There’s no doubting the fact that nursing can be an incredibly rewarding, fulfilling career. However, there are quite a few different paths that can be followed within the profession, one of which is agency work. With adverts constantly springing up asking for agency nurses, should you explore this avenue? Well, here are the pros and cons to it:
The Pros:
You’ll experience more variety. One of the hallmarks of a fulfilling career is one that presents the opportunity to work with a lot of different people, and in different locations. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. Working as an agency nurse is more likely to offer this day-to-day, which can help prevent boredom and burnout from setting in over the long run.
You’ll be able to visit different locations. Working as part of an agency, you’ll likely take on different roles in different cities, which can be an ideal way to visit more of the country. If you spend a couple of weeks in a new town, you’ll have ample opportunity to get to know it, and you can move on before you begin to get settled in.
It will increase your levels of confidence. If you spend several years doing the same job in the same area then suddenly being required to do something different can be intimidating. However, if you work as an agency nurse you’ll learn to constantly adapt to new situations and working with new people, investing you with a real sense of self-confidence that’ll come more and more in useful as your career develops.
There can be some tax breaks. As a nurse operating in a more freelance environment, you might find that there are some tax breaks if you’re required to pay for things like your own uniform, equipment and the like. This isn’t always the case, but it’s certainly worth checking out, as it can mean you’ll be earning the same salary you would in a full time position, but paying less tax – never a bad thing!
The Cons:
Agency work isn’t permanent. As with any temporary or freelance role, agency work won’t guarantee you a steady paycheck: you getting paid will depend entirely on whether or not there is work available at the time. Right now, there is quite a lot, but that could potentially change.
If you work as a freelancer, you won’t get paid holidays or time off. This is the case with all freelance work: you get paid according to the amount of work you’ve done – you can take days off when you want, but you won’t get any money for them. There’s no holiday allowance, either!
You won’t have a pension scheme. Usually (though there is the odd exception), agencies won’t provide any form of pension or retirement fund, simply because you’re not technically a permanent employee, so they aren’t required to. If you want to spend a whole career working for agencies, you’ll need to set up a pension fund of your own.
You won’t get the chance to build long-term relationships. This is another important point. If you find one of the most rewarding things about being a nurse the relationships you get to build with both your patients and your co-workers, then agency work might not be for you. There simply won’t be time to do that – you’ll be in, out in a few days, and might not see those peo
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John Lin is a English graduate and office worker at Medic Professionals, a leading British recruitment company providing medical staff and experts to both the public and private sectors.
