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You could work in the NHS or a private hospital or even a children's care home. This job is very physically and emotionally demanding

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A major challenge a child nurse's face is that when it's very busy and they are short of staff. Or to tell a child's parent that they child has past away.

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As a child nurse a standard working week would be just around 37.5 hours, this would be on a shift pattern it can even include night shifts. It would even be possible to be working on holidays like Christmas, Bank holidays and many other holidays.

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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 £24,214 (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 £30,401 to £43,772.

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 £44,606 to £50,819.

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.

Want to become a learning disability nurse?

MSc Nursing (Learning Disabilities)

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.

From September 2020, all pre-registration nursing students can receive funding support of at least £5,000 per year. There is up to £3,000 further funding available for eligible students. 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 of care work or other work with children is also useful.

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:

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.

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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.

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A child nurse has to wear a uniform, is to dress professionally to be safe by wearing gloves, possibly a facemask to prevent from harming themselves or even the child. Shoes is also a very important part of the uniform for safety from anything heavy to fall prevent to much pain

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As a child nurse i would have the duty of giving a child medication, injection. Even monitoring their pule or to take their blood.

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The work can be physically and emotionally demanding, so resilience and stamina are essential requirements.

What does a children's nurse do? Typical employers | Qualifications and training | Key skills

Children's nurses work as part of a multidisciplinary team of professional and medical staff that includes doctors, health visitors, healthcare assistants, hospital play staff, social workers and psychologists. They are sometimes known as paediatric nurses. Typical responsibilities include:

assessing and planning nursing care requirements

providing care before and after operations

monitoring and administering medication, injections and intravenous infusions

treating wounds

taking samples from patients and monitoring their pulse, temperature and blood pressure

checking on the condition of patients

dealing with emergencies

supervising junior staff

organising workloads

tutoring student nurses

obtaining parental consent for treatment

writing records

providing information, emotional support and reassurance to patients and relatives

24-hour shift work is usually a standard requirement of the job. Children's care is increasingly being provided outside of hospitals and in the community, for example, in child health clinics and in children's own homes, so a career as a children's nurse could involve working in a range of different settings.

Typical employers

Children's nurses are employed by hospitals, NHS trusts, nursing agencies, health centres, charities/voluntary organisations, schools, private health care organisations, GP practices and residential homes.

Vacancies are advertised by recruitment agencies, via the internet, in newspapers, NHS trusts' jobs lists, on the NHS jobs website and in publications such as Nursing Times, Nursing Standard and Nursing Children and Young People.

Qualifications and training required

The main route into qualifying as a nurse is to take a nursing degree in one of the four nursing specialisms: adult nursing, children's nursing, learning disability nursing or mental health nursing. Some degree courses cover two of these fields, and are known as 'dual field' degrees. Most nursing degree courses are three years long, with the exception of dual field degrees and nursing degrees in Scotland. Nursing degree courses provide a mix of formal teaching and practical experience.

You apply for full-time undergraduate nursing degrees through UCAS. Application criteria vary but you are likely to need at least 2 (more often 3) A levels or equivalent qualifications, plus a minimum of 5 GCSEs at grade C (equivalent to grade 4) including English, maths and a science (usually biology).

Graduates in a relevant subject such as life, health, biological or social sciences can qualify via a shortened two-year postgraduate course. The recognition process for your first degree is known as APEL (accreditation of prior experiential learning). You can find out more about accelerated nursing courses for graduates from UCAS and the NHS health careers website. You will need to check directly with institutions to find out if your degree course is acceptable for entry.

Nursing degree apprenticeships are now offered by a small number of NHS organisations. They are similar to nursing degrees in that they involve a mix of academic study and placements, but they are employer-led rather than being led by universities. Nursing degree apprentices are released by their employers to undertake academic study at degree level on a part-time basis, and also train through a series of practice placements. Level 3 qualifications (that is, A level or equivalent) are usually required, as the apprenticeship is at degree level. You can look for nursing degree apprenticeships on the NHS jobs website or the government's apprenticeship search. Applicants who have completed a nursing associate apprenticeship will be able to finish a nursing degree apprenticeship in a shorter period of time than other candidates, as the nursing associate apprenticeship will count towards it.

The nursing associate apprenticeship is a two-year training programme that is being trialled from 2018. Nursing associates undertake academic learning one day a week and work-based learning in a variety of settings the rest of the week. You need to have GSCEs in maths and English at grade 9 to 4 (A to C) or equivalent to apply. More information about nursing associate apprenticeships is available from the NHS health careers website.

All nurses working in the UK must be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). When students complete their nursing degrees, their universities pass on their details to the NMC, which then gets in touch to let them know how to create an online account and apply for registration. There is a fee of £120 for this. Nurses are required to renew their registration and pay the registration fee each year, and must revalidate their registration every three years. In order to revalidate registration, nurses must have completed a minimum of 35 hours continuing professional development (CPD) and 450 hours registered practice over three years.

Nurse First, a pilot two-year fast-track programme for graduates who want to enter nursing, has recently been launched by NHS England, and combines hands-on experience and training with an educational course. The scheme's initial focus is training mental health and learning disability nurses.

Key skills for children's nurses

Children do not necessarily have a well-developed ability to express how they are feeling, so it is essential for children's nurses to have particularly acute powers of observation and to be highly responsive to any signs that a child's health has taken a turn for the worse. Children's nurses also need excellent, sensitive communication skills to enable them to care for children in situations that may be stressful and distressing, to support children and their families and carers and provide information and advice. They must be able to assess patients and use sound judgement to decide on the best course of action.

All candidates must be of good health and fitness, with excellent teamwork and verbal and written communication skills. The work can be physically and emotionally demanding, so resilience and stamina are essential requirements. Previous relevant experience is not essential, but any gained caring for or working with people (particularly children) can be helpful. Children's nurses also need to be organised, flexible and able to prioritise effectively.

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The work can be physically and emotionally demanding, so resilience and stamina are essential requirements. What does a children's nurse do? Typical employers | Qualifications and training | Key skills Children's nurses work as part of a multidisciplinary team of professional and medical staff that includes doctors, health visitors, healthcare assistants, hospital play staff, social workers and psychologists.