The pros and cons

To give you a little background, I began my dental nursing journey back in 2010. That was the year I first qualified as a dental nurse, and had been working at my previous practice for over 12 years before deciding to resign. I am the lucky mother of an amazing eight-year-old son, and with my husband working as a teacher, I I wondered, ‘Why not try locum nursing as a way to maximise my time with them both in the holidays?’ From what I had heard, locum nursing offered far more flexibility for school pickups and drop-offs.

Leaving my role was not an easy decision to make, and was something that I thought long and hard about. There were a lot of factors to take into consideration, after all. The most important one was that I would now be self-employed and responsible for my own taxes and national insurance… A little daunting to say the least! But, I spoke to an accountant and members of my family who are self-employed and got all the relevant advice that I needed. The best advice that I received was to keep clear and consistent records and be as organised as humanly possible! I now have a spreadsheet with all the information I need and a meticulously organised folder for my invoices, ready to send to my accountant when the time comes for self-assessment. You can also do your self-assessment yourself, but I decided for my first year that I would get the help of an accountant to be safe. You also need to consider that you will not get holiday/sick pay while self-employed… Pros and cons!