Adult Nurse

Adult nurses work in a wide range of hospital and community settings. They care for and support adult patients with different types of health conditions, both acute and chronic. Their day-to-day tasks vary enormously depending on the job but could include:

• taking a patient's medical history and using this information to devise a care plan
• observing patients' progress and recording any changes
• doing tests such as temperature, blood pressure and respiration rates
• treating patients, for example by giving medication, or cleaning and dressing wounds
• reassuring, supporting and advising patients and their families
• liaising with other care professionals to make sure that patients have all the help they need
• supervising healthcare assistants, assistant/associate practitioners and junior nurses.

Full-time nurses in the National Health Service (NHS) work 37.5 hours a week. This may include early mornings, evenings, nights, weekends and bank holidays. Part-time work and flexible hours are often available. In hospitals, adult nurses may work on wards, in operating theatres, outpatient clinics or accident and emergency units. In the community they could work in GP surgeries, care homes or patients' own homes.

Salaries in the NHS range from £20,710 a year for a newly-qualified nurse up to £65,657 for a nurse consultant.

An adult nurse should:

• have excellent people skills and relate well to people from different backgrounds and cultures
• have practical skills
• remain calm in difficult situations
• have empathy with patients and their families and be able to gain their trust
• have the confidence to make decisions and work independently
• be good at teamwork
• be able to prioritise a busy workload.

The NHS is the main employer of adult nurses. There are also opportunities in private medicine, care homes, the armed forces, the prison service and with voluntary organisations.

Adult nurses must hold a degree or diploma recognised by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), qualifying them in the adult branch of nursing. For more general information about becoming a nurse, see Nurse. They must register with the NMC before they are allowed to practise.

Adult nurses may take further training to allow them to specialise in fields such as cancer care or women's health, or to become district nurses, school nurses, practice nurses in GP surgeries, health visitors, midwives or occupational health nurses.

Adult nurses may apply for leadership roles with wider responsibilities, such as sister, charge nurse, modern matron or nurse consultant. There are also opportunities to move into specialist nurse roles, nurse education, research and general NHS management.

May 2009

Further details