If you like the thought of a healthcare-related career but aren’t quite sure what type of role you want to pursue, why not consider becoming a nurse?
Nurses are a critically important component of the healthcare system. Throughout history, they have proven time and time again just how essential they are to keeping the cogs turning in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). They provide support to surgeons, doctors and other key medical personnel so that lives can be improved and saved every day.
By becoming a qualified nurse, you would take on a highly admired role that is on the frontline of health service provision. To get there, you will need to complete a degree approved by The Nursing and Midwifery Council.
If you like the sound of this dynamic and rewarding career but aren’t quite sold yet, we list the top 5 reasons to become a nurse below. Plus, the quickest way for you to jump-start this career!
1. Roles Available for Every Interest
No matter your interests, there is a nursing role to suit. When applying for an approved nursing degree, you have the choice of one of the four main areas of nursing.
These are:
- Adult Nursing
- Paediatric Nursing (Child Nursing)
- Mental Health Nursing
- Learning Disability Nursing (Special Educational Needs Nursing)
These courses cover the scope of nursing in relation to these areas of care. There are many overlapping elements, so you can transition into another area of nursing when you become registered. This is very appealing to soon-to-be nurses who aren’t 100% sure what area they want to work in yet.
However, the diversity of the nursing profession doesn’t stop there. While you study one of the four main areas in your degree, the specialisms you can move into once qualified are almost endless. With experience and further workplace training or education, you could become an:
- ICU Nurse
- Theatre Nurse
- Community Nurse
- Neonatal Nurse
- Cardiology Nurse
- Nursing Home Nurse, and more
2. Continuous Career Progression
A great benefit of the nursing profession is that you continue to grow and evolve as a healthcare professional. There are many careers where people become bored or feel there is no room for them to advance. This is something you definitely won’t have to worry about as a nurse.
To maintain their professional registration, nurses need to undertake a certain number of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours in a stipulated timeframe. CPD is classed as any education that adds to your skillset as a nurse, that isn’t part of your mandatory or statutory training.
Besides attending seminars and other valuable nursing events, this includes any nursing related educational courses you find interesting. CPD courses for nurses can be a great way to align yourself with a specialism in nursing, or provide a certain type of care that means a lot to you.
If you want to ease your patient’s final days, you can study courses in end of life care. Should you want to help people cope with the loss of loved ones, you could complete a course in grief and bereavement counselling. If you want to progress into management roles, a course in the legal aspects of health care would be advantageous.
3. Active and Exciting Work
If the idea of being stuck behind a desk sounds like the last thing you want from your career, you couldn’t be further removed from this as a nurse.
Day to day you will be up on your feet moving between patients as you cater to their individual needs. No two days will be the same as you handle different processes and procedures in line with each patients care plan.
What’s more, as you gain more skills through your training and CPD, you will be able to take on different tasks and responsibilities. Your role will constantly evolve, keeping you engaged, challenged and able to help patients more effectively each day.
4. Multiple Graduate Opportunities
With a growing, ageing population, the demand for skilled nursing professionals continues to rise. This means anyone who completes approved nurse practitioner courses and obtains professional registration will have ample graduate nursing opportunities to explore.
That’s not to say getting a job is a given; nursing after all is a desirable career. The more work experience you complete during your studies the better. While practical training is essential to complete nursing training courses, additional hands-on learning will help you stand out to employers.
Getting nursing work experience can also give you an insight into the type of nurse you want to become. So, it’s well worth checking out internships, part-time jobs and volunteering opportunities that will enable you to put your learning into practice.
5. A Job That Makes a Difference
For many people, doing work that has some meaning is extremely important, and it’s safe to say that nursing is up there on the list of the most meaningful careers. Improving and saving lives is one of the most important things a person can do. A nurse may not be the one completing the life-saving procedure, but if it wasn’t for the aftercare they provide, the condition of many patients would fail to improve.
Depending on the type of nurse you decide to become, you could be part of the lifeline for children, the elderly or people with special educational needs. You could also care for people with mental health issues and disorders and help them manage and make sense of their condition.
Get into Nursing!
If these benefits of becoming a nurse have you eager to make a move towards this career path, learndirect can help you get qualified faster.
To study at university, there are certain courses required for nursing degrees. Traditionally this would be multiple A Levels in addition to your GCSEs, but now the entry requirements are more varied.
An access to nursing course is a vocational qualification set at Level 3, giving you the equivalent of 3 A Levels. It is studied online and explores a broad range of modules highly specific to nursing. This way, you gain detailed insight into a nursing career and an education that will help you hit the ground running in your degree.
You will study everything from the responsibilities of a Registered Nurse, approaches to health, the history of the National Health Service and human disease and prevention. What’s more, as it’s studied online, you can complete it in much less time than the one-year allowance.
learndirect students typically complete their access to nursing courses online within 9-12 months. So you can get qualified and be applying for a nursing degree within a year!
Find out more today! Call our Course Executives on 01202 006 464, contact them online or click to view our Access to Higher Education Diploma (Nursing) below.
