Children's nurse

A children's nurse works with children of all ages who are suffering from many different illnesses and conditions, supporting the family as well as the child

As a children's nurse (or paediatric nurse) you'll play a key role in assessing the nursing needs of the child, taking into account their medical, social, cultural and family circumstances.

Being able to communicate appropriately is vital for this role and you'll need to show empathy and sensitivity when speaking with the children and their parents or carers. If you're working with young children, you'll also need to interpret their behaviour and reactions to assess them fully, as they won't be able to explain how they're feeling.

You can deliver care in a variety of settings, such as hospitals, homes and in the community and will be part of a team made up of doctors, healthcare assistants, play staff, psychologists and social workers.

Responsibilities

As a children's nurse, you'll need to:

• assess, observe and report on the condition of patients
• prepare patients for operations and procedures
• record pulse, temperature and respiration and keep accurate records of these observations
• set up drips and blood transfusions
• maintain and check intravenous infusions
• administer drugs and injections
• assist with tests and evaluations
• respond quickly to emergencies
• explain treatment and procedures to enable parents/carers to consent to treatment
• support, advise and educate patients and close relatives
• observe strict hygiene and safety rules and ensure that visitors also observe any rules on the ward or unit
• write reports and update records before completing a shift.

In more senior roles, you may need to:

• teach skills to student nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals
• organise staff and workload to ensure shift cover, possibly across more than one ward.

Salary

• The NHS Agenda for Change pay structure has clearly defined pay bands for nurses. Salaries for newly qualified nurses start at £28,407 (Band 5).
• As you progress, your salary will vary depending on the skills you acquire and the responsibilities of your job. The majority of experienced nurses work in Band 6 or 7, with salaries ranging from £35,392 to £50,056.
• Additional qualifications and experience may enhance salary and promotion prospects. Extra payments may be available for staff working unsocial hours or in high cost areas. One of the highest-paid positions in nursing is as a nurse consultant where salaries start on Band 8a, which ranges from £50,952 to £57,349.

Private nursing offers a range of salaries, and employment can be found in settings such as private hospitals, nursing homes and in patients' own homes.

Income figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

Your standard working hours in the NHS will be 37.5 hours a week. There is usually the possibility to work some overtime. Shift work is common in hospitals and working patterns typically include unsocial hours, but there may be scope for working more regular hours depending on your role.

Part-time, term-time and job-share arrangements have become more common, and career breaks can often be taken. Freelance and agency nursing is a possibility.

What to expect

• Most work takes place in a hospital (on specialist wards or in units) or in home or community settings. Tasks may involve escorting children between hospital departments or to other hospitals, for example when conducting retrieval or transfer work.
• Opportunities exist in all major towns and cities but may be more limited in very rural areas. Some hospitals have specialist units or centres of clinical excellence, where jobs may be specific to the specialist care provided.
• Nursing can be physically and emotionally demanding and requires the ability to manage stress and help others to manage their own feelings.
• A uniform and any necessary protective clothing are provided.
• You'll usually be required to work shift patterns. This can be tiring and sometimes difficult to work around home life - especially when you're working nights. Often though, this means you work longer but fewer shifts per week, so have more days off in between.

Qualifications

To work as a nurse in the UK, you must be registered with the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC). You need to have completed an accepted pre-registration nursing programme in order to register, and these are only run at NMC approved educational institutions (AEIs).

Pre-registration degrees are offered in four branches:

• adult
• children (paediatric)
• learning disability
• mental health.

Half of the programme is based in clinical practice, giving you direct experience of working with patients and families. You could be based within a variety of settings including hospitals, the community, patients' homes and independent organisations. Details of all approved programmes can be found at NMC Approved Programmes.

You may be able to get accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) if you have a degree in another health-related subject or other practice-based learning. Relevant subjects include life and medical sciences, social work and psychology. This may shorten courses to two to three years but you should check with the individual institution.

All pre-registration nursing students can receive funding support of £5,000 per year. A parental support payment of £2,000 per year to help with childcare costs is also available. You don't have to pay it back and are still able to access funding for tuition and maintenance loans from the Student Loans Company. For more information, see Health Careers.

Nursing degree apprenticeships have recently been developed and these offer a more flexible route to becoming a nurse. You'll work for an NHS employer as a nursing degree apprentice and will be released for part-time study at a university. Training will also take place in a range of practice settings. See the NHS nursing degree apprenticeship factsheet for more information.

Degree apprenticeships typically take four years to complete and the cost will be covered by your employer. You may be able to do it in a shorter length of time if you have APEL.

Skills

You will need to show:

• respect, empathy and sensitivity when dealing with patients and their families
• communication skills, for listening to patients and explaining treatment plans
• the ability to work independently, particularly when based in the community
• observational skills
• flexibility to deal with a range of patients at one time
• teamworking skills, especially for hospital-based work
• the ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• organisational skills, to manage your time and workload effectively
• emotional resilience and stamina to deal with patients under difficult circumstances.

Work experience

Although not essential, pre-entry experience is valuable as it provides you with an insight into the profession and shows universities and NHS Trusts that you understand what the career involves.

Voluntary work for your local NHS Trust or St John Ambulance is useful, as is experience working as a healthcare assistant. Experience in care work or other work with children is also useful.

For free mentoring resources and experiences designed to support aspiring healthcare and legal professionals - including virtual work experience that is accepted by medical schools, see Medic Mentor.

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Employers

Many children's nurses work in NHS hospitals. Other settings where you could find work include:

• general practices (GPs), as specialists in child health
• day care centres, child health clinics and school health education units
• travel companies/holiday resorts
• nursing agencies
• private healthcare organisations
• patients' homes
• charities and voluntary organisations.

As in other branches of nursing, some of the care is delivered in the community. Depending on the illness, some sick children are cared for at home by their families with the support of a community nursing team. It's possible to be based totally in the community with a specialism such as cystic fibrosis, diabetes or asthma.

Look for job vacancies at:

• GOV.UK: Find an apprenticeship - for nursing degree apprenticeships
• Jobs.hscni.net - for jobs in Northern Ireland
• NHS Jobs - also includes adverts for nursing degree apprenticeships
• NHS Scotland Recruitment
• Nursing Times
• RCN Bulletin Jobs

You could also check the websites of medical charities and private healthcare companies. There are many specialist nursing agencies, such as Pulse, that recruit for both permanent and temporary positions. For a searchable directory of agencies, see the Nursing Agencies List.

Professional development

You must be registered with the NMC in order to practice as a nurse in the UK. This registration has to be renewed every three years and to do this you need to show you've met revalidation requirements within that time. The requirements include:

• 450 practice hours, which can be made up of providing direct care to patients, managing teams, teaching others or running a care service
• 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD), including 20 hours of participatory learning
• five pieces of practice-related feedback
• five written reflective accounts
• reflective discussion with another NMC registrant
• health and character declaration
• professional indemnity arrangement.

CPD participatory learning must involve interaction with at least one other professional (in either a physical or virtual environment) and can include attending conferences, workshops or relevant training courses and events. Find out more at NMC Revalidation.

It's possible for you to take courses of differing lengths in a number of specialist areas. Some in-service training programmes last for up to a year. For more details, see Royal College of Nursing - Professional Development.

Career prospects

Career development is structured and with experience you could progress through roles such as senior staff nurse (or charge nurse), ward sister and senior ward manager. Management of a ward may lead on to managing a clinical unit and, in the future, to executive posts within a trust. As you become more senior, you can expect to have less hands-on nursing responsibility.

There are opportunities to specialise in a range of hospital and community areas, which can include:

• neonatal intensive care
• paediatric oncology
• burns and plastics
• child protection
• ambulatory care
• asthma
• orthopaedics
• diabetes
• counselling
• continuing care for children with special needs
• work within young people's units.

You could also work towards becoming a nurse consultant where you'd spend at least half of your time working directly with patients. The remaining time would be spent on developing personal practice, being involved in research and contributing to the education, training and development of other nurses.

As with other branches of nursing, there are opportunities to progress your career in teaching, research or in a community-based role, for instance as a school nurse or health visitor.

Outside the NHS, you could work in private healthcare, social services, voluntary organisations, charities or in health services overseas. Nursing qualifications are usually transferable abroad - more information can be found about this at Nursing & Midwifery Council: Working Outside the UK.