Career transitions

Early in your career, balancing study, placement and managing financially can be a juggle.  In your mid-career, responsibilities at work and in life increase and so do stress levels. In the later stages of your career there are decisions about your role, load and how to prepare for the next stage of life. We offer you support if you are feeling the pressure in your nursing or midwifery career. 

Early in your career

Starting out in nursing and midwifery can mean balancing study, shift work, money, and trying to keep your stress in check. 

While studying

The high workload of balancing lectures, exams, assignments, and part-time work can be stressful. For some, learning about grief, loss, and trauma for the first time can be an emotional load. Self-doubt can creep in when you question if you are good enough for the profession.

On placement

A first exposure to real patients can provoke a fear of making mistakes. Adjusting to nights, weekends, and long days can lead to shift work fatigue.

Sometimes difficult conversations with patients, families, or staff can be challenging. You may feel like an outsider as you adapt to ward culture or team expectations.

First job

When you move from student to fully responsible practitioner, you may experience transition shock. New job challenges include time pressures associated with managing multiple patients and competing demands. You are required to make decisions—when to escalate, what to prioritise can be stressful. And if you lack support or forget to make time for self-care, there is a real risk of burnout.

Mid-career

For many nurses and midwives, the middle years of a career are a time of both growth and pressure. You might be juggling family or caring responsibilities alongside demanding shifts. There’s often the push to take on postgraduate study, step into leadership, or specialise in a particular area. On top of that, workplace challenges such as bullying, exposure to trauma, or moral distress can take their toll. It’s also a time when compassion fatigue or burnout can creep in if you’re constantly giving without recharging.

Later in your career

Nursing later in your career comes with its own set of challenges — the body feels shift work more, finances and retirement planning start to matter more, and keeping stress in check becomes just as important as caring for others.

The next phase

Later in our careers, some of us look for more flexibility, while others begin planning for retirement. Decisions are often influenced by age, health, family needs, new opportunities—or simply feeling burnt out. Whatever the reason, it’s important to think about how you want to take your skills, experience, and compassion into a new phase of life that’s fulfilling and meaningful.

Retirement – a financial and emotional step

Late career and retirement are all about your choices. Retirement isn’t just a financial or practical step—it’s also an emotional one. Whether you continue working in a different capacity, cut back hours, or retire, the goal is to find balance and bring focus to what matters most for you.

Nursing and midwifery are more than jobs; for many of us, they’re part of our identity. That’s why stepping away can bring mixed emotions: pride in the contribution we’ve made, but also a sense of loss around community, routine, and purpose. Many of us know we will never stop being a nurse, but still feel strange to leave behind such a central part of life.

References

• ANMJ Staff. (2025, June 12). Prac Payment is here: What nursing and midwifery students need to know. Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal.
• Denton, J., Evans, D., & Xu, Q. (2021). Being an older nurse or midwife in the healthcare workplace–A qualitative descriptive study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 77(11), 4500–4510.