As an adult nurse you will plan and deliver an appropriate level of care for patients with a wide range of needs.
You will learn the most effective ways of observing patients to identify those needs, administer treatments and assess the results.
Your nursing career will mean working with adults of all ages. They may suffer from one or more long or short-term physical health conditions. This could include heart disease, injuries from an accident, pneumonia, arthritis, diabetes or cancer.
We will prepare you for working life as an adult nurse at City, University of London. Studying nursing here gives you outstanding employment opportunities and sets you on track for your first job.
Clinical placements at London's leading healthcare trusts will shape your experience and future ambitions. You will work in settings including hospital wards, specialist units, rapid response teams, emergency departments and GP practices.
What can I expect from a career as an adult nurse?
You will care for people suffering various conditions, from minor injuries to acute long-term illnesses.
Your work will involve care plans, care procedures and assessments and concentrating on what your patients need.
As a nurse you will work in a team of people with mixed expertise, but you are likely to be the primary contact for patients and their families.
You will need to:
- Create plans for patient care
- Monitor the condition of patients
- Gain the trust of every patient
- Administer drugs and injections
- Conduct routine investigations
- Rapidly respond to emergency situations
- Plan hospital discharges
- Work with doctors and social workers
- Speak up for patients
- Clearly explain health conditions
- Make quick ethical decisions about consent, privacy and confidentiality.
Our range of placements will help you develop the skills required for the different environments where adult nurses work. These skills include listening and communication, judgement, counselling, teaching and advising.
Interpersonal skills are vital because you will need to reassure or advise patients and their relatives or carers, occasionally in highly stressful situations.
Related courses at City
Whatever your level of interest in becoming an adult nurse, City's courses can help you take one step closer to a career as an adult nurse, develop specialisms that'll set you apart from the field or broaden your horizons with study in related subjects.
Who can I work for as an adult nurse?
You can find work as an adult nurse in a number of places. These include National Health Service (NHS) hospitals, general practitioners (GPs), in local communities (attached to a health centre), residential homes and hospices, in specialist schools or even in patients' own homes.
Alternative work environments are also open to you when you have enough experience. These might not always involve practical clinical work. You might consider:
- air ambulance services
- community and school health education units
- emergency helplines
- leisure cruise ships
- nursing agencies
- occupational health
- overseas aid and development
- prisons
- private healthcare organisations
- the armed forces
- voluntary organisations.
Our nursing courses are approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). You can apply for registration with the NMC after graduating, giving an internationally recognised professional qualification enabling you to work across the world.
What about adult nursing work experience?
Work experience in care or another form of work with people in the community will always be positive and helpful in forming your career ambitions.
Placements within the course offer practical experience and the chance to develop skills. But proactively finding additional opportunities to hone skills, gain knowledge and demonstrate your commitment will also be valuable.
Visiting hospitals and speaking with nurses or attending relevant events can be a good way of gaining information and shaping your ideas.
What are my nursing prospects?
Skills shortages in London and across the UK mean you are likely to be in high demand as a qualified adult nurse and have strong prospects.
When you start as an adult nurse there is a transition phase to help develop your practice. You cover basic competencies in patient care and skills in leadership, management, teaching and communication.
You may then start to progress through different roles such as senior staff nurse, junior sister, ward sister, nurse practitioner and nurse consultant.
There could be less hands-on nursing responsibility as your career develops. Some career paths involve more management or more clinical specialism.
Popular specialisms include:
- accident and emergency
- cancer
- district
- intensive care
- occupational health
- practice
- sexual health.
Adult nurses are responsible for assisting doctors and other medical specialists in the diagnosis, observation, testing and treatment of patients.