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30 July 2024
14 min read

The Complete Guide To Becoming A Nurse

Matt Farrah
Nurses.co.uk Founder

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This article was updated in July 2024 to reflect the latest NMC numbers

"More Nurses are needed across the board – and the stats support this."

Find out exactly how you can become a nurse. We cover the whole pre-nursing journey - from thinking about a career in nursing to finally becoming a newly qualified nurse looking for your first job.

Why Do People Choose Nursing As A Career?

As of November 2023 there were 748,528 registered nurses in the UK. A Nursing degree is widely considered to be one of the most employable in the UK – 94% of graduates find jobs within six months of finishing their degree.

That gives you some idea of just how popular Nursing is as a profession. And while the concept of a ‘job for life’ might be dwindling slightly in the 21st Century, unprecedented patient demand means that a Nursing career offers the kind of security and purpose few others could match.

But there's more to Nursing than job security.

It's a highly unusual vocation in that you will spend your working life treating, caring and listening to other humans that you don't know to help them improve their lives.

Yes, every Nurse we have ever spoken to also talks about the daily challenges and often thankless nature of their job. But most simply knew they wanted to be a Nurse without really thinking about it and can’t imagine doing anything else.

What Personal Skills Do You Need To Be A Nurse?

Tobecome a Nurse you unquestionably need a Nursing degree. But being a good Nurse, and deciding if it’s the right career for you, is about much more than a qualification.

Nurses, lecturers and experts all widely agree on a few, essential characteristics that it takes to excel in the profession: Care and compassion. Fundamentally, you have to be someone motivated by compassion; someone who gets huge satisfaction from caring for other people. Any decent person cares about other people, but for Nurses, caring defines everything you do, every day.

Resilience

Put simply, there are far easier careers than Nursing. Nursing is a daily test of your character, patience and resilience. It regularly throws up challenges you may not have prepared for, and for obvious reasons it can be very demanding on an emotional level. But of course, that’s also why it can be such a uniquely rewarding career for the right person.

Communication skills

Essentially, Nurses are highly skilled problem solvers. And your ability to solve problems hinges on your speaking and listening skills. You will deal with a huge variety of patients in a wide variety of circumstances. And being able to successfully understand and remedy their problems all comes down to effective communication.

Flexibility

A Nursing career demands flexibility in every sense. Nursing is rarely a 9-5 job, nor is it a job that presents a consistent routine. Daily, your hours, responsibilities and workload could shift. You’ll not only have to be good at multi-tasking – you’ll have to thrive on it.

The 6Cs

As an aspiring Nurse or midwife, it’s worth also noting the NHS’ ‘6Cs’ – which are the values that provide a framework for all Nurses. These are care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment.

A UK Nursing degree is transferrable in the majority of countries around the world

The NHS is the fifth largest employer in the world

What Are Nursing Apprenticeships?

From September 2017, the government announced the launch of an official Nursing apprenticeship.

Like any other apprenticeship, this means that apprentices apply to employers directly, who advertise vacancies. Nursing apprentices then work part-time on a variety of placements, and are released on a part-time basis to study in a higher education institution.

Choosing this route to become a qualified Nurse will take four years, rather than three. For more information on Nursing apprenticeships, head here.

But whatever route you choose, it’s worth noting that all degrees include work placements every term.

These placements will occur in various care settings, intended to give you some real-life experience of Nursing.

The length and timing of each will vary, depending on where you study – but practical work will always form around 50% of your studies. And that is one of the reasons Nursing remains a popular degree; it’s nice to get out of the classroom sometimes!

How To Successfully Apply For A Nursing And Midwifery Course

Who better to ask than Student Nurses, since they are the ones who have, obviously, been successful at applying!

Over to them and our other experts!

How To Get Into Nursing Schools In The UK

How To Get Into Nursing At University

How To Write A Personal Statement For A Nursing Course Application

What Are The Four Branches Of Nursing That I Can Choose From?

Your first big decision to make is which field of practice in Nursing you want to pursue. Essentially, there are four fields of Nursing practice to choose from: Adult Nursing, Mental Health Nursing, Children's Nursing and Learning Disability Nursing.

While some Universities offer ‘dual field’ degrees, it makes sense to focus on one area.

Many Universities that offer Nursing courses will offer all of these options – but some will only offer one or two. So when you come to deciding what and where to study, be sure to check carefully. Our Nursing degree directory, which lists all the Universities that offer Nursing degrees, is a great place to start.

How Many Nurses Work In The UK?

748,528 = Nurses in the UK registered with the NMC

Total number of Nurses by field of practice:

601,805 = Adult Nurses

97,530 = Mental Health Nurses

58,338 = Childrens Nurses

16,806 = Learning Disability Nurses

(Numbers of nurses are those registered with the NMC, according to figures in November 2023. Note, a nurse can be registered to more than one branch.)

What Is It Like To Be A Student Nurse?

Student Nurses say that it is not like being a student of another degree course. For a start, you really do need to attend every lecture! Lectures are packed with up to 200 students in one room.

There is a lot of physiological information to learn, and a lot of practical hands-on experience to develop.

Within the University you’ll learn the practical elements in simulation labs, created to look as much like a hospital as possible. In these you’ll learn about giving injections, monitoring obs, moving patients.

And of course, you’ll go on placement. This is where you learn in an actual environment. And you’ll work in a wide variety of patient settings. You’ll be supervised on these and you’ll come away with a Practice Assessment Document which will have been completed by you and your mentor.

There’s a lot more to it of course. Our Student Nurse YouTubers have kindly posted a number of vlogs about their first-hand experiences as Student Nurses and Student Midwives.

Watch these videos here on Nurses.co.uk to find out exactly what it’s like to study Nursing from those who’ve done it!

How Do Student Nurses Fund And Pay For Their Degree Course?

Having been controversially removed in 2016, NHS bursaries were reintroduced from September 2020. However, the funding system has again been altered, and Nurses no longer get what was known as the bursary.

All student Nurses now get a £5000 a year maintenance grant, and some further funding may be available depending on your specific circumstances. Tuition fees are not covered.

Student loans are available through the Student Loans Company, and funding for things like childcare and travel expenses can be accessed through the Learning Support Fund.

It’s also very common for Nurses to register for bank healthcare assistant roles (we have Healthcare Assistant jobs on our sister site, Healthjobs.co.uk). These positions are inevitably very relevant to your studies, and the flexibility is a big asset with an already busy schedule.

Finally, don’t forget that Nursing apprenticeships do offer an alternative route into Nursing, where available – and a route that will offer some guaranteed income.

You can find out more about student funding in our dedicated blog here.

Student Nurse Survival: Video Tips To Help With Nursing Exams, Revision And Placements

Wondering about how to prepare for your Nursing exams, or in need of Nursing placement tips? Here are some really handy videos with tips and hacks for Student Nurses.

Studying Nursing? 6 Nurses Give Advice

Advice from a qualified nurse mentor to student nurses

How to get the most out of your student nurse experience

What do I need for nursing school?

How to revise effectively and manage your stress levels

Top nursing school essentials

How to study and prepare for nursing exams

Exam and assignment tips from a student nurse

Nursing placements advice

How to survive your placement

Training to be a Mental Health Nurse

Student nurse survival guide

Nursing school 'must haves'

What Are The Career Options For A Newly Qualified Nurse?

The majority of qualified Nurses take up permanent positions within the NHS related to their field of study. But that doesn’t paint a full picture of what’s on offer in your ongoing career.

Firstly, you’ll have a huge amount of choice in terms of precisely where you might want to work. You may well work in a major hospital ward, or you might operate in an outpatient unit. You might end up in a specialist department, or a GP surgery. You could even work in a clinic, in the community, an NHS walk-in centre or a Nursing home.

Secondly, there are many rungs of the Nursing ladder to climb if you wish to. Once graduated, you can soon work towards specialising, or becoming an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Matron or Nurse Consultant.

Qualified Nurses are vital within many other environments too. For example prisons, schools and the police service all regularly employ different kinds of Nurses, whose support alongside other healthcare professionals is essential. Even cruise ships need Nurses – so the sky really is the limit once you’ve qualified.

Working in the private sector

Then there’s the private sector. The NHS is often cited as the fifth largest employer on the planet, and that makes it inevitably your first port of call. But many Nurses choose the private sector for a variety of reasons.

Chief among them is the fact that private healthcare providers are so much smaller than the NHS. This often means less bureaucracy, lighter caseloads and ultimately a bit more time to provide dedicated, personalised care.

Private Nursing jobs are often also more flexible than NHS positions. The huge demands facing the NHS can mean that it’s hard to take holiday exactly when you want to, for example. And that tends not to be the case with private providers.

But it’s also worth noting that private Nursing jobs don’t necessarily offer a higher salary. In fact the starting salaries can sometimes be worse, because private providers aren’t subject to the same guidelines as public organisations. Pay inevitably varies more within less regulated private companies.

Working flexibly: bank and agency work

You’ll also become familiar with the terms ‘bank work’ and ‘agency work’ as soon as you enter the world of Nursing.

Essentially, a ‘bank’ is a rota of Nursing shifts and temporary workers that’s managed by an NHS trust (which could comprise a number of different hospitals or institutions in a specific geographic area). As a Nurse, being registered to a bank gives you freedom over which shifts you choose – which for many people is a huge benefit. It also allows you to easily trial working at different locations or within different specialisms. Bank work is therefore a great way of developing your career, working flexibly or earning some extra money.

Meanwhile, ‘agency’ work essentially means registering with a recruitment agency that then finds shifts that suit you. Typically, agency work offers a slightly higher salary than a full-time NHS position – although it doesn’t offer the same security or permanence. Once again, it’s a popular choice for those seeking flexibility.

Useful Insights For Students And Newly Qualified Nurses Who Are Looking For Their First Job

Here are move videos and blog articles for you. These will help you if you’re about to look for your first job as a Newly Qualified Nurse.

Newly Registered Nurses: 6 Nurses Give Advice

Tips & Advice For Newly Registered Nurses

Advice for newly qualified Nurses

What you should expect from preceptorship as a newly qualified nurse

How to write your CV as a third year student nurse applying for your first nursing job

How to use your nursing course and placement experience in your first nursing job interview

Sara Davies - how nursing degrees prepare students for jobs Newly qualified nursing experiences How to write a nursing personal statement for your first nurse job application

How Long Have We Been Training Nurses In The UK?

Nursing as a respected, qualification-backed profession has progressed consistently since the mid-nineteenth century.

From Florence Nightingale’s pioneering work to the move to degree-only qualification, it’s been quite a journey for the UK’s Nurses and Midwives.

This timeline spells out some of the key milestones:

1860: The Nightingale Training School opens at St Thomas’ Hospital in London – one of the first institutions to teach Nursing and midwifery as a formal profession

1887: British Nurses Association created – allowing Nurses to seek professional registration

Early 1900s: More hospitals establish their own training schools – Nurses are trained in exchange for two or three years of free Nursing care

1916: Royal College of Nursing (RCN) founded

1948: NHS established – leading to a huge surge in Nursing recruitment

1972: Degree preparation of Nurses is suggested for the first time by the Briggs Committee

1983: United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting sets up a new professional register with four branches (Mental Health, Children, Learning Disability and Adult)

1986: Project 2000 sets out the shift to diploma level training based in Universities rather than hospital-based schools

2004: RCN votes for degree-only preparation

2008: Nursing officially becomes a degree-only profession

What Does The Future Of Nursing In The UK Look Like?

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock on Mars you’ll have seen many headlines about Nursing and the NHS over the last few years that have not been entirely positive.

The NHS is currently facing a variety of significant challenges. In a nutshell, patient demand is at an unprecedented level, largely due to our growing population – and more specifically, our ageing population. When the NHS was created in 1948, life expectancy was 13 years shorter than now.

Furthermore, as a result of our ageing population, a growing number of people are living with long-term chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease or dementia that require regular, dedicated care.

In short, more Nurses are needed across the board – and the stats support this. In September 2018, record levels of Nursing vacancies and a shortage of 43,000 registered Nurses were reported. But shortly afterwards, it was also reported that the number of new Nursing students starting courses had fallen by more than 500 compared to a year earlier.

For anyone considering a career in Nursing in the UK, these headlines might seem alarming – but in many ways, it’s all good news. For a newly qualified Nurse, opportunities are more abundant than ever. You’ll have a huge variety of options about where and how you work, and you’ll have unrivalled job security. And while there will also be pressures, there will be rewards too.

It’s widely agreed that Nursing salaries and benefits could increase in the coming years in light of how desperate the UK is for qualified Nurses. In the current climate, Nurses hold a great deal of power. So this could be the perfect time to take the leap and study Nursing.