Posted By jayne mc wiliam
Hi all, At present I am a staff nurse working in nhs with many years of experience, most keen to make career change to health and safety, most likely within the health care sector, as I hope my past experience in this area would stand me in some good stead. currently educated to degree level, my plans are to study for nebosh general certificate to begin with. has anyone been in similar position and has great advice for me, or indeed any of you very experienced practitioners out there. My concern is that my lack of experience in health and safety as such, would be a barrier to me getting a foothold in this area. Thanks in anticipation of your replies
jayne.

Posted By CRT
Hi Jane

i started life in the NHS - did my Cert as part of my job role (estates maintenance), then moved into training & Development. Do you have a T&D dept ?, could you get involved, you could use your experience in, for example; manual handling, infection control, this may then present other opportunities. I know just lately that NHS safety jobs are thin on the ground and that most do not have the resources to employ assistants to H&S managers so it may be difficult to get a foothold, hence the thought about diversifying. At some point you will need to obtain a higher level qualification and whilst it may be difficult to get your employers to cough up for NEBOSH DIp, you may swing it with an NVQ.

Hope it goes well.

Colin

Posted By Arran Linton - Smith
Jayne,

My initial reaction would be to firmly caution you about your chosen career route, however as I started from exactly the same point as yourself and I am now a Chartered Fellow with a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management, I cannot say that this journey is impossible.

I would suggest that the most challenging part of this would be the initial two to three years and in my experience It is worth obtaining all the best contacts that you can get. I did this through initially acting as a RCN Safety Rep, attending IOSH Branch Meetings and communicating with the IOSH Membership Department at the Grange. It would probably be worth your while finding a good mentor who you could communicate with on a periodic basis.

Although you may be looking for work within the health care sector, there may be some point at which you would ‘need to firmly loose your uniform’. My OH&S career was initially based within rail and then construction and I currently work within a large architectural practice.

I suspect that it may be tougher now than when I started, however I also feel that I have been blessed with a lot of opportunities.

Posted By fshc
Hi. Not sure where you are based but we are currently looking for 2 part time H & S advisors, 3 days per week. 1 to be based in Scotland and 1 to be based in Northern Ireland. Please e-mail me if you are interested.