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What is nursing?
Nursing is one of the most important professions within the healthcare industry. A nurse is responsible for providing care and comfort to ill or injured patients, while working within a team of doctors, surgeons and other health professionals.
The job combines both emotional and practical skills, and the ability to communicate effectively. You could find yourself working in a hospital, clinic, hospice, or really any global environment where there are people to care for.
Read more about studying nursing at uni.
Reasons to study nursing
1. The skills you’ll learn
There are many types of skills which nurses must learn, and a number of them are quite specific to nursing or healthcare professions. These include the ability to administer medicine through a variety of means, the skill of reading medical charts and data, taking blood samples, operating hospital equipment, and communicating with relatives of patients.
Transferrable skills include things like organisation and scheduling, time management, the ability to deal with high-stress environments, and multidisciplinary teamwork skills. These adaptive skills make nurses well prepared for a variety of roles in other professions, and they learn cultural and personal sensitivity skills which also apply widely.
2. The career you could have
Studying a nursing degree is part of a specific route into working as a professional nurse, although there are a number of specialisations which can be chosen along the way. You could choose to work as a children’s nurse, an ER nurse, midwife, cardiac nurse, or specialist in end-of-life care.
There are options to work for the NHS, where the starting salary for a newly qualified nurse is £28,407 per year, or to work in a private clinic where salaries are usually comparable at this stage but may offer long-term advantages.
Outside of the NHS, graduates with a degree in nursing could find employment in global healthcare, working with non-profit organisations either in the UK or abroad.
Use our Career Matcher to find your ideal job role.
3. All the topics that get covered
As a nurse, you’ll be providing care in a number of different ways, sometimes through physical treatment, or through the delivery of medicine, and sometimes with emotional and psychological care. Topics covered in a nursing degree prepare you for all types of situations, and include advanced anatomy, pharmacology, psychology and mental health, microbiology, leadership and management, women’s and infant health.
4. You can study all over the UK
Nursing is a widespread career, and there are top courses to be found all over the UK. Complete University Guide has ranked the following universities as having the top three courses in the UK:
The top three nursing courses based on student satisfaction are at:
Check out the full nursing league tables from Complete University Guide.
5. It’s something you enjoy!
At the end of the day, it feels good to help people, and nurses get to do this on a daily basis. While the job isn’t without its stressful moments, the rewards for doing such work are immense.
You become a key player in a team of professionals who improve the lives of countless people of all ages and backgrounds. You may help to deliver new life into the world, and in some cases save lives. To find out what is needed to embark upon the journey to becoming a nurse, then read our guide.
Keen to get started? Begin searching for courses now!
