University of Salford launches 1 year grad diploma for international nurses

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Matt

The University of Salford has recently launched a new one-year graduate diploma designed to benefit international nursing graduates with a view to undertaking post-graduate study.

From 2013, students from other countries will be able to take the one-year Graduate Diploma in Health. It is aimed at health care professionals and runs from January to August.

The entry requirements are somewhat relaxed; differing experiences and forms of accredited previous learning are considered to assess your suitability. For instance, with the right background, you may be considered even without having the traditional credit requirement for studying at Master’s level.

The Graduate Diploma in Health is designed to improve language and cultural understanding within the health sector. It is also aimed at preparing the student for the format of post-graduate study.

During the first semester, students focus on health-related English language, a introduction to study skills, UK learning culture and individual personal and professional development.

The second semester introduces global sociological concepts of health, communication and relationship theory and takes time to prepare you for further Masters study.

Upon completing this one-year diploma, students can go on to take an MSc in International Nursing or an MSc in International Hospital and Health Service Leadership and Management.

The former increases research skills, provides time within a simulation laboratory and requires an observational placement in a clinical setting.

The latter combines a study of management skills, project leadership and economics with NHS managers partnerships to inform best practice at this level.

The senior lecturer for this course suggests that it will benefit other countries too (should international students choose to work elsewhere) and I must say that I agree.

Whether students choose to work in the UK or use this learning somewhere else, everyone’s going to benefit. A focus on implementing health service whilst staying aware of cultural differences and a stronger use of English will help in a lot of places.

Not only that but a bit of extra post-grad training can never go amiss. Perhaps something similar for UK students dealing with international patients would be just as beneficial to the global health community.

Prepare to be a student nurse!

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Matt

We were having a discussion on the Nurses.co.uk Facebook page about the advice qualified nurses wish they had been given when they were students. We had a fair few responses so I’ve put them into an article for you here – How to prepare for life as a student nurse as well as few other points about finance, books and shoes.

The majority commented that the best of advice is to ask questions, of both staff and patients whenever you need to. Every nurse and midwife was once where you are now, learning and finding their feet. Ultimately patient safety and your safety are the key concerns so unless you are absolutely confident with what you’re doing, you should be asking questions.

Another common theme is that nursing is not just a job it’s a way of life. You have to be passionate about what you do in order to provide the best care and have a rewarding career. Whichever branch of nursing you’re studying, I’m sure at some point you will find the training difficult, and it’s the passion you have for caring for others that will help you overcome those tough times.

The most difficult subject to cover concerns bullying, and it is an issued raised by someone in the discussion. No one, whether student or staff member, should have to put up with bullying so the best advice is to read your university handbook and find out the procedure for handling it. You may feel insecure about reporting bullying but you have to speak up for yourself and protect your learning experience. Bullying doesn’t happen to everyone, and I’m sure there are plenty of nurses and midwives who have never suffered it, but just in case it’s best to know who your support network are and where to communicate your concerns.

Above all advice, the best sentiment is to simply enjoy it! The years you spend training will fly by and before you know it you will be qualified and managing your own caseload of patients. Even then, as a newly qualified nurse you won’t know everything and you will still need to ask questions.

A new resource for Learning Disability Nurses

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Matt

We’re really excited to announce that the newest and most comprehensive resource on the internet for Learning Disability Nurses has been launched. Nurses.co.uk has been working closely with the team behind LearningDisabilityNurse.com to jointly promote careers in learning disability nursing and to raise awareness of the opportunities available.

The RNLDs behind it

Learningdisabilitynurse.com began as a social media campaign before the website itself came into being, and it’s the result of the efforts of three dedicated learning disability nurses Anthony Green, Sean Ledington and Tracy March. The team were finalists for the Fiona Law award in 2011 at the National Network of Learning Disability Nurses (NNLDN) conference, and as part of the competition were invited to take part in a project. The main aim of the project was to raise awareness of learning disability nursing in order to increase the number of students engaged in that particular branch of nursing.

They quickly realised that an entire social media campaign would be needed to achieve their aims and have since been actively running a group on Facebook, among other social media sites, while their new site was under construction.

Resources for anyone thinking of becoming an RNLD

If you’re considering becoming a learning disabilities nurse, or are thinking about studying any branch of nursing at university, this is the website for you. You will find all the information you need about the career opportunities available to RNLDs, the type of work you could be involved in and how to access a study path that can lead you on to become a qualified learning disabilities nurse.

Resources for student RNLDs

Once you’re on a learning disability nursing course, you will find all the relevant resources here to help you with tasks such as writing assignments (including Harvard Referencing), conducting a literature review and building your portfolio. The Facebook and Twitter groups are still very active, and they offer an established support network of other learning disability nurses, both student and qualified, who are happy to help answer your questions.

Resources for qualified RNLDs

There are resources available on the site for RNLDs at every point in their careers, from newly qualified to experienced professional. You can find out about preceptorships, maintaining your registration with the NMC, and where your career in learning disabilities nursing can take you. Job vacancies are updated daily, and there are articles detailing postgraduate training opportunities, how to maintain your portfolio and regular blogs about developments in the sector.

Check it out now – LearningDisabilityNurse.com

5 quick tips to improve your nursing or midwifery CV

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Matt

Your nursing or midwifery CV is one of the most powerful tools you have when it comes to applying for jobs, so it’s worth getting it to look its best. We still come across CVs that could benefit from some improvement, so I’ve put together my top 5 tips to improve your current CV before applying for your next job.

1. Add a ‘key skills’ area near the top of your CV. Use this section to list skills and competencies that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. An employer can read this and immediately weigh up in their mind how relevant your skills are for the job. You can use the person specification from the job advert to cross-check how many of the essential and desired skills you possess.

2. Create a catchy sub-title to appear directly underneath your name. As I’m sure you already know the first thing on your CV should be your name, in a larger font size than the rest of the document, but underneath that you can use a sub-title. Make sure it’s relevant to the role you’re applying for and use relevant keywords that explain who you are. For example: Experienced Paediatric RSCN Nurse currently studying for Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioner in Critical Care Masters Degree.

3. Simplify the appearance of your CV by making small adjustments to the layout. White space is as important as text so use paragraphs, bullet points and spacing wherever possible. Don’t necessarily start hacking your CV apart and deleting vital information, but simply by organising some key points into lists, using short summaries instead of full details (where appropriate) and reducing the amount of space given to older, less relevant information you can instantly improve the effectiveness of your CV.

4. Order your employment history by newest first. Make the most of your current employment, your responsibilities and whether you’ve been internally promoted or have taken on extra tasks in addition to your job. This section is so important, probably as much as your entire past working history so give it pride of place at the top of your employment record. You can then decide according to how many nursing or midwifery jobs you’ve had in the past how much detail to go into about each of them. Make whatever you say about each of those posts relevant to the job you’re applying for by highlighting skills you gained, competencies you achieved and responsibilities you managed.

5. And finally.. if you use any decorative fonts, photos, or any type of illustration on your CV, you should definitely remove them! I know to many of you this will sound absurd but I still occasionally see CVs that have photos attached, are entirely written in italic text or contain headings in a hard to read font. Don’t waste the employer’s time making it hard for them to access your information, go for a simple, clear font that is easy to read and quick to deliver your skills to the reader.

Check out the nurses job search page to find your next ideal job in nursing, midwifery or allied health professional careers.

Fighting for the rights of patients with learning disabilities

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Matt

The Guardian recently published a really excellent article about championing the rights for patients with learning disabilities in main stream healthcare. They featured a nurse consultant called Jim Blair, who works at St George’s Hospital in south London, and who is campaigning for better care for people with learning disabilities in all parts of the healthcare system.

The right that every person has to access healthcare in this country does not diminish because that individual has a learning disability, and Jim Blair is championing a change of attitude and better training for nurses across all healthcare disciplines. In 2007, Mencap published a report called ‘Death by Indifference’, which highlighted the deaths of 6 people with learning disabilities as a result of failings in the NHS. After that report was made public and the health ombudsman concluded that the 6 people in question were failed by the NHS on some level, many more families came forward to report similar experiences. 5 years on from that report and Mencap has published an update called Death by Indifference: 74 and counting, which is looking at 74 deaths that have been reported to mencap over the last 10 years.

Further learning disability training for all nurses is key to making improvements in a system that the ombudsman originally found in some cases
to have “failed to live up to human rights principles, especially those of dignity and equality”. Jim Blair feels that “nursing education has failed nurses, and it has failed the public”, but also that change is coming. He feels that advocates for excellence in learning disabilities nursing are growing and their voice is being heard. He says, “there is a growing impetus for change in the health system and within communities, and that the government should concentrate on recommending pragmatic initiatives such as having a national panel for learning disability that includes people with a disability and their carers.”

How to be successful in a University interview

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Matt

It’s that time of year again when Universities are in full interview mode to fill spaces on their nursing and midwifery courses starting in September this year. If you’ve been invited for an interview, we can give you a few quick tips to help you be successful.

Dress smartly – not necessarily in a suit if you don’t have one, but smart trousers, black shoes and shirt or blouse is really the minimum standard of dress. The interviewers want to see you can present yourself in a professional manner, and your appearance is part of that.
Talk slowly – everyone talks fast when they are nervous, if you speed up your sentences too quickly the interviewers won’t be able to take notes at that speed, let alone to listen to you! Breathe slowly and remember to pace yourself.
Think clearly – you won’t be expected to know a great deal of detail about the intricacies of every module you will be studying if you are successful, but the interviewers will expect you to have a basic knowledge of the career you’re embarking on, the practical elements of the course (such as placements, skills assessments etc), and they will test your understanding of exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
Research intently – interviewers will often ask you about a current issue that has been in the spotlight recently and is relevant to your course. In the months, weeks and days leading up to your interview make sure you read the news, read industry websites, follow organisations on social media and get to know the current events you could be quizzed on. You don’t need to be an expert, but an awareness and interest in the issues are key.

Remember that interviewers aren’t there to catch you out, they are there to get to know you as person and to assess whether you are likely to be successful on the course and if you fully understand the effort, commitment and sacrifice you will have to make to be successful. Any student nurse or midwife will tell you the course is a huge undertaking, one that shouldn’t be taken lightly because you have to give up most of your free time, social life, time with your family and almost any other recreational activities you do while you’re studying! But you shouldn’t think of that in a negative light, if your dream is to be a nurse of midwife then it’s just a necessity of achieving that goal.

Check out the types of nursing jobs and midwifery jobs that could be available when you graduate!

Top 5 online learning providers listed for nursing and midwifery CPD

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Matt

I published an article in our careers section last week listing the top 5 places online where you can access CPD training at either no cost or a range of different fees depending on the type of studying you want to do. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a peek: Top 5 Online Learning Resources for Nurses and Midwives, Student and Qualified. All the course I’ve talked about are available online to study in your own time and at your own pace.

CPD is such a vital part of your CV, whether you’re an NQ or experienced nurse or midwife – it can mean the difference between being offered a position and not, especially if you’re competing with another excellent candidate for the same role. Some of the courses I’ve listed in the article are available free, others you have to pay for but there are courses available for all budgets. Some individual modules start at under £10.00 while postgraduate level study at a University can run in several thousands.

If you do decide to undertake any of the studying that I’ve described in the article, please do come back and leave a comment to let me know how you go on.

Newly qualified nurses and midwives – use your placement experience!

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Matt

If you’re a newly qualified nurse or midwife, or you’re in your third year of studying and about to start applying for jobs, this blog post is for you. As you will no doubt have noticed, the public sector is going through a recruitment low point, so the private and not-for-profit sectors are more popular as a jumping off point into your career than they were prior to this current economic trauma.

You need to make the most of your placement experience on your CV and in your personal statement in order to compete for the job vacancies out there. Even if a job vacancy doesn’t specify that they can accept newly qualified staff, it’s still worth applying for and your placement experience is the key to backing up your application.

Your CV should always be adapted for every job application you make – tailor it to work for you, and if that means putting your most recent placement experience at the very top, then do it! There are no rules with the order of your CV (except that your name and contact details needs to be at the very top!) so make it work for you!

If you have recently completed a placement in a similar environment to the job you’re applying for, that’s perfect! Make sure on your CV and in your personal statement you go into detail about the learning outcomes you achieved, how well you adapted to the working environment and the interpersonal skills you developed, such as communication and team working. Experience as a student is highly valuable, and can boost the quality of your application from simply being an NQ with no specific departmental experience to being an NQ with transferable skills from that very department into your new role.

Give yourself credit for all the work you’ve done and the skills you’ve achieved on your course. Even if it might seem obvious to you that this particular skill was included in your course material, if you learned it and then put it into practice on a placement – draw attention to it on your CV.

Don’t forget, you can check for new midwife jobs here, and new nursing jobs here, or search for your ideal job here.

About to be a newly qualified nurse and looking for your first nursing job?

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Matt

Firstly, if you are about to become a newly qualified nurse you deserve huge congratulations for getting through your course and your placements. It’s not a small achievement, and you deserve to feel pretty chuffed with yourself!

But now that you’ve finished your course, or if you’re about to hand in your final assignment and begin the wait for your NMC pin number, if you haven’t already been able to secure your first nursing job – we can help.

Newly qualified nursing jobs are difficult to come by in all sectors of the profession, but especially at the moment when budgets are being cut and recruitment is at a low point. You have to be sure that your application is going to get you noticed and is going to get you that interview offer. If you’re unsure exactly what path you want your nursing career to follow you have a great opportunity to be be opened minded in the job applications you make. Don’t limit yourself to one particular field unless you’re sure it’s the only path you want to take. Every nursing job you do throughout your career will teach you something different and give you different experiences, and getting your first nursing job is the essential first step.

Start by searching out vacancies in the geographical area you want to work in, try our nurses job search page as a good starting point. Not every job posted will specify whether they can accept newly qualified nurses or not, but you will be able to make an assumption on the level of the job by the job description and salary offered. There’s no harm in applying to a job that interests you if they don’t specifically state they can accept NQs, if you don’t try you will never know!

Your CV is the most vital tool you have in the job application process, so it’s essential that it really does your skills justice. You can check out the article on How to write your nursing CV as a third year student nurse applying for your first nursing job for more information on how to put together your CV. It’s a tough job market out there, so don’t be disheartened if it takes more a few applications for you to be successful, just take the feedback and move on. There is a job out there with your name on it, even if it’s not the one you first set out to find.

Also, if you are about to become a newly qualified nurse, or even if you’re thinking about studying to become a nurse – don’t forget to check out our giveaway on Facebook. We have 3 copies of the book “Nursing: Transition to Professional Practice” to be won. You’ve got until 27th Jan 2012 to enter, simply follow the link to see the giveaway.

Giveaway! 3 copies of ‘Nursing: Transition to Professional Practice’ to be won

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Matt

Nursing Transition to Professional Practice We’re having our first ever giveaway over on the Nurses.co.uk Facebook Page, and it’s all courtesy of Oxford University Press, Rob Burton and Graham Ormrod.

We have 3 signed copies of this fantastic book to give away and all you have to do is click the competition link above and follow the instructions.

This book is an essential read for anyone about to transition from student nurse to newly qualified nurse. It will help you be confident in your skills, know when to make decisions and learn how to job hunt in an ever changing employment market.

You’ve got until 27th January Midnight GMT to enter to win one of three signed copies, simple go here and follow the instructions!