Taking Care of Your Nursing Career

Taking Care of Your Nursing Career
By C Black

A nurses role

Although work settings and priorities may differ, all nurses are trained to perform the following duties:

- Treat patients and alleviate their suffering

- Educate patients and families about care and wellness

- Provide emotional support to patients' family members

- Record patients' medical histories and monitor symptoms

- Help perform diagnostic tests and medical procedures

- Operate medical machinery

- Administer treatments and medication

To be a successful nurse you need to be non-judgmental and a good communicator with the ability to listen, empathise and provide support. If you want to work in an environment that's interesting, rewarding and challenging, a career in nursing has plenty to offer you.

Qualifications & Training

Nursing offers a diverse, challenging and rewarding career that is ideal for those who'd like to make a difference to people's lives. The NHS and education sector encourages applications from people with a wide range of academic and vocational qualifications.

To become a nurse you must firstly obtain a degree or diploma in pre-registration nursing. This leads to registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), enabling you to practice. There are four key branches that form your pre-registration programme; Adult Nursing, Learning Disability Nursing, Mental Health Nursing and Children Nursing. You will need to decide which of the four branches of nursing you wish to train for.

Nursing training takes place at a Nursing and Midwifery Council approved educational institution, with at least half of the programme based in clinical practice with direct contact with patients and families. This can include the home, community, hospitals, independent and voluntary organisations.

Once you've successfully completed your pre-registration programme and registered with The Nursing and Midwifery Council, you can start applying for nursing jobs.

With healthcare constantly developing, technology improving, and the needs of the patients changing, your training does not end there. After you have qualified, it is necessary to keep yourself up to date with healthcare issues and practice. This is required by The Nursing and Midwifery Council, as well as your employer.

Securing a job

With 660,000 nurses currently registered on the Nursing Midwifery Council, nurses form the largest group of staff in the NHS and are a crucial part of the healthcare team. When seeking a high pressured, competitive job such as nursing, it's best not to wait until you've passed your last exam to start planning for your first job. Throughout your training build a pool of influential contacts and stay in touch with them. It's not just what you know when it comes to finding a job, who you know can really helps too.

For further assistance in preparing for a career in nursing speak to expert nursing recruiter, STR Group.

Article written on behalf of STR Group - http://www.strgroup.co.uk

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