoying person disagreeing with your advice than trying to steer a complete stranger in a direction Career wise that I feel fit for them.

 

[HelenT59]

I've gone the other way. I was a biomedical scientist in the NHS for 14 years and now a beauty therapist, though I'm wanting to go more holistic. I completely understand where you are coming from in that respect. I'm more of a healer than anything else!

Piece of advice. The NHS is a very, very difficult establishment to work in. Very difficult. I loved my job to begin with, but the bureaucracy began to overtake the actual care of the patients and staff and it got extremely frustrating. I'm so glad I'm out. The NHS is meant to be a caring organisation, but they don't give 2 hoots about their staff.

What holistic therapies do you provide? Is there any way you could volunteer at a Maggies Centre of Macmillan Centre? x

I hear ya!

 

[Julie-Liz]

You sound like me, I started out in care work though, I have my health and social care quals and had work as a carer before going into beauty therapy, I would love to go into nursing, as a psychiatric nurse. As a child I wanted to be a vet but as a teen I thought about being a cosmetic surgeon but getting pregnant in my teens put a lot on hold. I'm nearly 30 now and think if I went back into education yet again my whole family would despair of me! I can't find my niche, it's frustrating but I know I lack patience in that department, beauty therapy isn't working out immediately so I'm fantasising about going back down the care route. I felt comfortable there, helping others and trying to make a difference. I'm saying this because nursing isn't something u go into lightly, it must be extremely hard work, and the last thing u want is to jump into something n realise it's actually not for u. I'm not saying don't do it by any means, if you really feel it's your calling then go for it. An access to nursing course will get u on track, if there are uni open days near u I'm sure tutors there will be happy to discuss the courses and pathways available to u. Best if luck with whatever u decide to do!