How To Transition Into Nursing From Another Care Role

Laura gives us an insight into her journey into Nursing from her current role as a Healthcare Support Worker, explaining the different routes you can take as well as the support available.

Topics covered in this article

Introduction

The Three Year Degree Course

Flexible Learning Course

Becoming A Nurse Without GCSEs Or A-Levels

Updating Your Qualifications

Nursing Bursary

Some Resources That I Found Useful

If You Can, Talk To An Education Facilitator

Speak To Your Manager

Introduction

Hi everyone, my name's Laura.

Today I'm gonna be discussing how you can become a registered Nurse from being a Healthcare Support Worker.

So I'm gonna talk about different ways that you can look at going into your Nurse training.

And I'm also gonna be talking about some of the entry requirements.

So things the university would like you to have before applying.

If this is something you're interested in, or if you're a Healthcare Support Worker now and you're thinking, I wanna make that change, I wanna progress and become a Nurse then please continue to watch.

I hope you find this information really useful and it helps you make the decision of whether or not to go for your training.

I'm currently a Healthcare Support Worker in the NHS, and I'm also a Student Nurse.

So there's a few different routes into Nursing.

The Three Year Degree Course

The first route is the three-year degree course where you go to university full time.

And then after the three years, you're a registered Nurse.

There's a post-graduate course, which is two years.

So if you've previously studied and done a degree and it's along the same sort of subject, so say you've got a degree in health care and social work or health and social care, you could apply for the postgraduate course and that would be two years then.

And you'd be a registered Nurse at the end of that.

You can find out more about the top UK universites for Nursing, here.

Flexible Learning Course

The other, which is what I'm doing is a Nursing degree.

A flexible route course is part-time, is four years.

And I work part-time as a Healthcare Support Worker and I'm a Student Nurse part time.

So basically, I'm supported by my employment, my employer to carry out the Student Nurse training.

And basically they support me through the course.

Looking at entry requirements, whether you're doing part time or full time, they need you to have the same qualifications.

They like you to have five GCSEs, a lot of the universities, including English, maths, preferably science, so biology would be useful.

And then they like you to have three A levels.

Becoming A Nurse Without GCSEs Or A-Levels

Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to do GCSEs and A levels, but I did an access course.

I did access to social care and that access course then gave me the opportunity to get my GCSEs, get my science element.

And that basically covered everything I needed to get onto the course.

A lot of universities recommend the access course because it's quite an intense course, but it really gears you up to work at a level four standard.

A lot of universities do like it if you have studied the access course.

So that's another route you can go down.

I know a lot of local colleges offer the access courses.

They also like you to complete a CRB check, which is the criminal record check because you're gonna be working with a range of different people.

You're going to be out on placement.

So that is a requirement for them.

They like you to complete a health questionnaire.

They just like to know you're fit and healthy because you're gonna be working in different departments, hospital based placements.

And they wanna know that you're gonna be fit enough to carry out the placements.

For further information on becoming a Nurse with little or no experience, GP Nurse, Claire Carmichael, gives her insights here.

Updating Your Qualifications

Some of the things which are relevant and useful is I did my access course a while ago, I did it back in 2012, so it was a long time ago.

So what I recently did was I took a GCSE, because of the pandemic, I had Zoom calls online, like lessons.

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I did eight lessons, and then I was able to go to a local adult learning centre and complete the GCSE that way.

The university do like you to have recent qualifications.

So if you have done an access course, and it's a while ago, look at perhaps doing a recent GCSE level in maths, because that'll just help you with your application then.

Nursing Bursary

When you study as an to become a Nurse in Wales, we are lucky enough to get the NHS bursary, now with the bursary you're entitled to get it, as long as you agree to work for the NHS for two years after in Wales.

That is quite useful 'cause I know it is expensive to manage studying.

And obviously if you can't work alongside the full-time course, this is a help for students.

With the flexible route with myself, you do still get paid by your employer, so you don't get the bursary, but then you're continuing to get your wage.

So that's really useful as well.

For more information on the NHS Bursary, click here.

Some Resources That I Found Useful

So some of the websites I'd recommend, I made a note of them, so the Royal College of Nursing website is really useful.

It gives you some information on there on how you can become a Nurse.

I know there is a Nursing Associate role, which has recently come out in England.

That's a role in between a Healthcare Support Worker and a Registered Nurse.

That might be worth taking a look at, and also Nurses.co.uk, they're really useful in giving information on progressing to become a Nurse.

So have a scroll through the other videos and advice blogs on there, that's really useful.

If You Can, Talk To An Education Facilitator

And also, if you're a Healthcare Support Worker now, I spoke to education facilitator within the hospital, now they're full of knowledge.

They're so useful.

So if you can just ring up them and have a chat or go in and meet them, and they'll just talk you through some other information and they'll basically give you some advice on how you can make that transition to becoming a Nurse.

I found them really helpful.

And in regards to applying for the course, even though I was doing the part-time route through work, I still had to do the full university application.

So they're really useful for things like advice on your personal statement, interview techniques for when you have an interview for university, so that is a good link to have.

I would definitely recommend getting in touch with them.

Speak To Your Manager

And also if you're a Healthcare Support Worker, just speaking to your manager.

I know I had a personal development review and I had a chat with my manager and expressed that I wanted to progress and become a Nurse, and she was really supportive.

And I think they like to be able to help people progress and learn more and further their careers.

I would really try and speak to the team you work with, speak to your manager, and hopefully that will help you in making the decision on whether or not it's for you.

I hope you've found this useful.

If you've got any questions, please comment below and I'll try my best to answer them for you.

And if you do go on to do your training, then I wish you the best of luck and take care, bye.