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Still trying to decide what to study at university and never considered nursing? Here's some great reasons why you should give it some serious thought...
1. You’re almost guaranteed a job at the end of your degree
Did you know that nursing is one of the most highly employable degrees? In fact, a huge 94% of graduate nurses find employment in a nursing job within six months of finishing their degree.
What’s more, as nursing degrees include a variety of hospital placements, many students, like myself, find themselves with a job offer or even multiple job offers before they’ve graduated.
So, if you’re worried about being able to find a job after all your hard work studying, nursing might be the career for you.
2. You get more financial support while at uni
As part of the Government's promise to put more nurses in to the NHS, they have created a new financial grant specifically for nursing students.
The grant - which won't have to be repaid - was made available to all new and existing nursing and midwifery students from September 2020. Students could be eligible for up to £8,000 worth of support, depending on their circumstances and what course they are studying.
Read more about NHS funding for students here.
3. Nursing careers can be hugely rewarding
Despite what you might read about nursing in the papers, I and most of the nurses I know find our jobs hugely rewarding. Nursing is all about doing your utmost to provide the best possible care for your patients, whatever their illness or problem. There aren’t many jobs where you can go home at the end of the day knowing you’ve made a real difference to people's lives.
4. Freedom to work anywhere
Unlike some professions, where you have to work either in the capital or a major city to progress your career, nursing allows you to work anywhere in the country, giving you freedom and flexibility over where you live and how you live your life.
You can also use your nursing degree to gain employment abroad. And no matter where you want to live, there's bound to be nursing roles available.
5. You’re a specialist
A lot of people don’t know that when you do your nursing degree you usually specialise in what is known as 'field' of nursing. There are four fields – adult nursing, children’s nursing, mental health nursing and learning disability nursing - which allows you to become an expert in the one you choose!
There are also some degrees which allow you to combine two fields of nursing too, so it’s worth exploring those if you want to work in more than one type of nursing.
6. You won’t have to spend three years in the university library
Nursing degrees are really hands on and mix academic work with real life hands on experience. Typically, whichever type of nursing degree you study, you will spend about half your time on different types of placements, including hospital and community based, allowing you to work with different types of patients and discover what sort of nursing you prefer, for example working on an A&E ward or working with vulnerable older people.
7. There's flexibility and variety in your career
Many people assume that nurses just work in hospitals but actually there a huge variety of different places you can work in and different career paths open to you.
You can go into teaching, management, forensic nursing, prison nursing and many more. Who knows, you might even end up in politics!
Another option is to go on and do your masters or a PhD, dual qualify in different fields of nursing or specialise within an area like cardiac, oncology or palliative care. The opportunities are endless, as long as you’re willing to take them!
8. You'll be highly respected
It’s important to know that not only is nursing rewarding but also nurses are really valued and often work as highly respected members of multi-disciplinary teams. Their views and opinions are listened to just as much as those of the doctors and surgeons they’re working with.
We need more nurses!
Unfortunately, not enough students are applying for nursing degrees at the moment which means we might not have enough nurses in the future.
It’s such a fascinating and rewarding career, enabling you to meet so many different people, that I would really urge more people to consider studying one of the four types of nursing degrees.
To find out more about careers in nursing and the #KnowAboutNursing campaign visit Health Careers.
Next Steps:
- Search for your perfect nursing degree course
