Nurse

Nurse job description: Typical employers | Qualifications and training | Key skills | Useful links | Find jobs and courses

Nurses work as part of a team of professional and medical staff that includes doctors, social workers and therapists.

Typical duties of the job include:

• assessing and planning nursing care requirements
• providing pre- and post-operation care
• monitoring and administering medication and intravenous infusions
• taking patient samples, pulses, temperatures and blood pressures
• writing records
• supervising junior staff
• organising workloads
• providing emotional support to patients and relatives
• tutoring student nurses.

24-hour shift work can be requirement of the job.

Typical employers of nurses

• hospitals
• NHS Trusts
• residential homes
• agencies
• health centres
• schools
• companies
• GP practices

Advertisements appear in newspapers, NHS trusts' jobs lists and publications such as Nursing Times, Nursing Standard and Paediatric Nursing.

Qualifications and training required

Qualification necessitates undertaking a 3-year diploma course or a 3 to 4-year degree course. Graduates with a degree in a relevant subject such as life, health, biological or social sciences can qualify via a shortened 2-year postgraduate diploma course.

Degree and diploma course applications should be made through UCAS; those for shortened postgraduate courses should be made directly to the relevant institutations. Previous relevant experience is not essential, but any gained caring for/working with people can be helpful.

Key skills for nurses

• good health and fitness
• excellent teamwork skills
• verbal and written communication skills
• resilience
• stamina.