Top Five Reasons to Study Nursing

Hi. I’m Meg and I am a first-year student studying the BN Adult Nursing degree at the University of Chester. Here are my top five reasons why I think you should study nursing as someone who has chosen it themselves.

1. The chance to help others

Nursing is one of the few careers that offers the chance to help others in a highly personal and rewarding way. By studying nursing, you will have the opportunity to help people through some of the toughest parts of life, whether they are sick and require hospital care or need support in their daily lives. Every day will be different, offering new learning opportunities along the way.

2. Learning new skills

As part of studying for a nursing degree, you will learn many valuable skills, from learning how to communicate with patients and colleagues to clinical skills like venepuncture, catheterisation, and cardiac assessment including electrocardiogram (ECG). This will help you develop a varied skillset, which will be invaluable to your career, allowing you to widen your opportunities. At the University of Chester, there are amazing simulation suites, which allow us students to practice in an environment where we can make mistakes and learn safely – it is all part of the learning process! In the simulation suites, we have mannequins that can simulate real-life scenarios, and all sorts of different equipment that allow us to develop and build on our practical skills.

3. Career opportunities

This leads me to my next reason to study nursing, the career opportunities. There is a misconception that training to become a nurse leads to working in a hospital ward for the rest of your life. However, this is not the case. There are many different career prospects once you have completed a nursing degree; you could become a cruise ship nurse, a community nurse, a specialist nurse in a particular field of health, or even work in GP surgeries and lead your own clinics.

4. Placements

Nursing offers various opportunities to visit different wards and establishments as part of your clinical placements. These placements give you the chance to get a feel for different types of nursing and give you a taster of what the future holds. Some examples of placements include theatres, A&E, hospital wards, community nursing, and field-specific possibilities. The University of Chester also offers a unique creative health placement, offering students the opportunity to look at some of the more holistic approaches to healthcare, such as art therapy, dance therapy and singing therapy.

5. Being part of the future of the NHS

As nursing students, we are the future of healthcare in the UK. Alongside our colleagues in healthcare, we will be looking after future generations when they need to use the National Health Service. It gives you a sense of pride knowing you will be a part of an incredible service that has now been running for 76 years. Nurses are evermore needed to be recruited into the health service, and they play an instrumental part in advocating for better patient care. Be part of the changing services the NHS can offer!