- 17 December 2018
- 6 min read
Why switching your nursing career from the NHS to a nursing home is worth considering
SubscribeNursing home nursing is probably one of the most undervalued career paths in the nursing profession. NHS nurses are often unaware that nursing home work can yield job satisfaction and a good quality of life.

Care homes are the umbrella term for all residential communal living arrangements.
They can encompass everything from supported living where adults with learning difficulties live independently in the community with the assistance of support workers, through to nursing homes for adults with severe dementia or frailty due to medical conditions which have caused their health to deteriorate to the extent that they need advanced nursing care to keep them safe and well.
Nurses tend to only be employed in nursing home settings as clients admitted into nursing home environments tend to need complex nursing interventions that cannot be provided by care staff who are not trained and regulated in the way that nurses are.
Nursing in a care home is about looking after people who are well and who you will get to know
The essence of care home nursing is holistic care for the individual. Unlike working in the hospital setting, the majority of the time, your patients are well (most of the time) and you are working in their home.
You will get to know them as individuals and their families in a more in-depth way that you don’t have the opportunity to in an acute setting.
Ultimately, it can be a very rewarding role as you have the time to care for the person and not only their medical problems.
Acute nursing may have the appeal of the thrill and intensity, but I can assure you, as an ex nursing home nurse and ex A&E nurse, the one thing nursing home nursing isn’t, is dull.

You'll develop and use an array of nursing skills - soft and hard
In a dementia unit you will use skilled communication techniques to de-escalate aggressive patients, manage the environment, manage a team of staff, administer medications using skilled communication, provide complex end of life care, write complex care plans, liaise with GP’s, therapists, hospitals, families and other community teams.
You may be the only nurse on the floor during your shift which will mean you oversee the care of anything from 10 patients to 30 with the support of care staff.
You will delegate work to each member of the team and be accountable for whatever happens on the shift whilst you are on duty.
You are unlikely to ever be bored!
About this contributor
Adult Nurse
Since qualifying in Adult Nursing in 2002 I’ve worked as a specialist nurse with the NHS, and in the private sector as a general nurse and sessional nurse for a hospital at home team (I’ve been about a bit!).
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