Is Speech and Language Therapy or Child Nursing a more difficult career?

I'm divided on whether I should pursue a career in Speech and Language Therapy (specialising in children) or Child Nursing as I've heard and read fair amounts of pros and cons of them both. Personally, I want a job that's not too demanding and where I could just do a regular 9-5 and have time for family and myself but I also want to help people. Could anybody tell me which degree would be better for me or even suggest any possible ones? Thanks

I'm divided on whether I should pursue a career in Speech and Language Therapy (specialising in children) or Child Nursing as I've heard and read fair amounts of pros and cons of them both. Personally, I want a job that's not too demanding and where I could just do a regular 9-5 and have time for family and myself but I also want to help people. Could anybody tell me which degree would be better for me or even suggest any possible ones? Thanks

hi, I actually get you completely! I would love to work with children and just like you, I want to help people. I think its great that you have done your research on both pros and cons and I am going to suggest speech and language just because I believe it is such an amazing career, and the one that I will definately do when I am in uni. personally, I think that if you are definately sure about working with children, either is fine however, I don't know much about child nursing but I do know that in speech and language you must cover all aspects and patients before specialising, so actually, you might find you would prefer another patient sector. also, child nursing is, in my opinion quite narrowing whereas you can always change specialism in speech and language. speech and language is 9-5 and brings a lot of self-satisfaction, however I would recommend you watch youtube vlogs of the day in the life of... etc- they really helped cement my descision- and I hope watching them will help yours too!
Best of luck, Safah

Working in healthcare is demanding - both physically and emotionally. Nursing isn't going to be 9-5 unless you become a school or practice nurse, or perhaps a health visitor. During your degree, and if you choose to work in a hospital post-graduation, you will be expected to do night and weekend shifts.
@evantej can you give any insight into typical work hours for SLTs in hospital and community roles?
If work hours are a big concern, therapeutic radiographers (also known as radiotherapists) tend to work shifts on weekdays between the hours of 8 and 6, although they might be called in for an emergency case at the weekend. This isn't a child-focused career though.

Thanks for replying. I've done a bit more research, and I'm gravitating more towards diagnostic radiography now, even if it isn't child-focused.

Diagnostic radiographers are also require to work weekend and night shifts.

I'm divided on whether I should pursue a career in Speech and Language Therapy (specialising in children) or Child Nursing as I've heard and read fair amounts of pros and cons of them both. Personally, I want a job that's not too demanding and where I could just do a regular 9-5 and have time for family and myself but I also want to help people. Could anybody tell me which degree would be better for me or even suggest any possible ones? Thanks

Speech and language therapy is mostly a Monday to Friday 9-5 profession. There is generally some flexibility around this and people often work between the hours of 8-6 depending upon their personal circumstances. It is common to start earlier in hospitals (8-4) so SLTs during handover meetings in the morning.
There is the odd service which works slightly different days/hours but they are rare simply because there are not enough staff to go around (e.g. some stroke services work across 6 days so the occasional Saturday, some 'crisis' / front door services often work extended hours up until 8 but means you work fewer days to compensate).
It is one of the best professions if you want to keep a nice-work balance.
I am a speech and language therapy / lecturer so feel free to ask me any questions about the profession.

Thank you so much for replying! Knowing the hours aren't irregular definitely steers me back to my original plan of choosing Speech and Language therapy. Could I ask if working with children is challenging and what types of duties and activities do you undertake whilst working with children? Also, what conditions might these children have that SLTs help with? Thanks

But to answer your question it depends upon you. I have students who find it very difficult because they are not comfortable being around or interacting with kids even if their clinical knowledge is really good. Whereas other love interacting with them and the thought of working with ill people in a hospital is unthinkable to them. Everyone is different. You will have to do placements with children and adults so you will get a feeling for what you like.
Most paediatric therapists work with preschool and primary school kids with language and speech difficulties that are not due to a medical condition (i.e. the children are just delayed, slow to learn language, misuse sounds when speaking). Also stammering. You then have known conditions which affect communication such as ADHD, autism, hearing impairment, learning disability etc.. You sometimes get more specialist areas which deal with particular conditions / presentations more regularly (e.g. cerebral palsy / physical disability in a special school, cleft lip palate). You sometimes have really specialist services such as NICUs for preterm babies where SLTs support them to develop sucking/swallowing so they can feed. I have personally worked with older children in CAMHS settings which again is quite specialist (e.g. anxiety, depression, eating disorders).
The video discusses duties / activities of SLTs generally. From a paediatric perspective, it is definitely more communication focused than work with adults which has a lot more assessment and treatment of dysphagia (swallowing difficulty). You will be doing lots of assessments / reviews, developing therapy programmes that you will deliver or train others to deliver (e.g. parents, school staff).

I'm a SLT although I work in adult services. The course trains you to work across the whole lifespan so it keeps your options a lot more open (I was sure when I started I wanted to work with children but then I really found an area I enjoy so much).
In terms of working hours - I generally do 8:30-4:30 just because that suits me better, other colleagues do 9-5 and because I plan my own diary there's no issue if I need to finish early one day and make up the time elsewhere as long as I make a note of it. Some of the crisis teams have weekend and evening cover rota working - but this is always made clear on job applications so wouldn't be unexpected if you took a post.
Hours are obviously more set in stone if you're working in a clinic or a hospital, but my service is pretty chilled out about it all.

Would you say there are some aspects of being an SLT that are really difficult because I've seen people on here saying that they've felt like quitting so many times, so I'm worried I might not be suitable for this career?