Job Descriptions: Nurse

Nurses play a key role in part of the care and treatment of patients in a range of medical areas.

Nurses play a key role in a larger team assisting with the treatment and care different patients receive. Working as a Nurse means attending to a variety of duties from administering medication, undertaking tests and taking samples to preparing patients for surgery or treatment and attending to issues surrounding recovery. Nurses come in a variety of fields across the health sector, not limited to Surgical Nurses, Paediatric nurses, Ward Nurses, Oncology Nurses and so on.

Nurses play a key role in a larger team assisting with the treatment and care different patients receive. Working as a Nurse means attending to a variety of duties from administering medication, undertaking tests and taking samples to preparing patients for surgery or treatment and attending to issues surrounding recovery. Nurses come in a variety of fields across the health sector, not limited to Surgical Nurses, Paediatric nurses, Ward Nurses, Oncology Nurses and so on.

Nursing as a graduate career can be extremely rewarding but also extremely tough and hard work. The field is forever understaffed, but graduates with the required education and training can forge excellent careers in the field and climb up into important positions of management or responsibility. While as for their location of employment, the majority of Nurses work in hospitals, wards and operating theatres, but can also be found in doctor's surgeries and in the community delivering care in people's homes.

The role is demanding and hard work. To be successful, Nurses need to have limitless levels of energy and enthusiasm. Alongside this a medical understanding is also essential and graduates need to have superb interpersonal and communication skills to allow them to interact confidently and effectively with patients during what can be difficult times.

Teacher Salaries

The average starting salary for a graduate Nurse is £22,655. This is a fantastic starting salary for graduate Nurses, however there will be variations depending on what area the Nurse is working in and pay differences between Nurses in surgery to Dental Nurses for example.

One thing that can be acknowledged is that while the pay that graduate Nurses receive may vary depending on the area of nursing, they usually always have the opportunity to increase this by working towards their own development and working up the ranks.

The Daily Duties of a Nurse

As mentioned before, Nurses work in a range of places and a range of fields, so summarising the easy daily duties of a Nurse can be quite difficult. However there a range of typical duties that Nurses are entrusted to perform. Some as Nurses develop their training and specialisms this will see their duties vary further down the line with many taking on a more supervisory and managerial position in their place of work.

Despite all of this, these are some the main duties of a graduate Nurse:

• Administering treatment - One of the key duties of graduate Nurses might be administering treatment and medication. This is a broad duty and can depend on the area of Nursing the graduate is working in. This could be attending to wounds, providing medicine is being taken or setting up drips and inserting cannulas.
• Monitoring patients - Nurses are responsible for being the eyes and ears for treatment and close monitoring of patients is highly vital duty that is undertaken. Graduate Nurses will be expected to make sure patients are responding to treatments and improving under their care. They are also expected to make sure they can feed back to Doctors and other teams responsible for the patient.
• Patient Care - Along with doctors and other medical staff, graduate Nurses need to adhere to first rate patient care. This includes being able to be sympathetic, helpful, compassionate and able to put the patient at ease during treatment.
• Preparing patients - Nurses are often looked upon to prepare patients for surgery. Working in conjunction with the surgeon, anaesthetist and other surgical staff, Nurses can be expected to help ensure the patient is clean and areas for surgery are marked out, also assisting with broader conditions for surgery, such as the patient being "nil-by-mouth".
• Taking samples - A very important of duty of Nurses can be to gather samples from patients. Whether this means taking a patient's blood, cell samples or other types such as urine, Nurses are trusted to ensure these samples are taken responsibly and safely so that tests can be run to help with diagnosis.
• Working with other members of staff - Nurses work as part of a larger team when administering their treatment and care. Nurses must be able to work effectively and productively with a range of people in hospitals and medical centres. This can range from Doctors and Consultants, to managers and porters. Nurses need fantastic communication and interpersonal skills so treatment can be administered effectively.
• Writing and updating records - As part of the vital communication and ability to work with others in medical treatment, Nurses also need to be fastidious with paper work and updating a patient's record. This is vital and if not seen to properly can be potentially highly dangerous for those undergoing treatment.

Graduate careers as a Nurse can be truly rewarding careers. Graduates who undertake these careers are often rewarded with great satisfaction and also a challenging career path. Nurses are a vital part to healthcare and treatment and in such a broad field there are a lot of avenues to explore.