Careers Spotlight: Nursing

A nursing career in the NHS or private healthcare involves the care of individuals who experience illnesses, injuries or disabilities. Nurses work in multidisciplinary teams and a number of settings, helping their patients maintain, recover or improve their health and overall quality of life. Here are some of the jobs you do as a nurse:

• Check patient vital signs such as blood pressure, pulse rate and temperature

• Administer drugs and injections

• Use medical equipment

• Clean and dress patient wounds

• Update patient medical records as needed

• Assist doctors with physical examinations

• Monitor a patient's progress to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment plan

• Work alongside healthcare professionals to determine the best care

• Offer advice to patients and their families

Why should you consider a career in nursing?

Before deciding on pursuing a nursing career, consider whether you're a good fit for the profession. Then, let your personality, interests and short and long-term goals help you decide the best nursing career for you. A career in nursing can be dynamic and rewarding, with plenty of opportunities for career progression. Here are some reasons to consider becoming a nurse:

Make a difference: Working as a nurse gives you the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of your patients. As a nurse, you essentially work to save lives, ensuring your patients receive quality care.

Advance in your career: A nursing career gives you many opportunities for advancement, for example you can go on to more senior role like specialist nurse or senior staff nurse, or move into areas like clinical research. Between professional development opportunities and a wide variety of advanced degrees and specialities, you have plenty of chances to progress in your field.

Work with people: Not only do you interact with your patients as a nurse, but you also communicate with your colleagues and superiors every day. If you want a job with plenty of social interaction, a nursing career may suit you.

Types of nursing careers

If you'd like to pursue a nursing career, there are lots of specialities you can consider. While all nurses provide care and support for their patients, nurses specialise in certain types of care and in treating certain types of patients. Here are some different nursing careers to consider:

Adult nurse

Adult nurses provide care to adults of all ages. They observe their patients to identify their needs. Based on their findings, they determine an appropriate care plan. They also build a trusting relationship with their adult patients. Typically, they help adult patients who have from long or short-term physical conditions. Some of these conditions may include arthritis, cancer or pneumonia.

Paediatric (children's) nurse

A paediatric nurse administers care to children from birth to adolescence. Apart from caring for a child, you're also responsible for providing support for the child's parents, guardians and wider family.

Paediatric nurses work with children who have specific health needs. Because of this, it's important to understand how a healthy child develops into adulthood. All nurses need strong communication skills, and children's nurses use these skills to communicate with children who may not have the ability to express their feelings like an adult. The ability to interpret a child's behaviour and reactions is fundamental to the role to provide effective care.

Learning disability nurse

A learning disability nurse provides specialised care and support to individuals with learning disabilities to help them live a fulfilling life. As a learning and disability nurse, you can expect to work in a multidisciplinary team helping patients of all ages to help them reduce any barriers they face that keep them from living a full and independent life.

Mental health nurse

Mental health nurses provide care to patients when they experience mental illness. They support their recovery and help them live independent lives. Mental health nurses establish trusting relationships with their patients and their family members and caregivers. They may inform their patient about the right medication dosage, advise them about relevant therapies and identify whether they're at risk of harming themselves or someone else.

Nursing associate

Nursing associates can work across all four areas of nursing in different settings. A nursing associate role is in between that of a registered nurse (RN) and a healthcare worker. The role can provide a pathway to becoming a nurse.

Nursing degree

Most people qualify by studying a degree in nursing. Nursing degrees aren’t all about having your nose in a book. There is lots of practical hands on experience with patients in hospital and community settings.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for nursing degree courses vary because each university sets its own entry criteria, but you are likely to need at least two (usually three) A-levels or equivalent qualifications at level 3, such as a T level or BTECs, plus supporting GCSEs including English, maths and a science (usually biology or human biology). Contact universities directly to find out whether qualifications equivalent to A-levels or GCSEs are acceptable.

Courses often specify preferred or essential A-level or equivalent subjects, such as one science (for example biology) or social science (for example psychology). Some universities offer courses with a foundation year for those without the necessary entry qualifications.

Many universities offer degrees in nursing. You can find a list of courses by using our Course Finder.

At least £5,000 will be available from September 2020 to help eligible undergraduate and postgraduate student nurses fund their studies. Best of all, it won’t need to be repaid. Find out more about with these annual payments and the other financial support available. 

Online degrees

From January 2021, some universities are offering adult nursing courses where the theoretical content is mainly delivered online, making it easier to fit studies around home life. You can search for the courses, sometimes called 'blended' courses on our course finder. 

Other ways to become a nurse

Registered nurse degree apprenticeships (RNDA)

A registered nurse degree apprenticeship (RNDA) offers a flexible route to becoming a nurse that doesn’t require full-time study at university.

You will need to secure a position as an RNDA and your employer will release you to study at university part time.  You will train in a range of practice placements, for example hospitals, GP practices, people’s homes and mental health facilities.

Most RNDAs take four years, but possibly less if APEL (accreditation of prior experience and learning) recognises your previous learning and experience. For example, if you have a relevant level 5 qualification, the length of your apprenticeship could be reduced to two years rather than four.

You’ll typically need level 3 and maths and English qualification/s to start an RNDA. If you have a level 5 qualification as a nursing associate or assistant practitioner,  your apprenticeship might be called a 'top up' RNDA or ‘conversion’ to registered nurse course.

Nursing associate

The role of nursing associate sits alongside existing nursing care support workers and fully-qualified registered nurses in both health and social care. 

It opens up a career in nursing to people from all backgrounds and offers the opportunity to progress to training to become a registered nurse. Trainee roles are often available in a variety of health and care settings. This means that nursing associates have wider opportunities and more flexibility to move between acute, social and community and primary care.

A nursing associate is not a registered nurse, but with further training, it can be possible to 'top up' your training to become one. 

If you want to learn more about becoming a nurse click on the links below

Boosting your CV

In this section we have looked at how boost your CV.  A good CV will get you noticed and invited for an interview, but no further.  The key to a successful interview lies in soft skills.

What are soft skills?

Soft skills relate to how you work. Soft skills include interpersonal (people) skills, communication skills, listening skills, time management, and empathy, among others. They are among the top skills employers seek in the candidates they hire, because soft skills are important for just about every job.

Over the next few editions of the careers newsletter we will look at different soft skills and how you can improve them

Creative problem solving and innovation

The last few years have presented many new challenges for companies. The last thing an employer or hiring manager wants is an employee who sees a challenging situation or new task and says, “Wow, I don't know what to do here.” Instead, they want to know that you can think logically and creatively to develop solutions to the problems or obstacles that arise from day to day.

They also hope you'll help to come up with new ideas while addressing existing problems. And the more creative, the better; that kind of thinking leads to innovation and improvements within the company.

On your CV, be sure to highlight your problem solving skills and list situations where you had to use your creativity in the face of adversity by coming up with innovative solutions to the problems you encountered.

At your interview, express your enthusiasm for tackling challenges. Every job has hurdles and employers want to hire people who aren't afraid of tackling those challenges. Make sure that your interviewer knows you're one of those people.

Here are 6 steps to follow to help you to improve your problem solving skills

1. Identify the problem

2. Think about why it’s a problem

3. Brainstorm possible solutions to the problem

4. Evaluate the solutions to the problem

5. Put the solution into action

6. Evaluate the outcome of your problem-solving process

If the solution hasn’t worked, go back to step 1 of this problem-solving process and start again. Perhaps the problem wasn’t what you thought it was, or the solutions weren’t quite right

Unifrog

What is Unifrog?

Unifrog is a one-stop-shop where students can easily explore their interests, then find and successfully apply for their next best step after school. All of our students can login to Unifrog using the school login details.  However we think Unifrog is so good we want parents and carers to use it as well.  To use Unifrog for free go to  unifrog.org/code, enter the code HXRTparents.  You will be asked for some basic details and then you are in.

Help for Parents and Carers

When it comes to education and careers, parents and carers have a large influence on a students choices. As an adult you are expected to have all the answers, but in a constantly evolving world it can be a struggle to keep up with the latest options out there.  In this section we will highlight resources that will help keep you up to date with careers and the choices available to young people.

With GCSE's and A-level exams about to start and year 9's thinking about option choices this month we look at some of the questions parents regularly have regarding qualifications

What do the GCSE grades mean?

• By 2020 all GCSE subjects had stopped using the A* to F grading and moved to numerical grades

• GCSE grades now start with 1 (the lowest) and go up to 9 (the highest)

• Though there isn't an exact match between the old grades and the current system a grade 4 is broadly equivalent to a C, a grade 8 is broadly equivalent to an A* and a grade 9 is seen as being higher than an A*.

What is the difference between a GCSE and a BTEC?

• BTEC stands for the Business and Technology Education Council. BTECs are specialist work-related qualifications.

• BTEC’s come in a wide range of levels.  A level 2 BTEC is equivalent to a GCSE while a level 3 BTEC is equivalent to an A-level.

• BTEC’s tend to be more industry focussed compared to GCSE’s or A-levels

• Where a GCSE is typically assessed at the end of the course with a series of exams a BTEC is split into units.  Whilst some units are assessed via an exam the majority of units are assessed by the teacher and are similar to coursework.

What is a level 2 qualification?

• The level of a qualification shows its level of difficulty.

• The levels are from entry level  to level 8

• The higher the level the harder the qualification

• GCSE’s are level 2 qualifications

• A-levels are level 3 qualifications.

• A bachelor's degree is a level 6 qualification

• Post graduate degrees and doctorates are level 7 and level 8 qualifications

Do students have to resit their maths and English GCSE?

• If a student doesn't achieve a grade 4 in maths at the end of Year 11 they will need to resit

• If a student doesn't achieve a grade 4 in either English language or English literature they will need to resit

• This applies whether the student goes on to 6th form, college or does an apprenticeship

• There is no requirement to resit once a student reaches the end of Year 13 (or equivalent)

What subjects should my child take?

• The subjects a student chooses are a personal choice.

• Students shouldnt choose a subject just because they like their current teacher as there is no guarantee that they will have the same teacher next year

• Students should not choose a subject just because their friends are choosing that subject.

• If a student knows what career they wish to pursue then looking at what the entry requirements are for getting the job they want is a good place to start.

• If a student doesn't yet know what career they wish to pursue then choosing subjects they enjoy is a good starting point.

Careers in Hertfordshire: Health & Social Care

Health and social care is about providing physical, emotional and social support to help people live their lives. For various reasons and at different stages in their lives, some people need support to develop and maintain their independence, dignity and control. Health and social care provides a wide range of services to support children, adults and older people.

Working in social care means supporting people with their non-clinical needs, although there is an important crossover between working in health and working in social care. Your work could range from anything to providing medication and personal care to helping someone with their shopping or making their lunch for them.

Working in health care is about helping people to stay healthy and protecting them from threats to their health. While medicine and nursing are vital for helping and supporting people when they fall ill, working in health contributes to reducing the causes of ill-health and improving people's health and wellbeing.

If you work in health or social care, you could help people in hospitals, clinics, in their own homes, in residential homes or in a number of other places such as day centres or supported housing.

Health & Social Care employers in Hertfordshire

 Across Hertfordshire there are;

• Over 700 private, voluntary and independent care providers

• 3 hospital trusts

• 2 community providers delivering services such as school nursing, health visiting and community nursing

• 1 mental health and learning disability provider

• 1 County Council delivering a number of adult and child social care services

• 1 Integrated Urgent Care (NHS 111) organisation

• 1 Ambulance provider

For more information please go to www.hopinto.co.uk/ 

Current Opportunities

This month we have some amazing opportunities to learn about careers in dentistry and medicine

Careers in Dentistry and Medicine

We have now seen over 30,000 students register for these free conferences since September last year, all with your help and support. Here is an overview of how many students you have helped begin their journey into medical/dental school this academic year so far:

Get Into Medicine Conference: 5

Get Into Dentistry Conference: 1

If you feel that there may be more students in years 9-12 / S2-S5 / NI10-NI13 year groups that are yet to attend, please kindly direct them to the Free Get into Conferences. These events are led by expert Chief Mentors who specialise in medical and dental UCAS applications, providing comprehensive guidance on choosing the correct university, how to write their personal statements, UCAT exam preparation, extracurricular activities, scholarships and more.

For aspiring Dentists: FREE LIVE VIRTUAL Get Into Dentistry conference date:

Saturday 17th May from 9:30am - 3:30pm

https://airtable.com/appgXnyzN5ZD9Iwk6/shrBuiR7SBAcC19kE

For aspiring Doctors: FREE LIVE VIRTUAL Get Into Medicine conference dates:

Saturday 26th April from 9:30am - 3:30pm

Sunday 27th April from 9:30am - 3:30pm

https://airtable.com/appgXnyzN5ZD9Iwk6/shry7MZYtt3MGPjvO

All aspiring doctors and dentists in years 10-12 / S3-S5 / NI11-13 are invited to register.

These conferences offer tailored advice for medicine and dentistry, covering a range of crucial topics:

- Tactically choosing universities

- Personal statements

- UCAT

- Medical & Dental school interview skills

- National Leadership Programmes

- Medical & Dental Awards Programmes

- Extracurricular activities

- Work experience

- Building a CV

- Applying for scholarships

Many students have found that attending these free conferences was a pivotal experience, where everything came together to help them succeed!

Please note that parental attendance is required for safeguarding reasons and to ensure parents are also supported throughout the application process.

Students and parents can register for free at this link:

Medicine: https://airtable.com/appgXnyzN5ZD9Iwk6/shry7MZYtt3MGPjvO

Dentistry: https://airtable.com/appgXnyzN5ZD9Iwk6/shrBuiR7SBAcC19kE

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to drop me an email education@medicmentorfamily.org. Thank you for working with us to make a difference 

Warm regards,

Dr (Prof) Dhakshana Sivayoganathan