The 4 Main Nurses
Hi, I'm Niamh, I'm 21 and have just accepted a place to study mental health nursing at Keele in September 2021.
All nursing degrees are the same, right?
Actually not so much, there are four main types of nursing degrees: Adult, Paediatric, Mental Health, and Learning Disability.
So often it's like they're all the same course but they require a wide range of different people and it's surprisingly hard to switch between them once you graduate. For me I chose Mental Health Nursing, but how do you know which is right for you?
First, what's the same?
In all of them you learn the basics like taking vitals, personal care, and injections. No matter which course you will learn person-centred care and professional development. But you know these things to be applying to Uni in the first place, so what's different?
The main difference is the people and the conditions you will be supporting people with. In adult nursing its adults with physical health conditions, paediatrics is children with physical health conditions. There are a lot of differences between working with adults and children so if you think one of these courses is for you, make sure you are working with the right age range for you.
Then you move across to mental health and learning disability nursing. Both of these disciplines work across all age ranges but focus on different things yet again; mental health nurses work with people from all walks of life and all ages to support them in managing their mental health and learning disability in managing their learning disabilities. These degrees are less about the physical conditions and more about the person as a whole even more so than any type of nursing.
All types of nursing are important but each requires its own type of person, you just need to find your fit. For me, it took 2 years of research to be sure I was taking on the right degree for me.
Even once you find your fit there's still a whole world of speciality once you graduate.
But at the end of it all, it doesn't matter which course you chose as long as it's the right one for you.
Want to explore the 4 fields of nursing more? Catch up with the recording of our webinar below!