Your questions about a career in nursing answered

What is registered nursing?

A Registered Nurse (RN) is a licensed medical professional who provides expert care in different medical and community settings. They work with several healthcare professionals to ensure that people receive the best care. 

How do I become a Registered Nurse?

To become a Registered Nurse, you need a degree in nursing and to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Full-time nursing degree courses last for three to four years, depending on the nursing course and if you do a foundation degree. Part-time courses can take longer. 

Where you choose to do your degree is up to you, but most courses require 3 A-Levels or equivalent to be granted entry onto the nursing course.

Many universities do offer a foundation year if you don’t have the required entry qualifications. During your nursing course, you’ll complete practical work in a healthcare setting, where you’ll gain experience and knowledge.

What are the chances of becoming a Registered Nurse?

Nursing is one of the UK’s most employable degrees, with 94% of students getting a job within six months of finishing their course.

So, once you’ve completed your course, you’re likely to be able to find a job suited to you.

What are the nursing opportunities in the UK?

Once you have a nursing degree and are a qualified Nurse, there is a range of different jobs to choose from.

Some jobs directly related to your nursing degree include:

• Adult Nurse
• Children’s Nurse
• Healthcare Specialist/Nurse
• Health Visitor
• Learning Disability Nurse
• Mental Health Nurse
• Midwife
• Paramedic
• Physician Associate.

What are the benefits of being a Registered Nurse?

There’s no denying that a career in nursing involved hard work, but if you talk to anyone working as a Nurse, we are sure that they’ll tell you how rewarding it is. 

There are many other benefits that make a career in nursing the perfect choice.

• There are always jobs in nursing

According to a recent study by the Guardian, nursing has one of the highest rates of employment of all degrees with a high demand for student nurses. With such high demand, there has never been a better time to start training.

Exemplar Health Care has an ambitious growth plan over the next five years, opening up to five new care homes per year. This means that there are lots of nursing opportunities available across the country. 

• Job flexibility

If you stay registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, then you can work pretty much anywhere in the UK.

Exemplar Health Care has 35 care homes across England, so wherever life takes you, you can keep your job with us.

Not only can you choose where to work, but often you can be flexible with your hours which means you can work around other commitments.

As a Nurse with us, we offer a range of full-time and part-time roles, with the choice of different shift patterns, to fit in with your lifestyle.

• Opportunities for progression

Unlike other careers, you will always be undergoing training and learning, with many opportunities for career progression. Once you have your degree, you can further your training to specialise in one main area.

At Exemplar Health Care, we offer a range of roles for Nurses at all stages of their career, including Registered Nurse, Unit Manager, Clinical Nurse Manager, Home Manager, Quality Manager and Clinical Assessment roles.

We also offer lots of learning opportunities for Nurses including specialist clinical training, leadership and management programmes, and free access to RCNi Learning platform.

• Make a difference

As a healthcare professional, you will help make a real difference in people’s lives - whether you are helping treat physical pain or providing emotional support, you can leave work every day knowing that you helped people and made a real difference.

Laina is a Nurse at our Pathways care home in Sutton-in-Ashfield. Working with people over a longer period of time is what she loves about working as a Nurse in social care.

She shares: “The reason I decided to move into the private health care sector was because they provide long-term care which enables you to really get to know your service users.

“I enjoy building that trust and relationship with our service users and their families. It gives me job satisfaction being a part of a team that supports people to meet their desired goals.”

• Job security

If the last year has taught us one thing; it's how important and valuable healthcare professionals are. People are always going to need healthcare, so for as long as they do, you can be guaranteed that there’ll be jobs for you to do.

Am I too old to become a Nurse?

There is no such thing as being too old to become a Nurse.

Many people choose to become a Nurse later in their lives once they have fewer commitments and more time to dedicate to their studies.

Nursing can be a very physically and mentally demanding job but that doesn’t mean there’s an age limit on when you have to start or stop your career in nursing. 

Working as a Nurse with Exemplar Health Care

At Exemplar Health Care, we offer lots of different nursing career opportunities so that you can use your skills to make a difference in the lives of adults living with complex needs.

As a thank you, we offer great rewards and benefits, lots of learning and development opportunities, and health and wellbeing support, so whilst you’re busy caring for our residents, you can relax knowing that we’re caring for you. 

Download our recruitment brochure to read more about working with us, or email us for a paper copy.