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Why Choose Nursing as a Career

Nursing offers a world of opportunities in clinical practice, research, education and management. You could aspire to be an executive director of nursing, a clinical specialist, a researcher or lecturer. Nurses work in hospitals, GP surgeries, nursing and residential homes and hospices as well as the prison service and the armed forces. There are also opportunities to nurse abroad. With experience, you could be working for the nurse-led telephone service NHS Direct or running your own nursing home. Nursing really does offer a world of opportunities.

There’s a shortage of nurses, partly because training places were reduced in the 1990s, so once qualified you will be a very valuable employee. The NHS is going through a massive modernisation programme which depends on nurses taking on new roles and responsibilities; everything from prescribing drugs and treatments to performing minor surgery and managing your own patient caseload. A massive shake-up of NHS pay and career development is set to give nurses a rise of nearly 16 per cent over the next three years as well as rewarding them for the increasingly complex work they do. Nursing education is provided by universities and you can follow either a diploma or a degree programme. Diploma courses last for three years and most degree programmes last four. Some universities offer shorter programmes – eighteen months to two years - if you already have a degree in a related subject. Minimum entry requirements are at the range of 5 GCSEs but many universities will ask for more than this, including A levels. A number of students with fewer academic qualifications are coming into nursing courses following experience and vocational training as a nursing cadet or health care assistant If you undertake an NHS funded degree course your tuition fees will be paid but any grant allowance would depend on your income and that of your parents or partner if applicable. Diploma course students get a non means tested bursary, currently £6,382 in London and £5,432 elsewhere in England. The bursary levels are set differently in the other UK countries. Forget the stereotype of the student nurse as a young white female school leaver. More men are coming into nursing as well as people from diverse backgrounds. Many nursing students already have several years work experience before deciding on a nursing career. The minimum entry age is seventeen. The courses are half theory and half practical. All students follow the same programme in the first year, learning the basic principles of caring for individuals and families. For the rest of the course you will concentrate on your chosen specialty, including mental health, children’s or learning disability nursing. Mental health nurses increasingly work in the community, and may specialise in rehabilitation or substance misuse. Learning disability nurses often work with clients living in residential homes, or specialise in areas such as epilepsy management. Children’s nurses work closely with 0 – 18 year olds and their families in hospital and community settings, and may go on to specialise in areas such as child protection. Visit our website rcn.org.uk to find out more about courses in your area.

This article was written for Get Smaart by: Sylvia Denton OBE FRCN, President of the Royal College of Nursing