Nursing : Your skills

A professional qualification is essential for jobs within nursing. Employers also look at your wider personal skills and abilities; the way you engage with people and a strong sense of professionalism, for example, are crucial to your work as a nurse.

Studying a vocational course like nursing gives you a range of professional and technical skills, including the ability to function effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team and to support and advise patients and their families. You also develop the ability to assess, analyse, monitor and evaluate the care you deliver. A reflective approach to professional practice is very important.

During your training you work with people of all age groups, cultures and ethnic origins in a variety of settings. This allows you to develop excellent written and oral communication skills. You also learn to act as an advocate for others.

Nursing degree courses can provide you with additional transferable skills and personal qualities sought by employers in a range of sectors. These include:

• flexibility;
• adaptability;
• empathy;
• organisation and time management;
• leadership;
• determination and tenacity;
• the ability to conduct research.

The training also provides you with the opportunity to develop problem-solving and decision-making skills, as well as equipping you with confidence and the ability to deal with a diverse and changing profession.

Consider the skills developed on your course as well as through your other activities, such as paid work, volunteering, family responsibilities, sport, membership of societies, leadership roles, etc. Think about how these can be used as evidence of your skills and personal attributes. Then you can start to market and sell who you really are, identify what you may be lacking and consider how to improve your profile. Take a look at job application advice for some useful tips.