Nursing Work Experience

When you have identified nursing as your chosen degree, it is tempting to focus fully on your studies to obtain the grades your chosen university asks for. However, getting accepted into a nursing degree takes more than academic aptitude. Due to its practical and clinical nature, admissions decisions will also be based on your experiences and passion for caring and nursing. In some situations, your experiences and how they relate to nursing, caring and healthcare can be used to show your passion and competence and subsidise your grades if they are lower than expected.

But what is relevant experience? There are, obviously, some experiences that are more relevant than others. However, this doesn’t mean seemingly unrelated roles and experiences are irrelevant. Let’s look at what experiences are achievable, how relevant these may be, and how relevant they can be made to sound! 

Nursing Work Experience

Some of you may already have a job in care or healthcare. These positions are hugely relevant to a nursing course, and detailing your experiences will highlight you from others. Knowing the fundamentals of compassionate care, working with unwell people and within a healthcare team are all required skills. Equally, you will likely have experience managing chronic conditions and, possibly, medications. Use your experiences, both positive and negative, to show you understand the nursing role and why you feel you fit its requirements. Remember to show any instances of further training, certification or role development. Showing you have worked to develop yourself in the role shows a drive to take the next step into nursing.

Many of the rest of you reading may have a part-time or full-time job in a seemingly unrelated role. Jobs in retail or the service industry are common for students. This is where some salesmanship is needed. Many other candidates will have held similar roles; you need to stand out by highlighting how your role has prepared you for nursing in your application and interview. Highlight a time you have had to care for a customer and have gone above and beyond. Outline some of the skills you have had to use in your role; team-working, time management, organisation, and communication are all incredibly transferable to nursing. Equally, make it clear if you have additional training or certification in first aid, fire training or team moderation. If you are coming to nursing as a complete career change, highlight why you wish to transition. Why is your current role not fulfilling in a way you feel nursing may? Draw on your experiences and skills required in your current and previous roles that equip you for nursing. 

Shadowing is a great way to get healthcare-related work experience in a short amount of time. Many local trusts, clinics, residential homes or GP surgeries offer shadowing opportunities and should be contacted to arrange a day or two of shadowing a nurse. Take any shadowing opportunity and get the most from it; try to prepare some questions for the nurse you shadow about the role and show an interest in nursing and the speciality. Be an active participant; if the nurse you are shadowing is doing paperwork or is elsewhere, chat with the patients and make them a cup of tea, don’t be shy. The technical aspects of the role can all be learnt later; instead, try to see if you can connect with people and provide compassionate and holistic care. When you add any shadowing experience to your application, extend it. Take everything you can from that one or two days you spent to show you better understand the role of nursing and how you would be good in it. Include any instance of a nice interaction with a patient or if the nurse gave you positive feedback. Highlight what you got from your time with the nurse and what you will take forward with you. 

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Volunteering Experience 

Your application should include any volunteering role as it provides a more rounded picture of you. If trying to pick a volunteering role that may be more relevant to nursing, consider volunteering roles such as:

• St John’s Ambulance: volunteering with St John’s Ambulance can give you direct experience with first aid and medical interventions. As well as gaining first aid training and knowledge, you may be part of emergency situations and will have to work as a team at events and in a medical care capacity.
• Volunteering at your local hospital: While volunteers in hospitals may not have a direct “hands-on” role, they provide an important service to patients and visitors. A role within a hospital can help show you can communicate with patients and their families and give comfort in difficult situations. 
• Elderly services and charities: Age UK offers many services for the elderly, which rely on volunteers. Many local charities also provide phone calls, house visits and shopping services to the elderly in the community. Being part of one of these services shows you are compassionate and happy to dedicate your time to improving the lives of those who are vulnerable in your community. 
• Local residential/nursing homes/Hospices: Many nursing, residential homes and hospices offer volunteering roles for people to come in and chat with the residents, provide entertainment, or help with an activity. Try phoning your local care settings to see if any opportunities are available. A role like this shows you are passionate about caring for vulnerable people and going above and beyond to bring joy to their day. 

Any volunteering role besides paid work or studies will show you are proactive and committed to caring. Volunteering in these roles enables you to develop valuable communication, compassion and teamwork skills.  

Personal Experience

These experiences are all too often missed out as they can often seem “unofficial”, but if you have cared for a family member or friend, this is an extremely relevant experience. If you have provided care to a relative, neighbour or friend, this can provide valuable insight into health and social care and how these things interact. Equally, if you have children or dependents within your household, you can pull from your personal experiences of caring for them. 

Highlighting personal experiences in a statement or interview shows you have experience caring for another person. If you then outline either a positive experience of care or a negative experience, you can show how you may have handled the situation better and how these experiences will impact your practice. 

For example:

When I cared for my mother, her Macmillan nurse was very compassionate and spoke through every medication in her syringe driver before prescribing it and setting it up. When I become a nurse, I hope to deliver care which is as kind and reassuring.

or

I had to take my child to the emergency room once; the nurse was extremely rude because she was very busy and told me I was being hysterical. I could understand that she felt under pressure, but I was just a worried parent. When I qualify as a nurse, I will strive to give a consistently high standard of care and remain reassuring and compassionate even under the pressures of a busy environment. 

Everyone has relevant experiences that show at least one required skill for becoming a great nurse. If you can dedicate time, always try to expand on these experiences. Shadowing can be as short as a couple of shifts but can put you above another candidate that didn’t proactively think to arrange a shadowing session. Volunteering is usually incredibly flexible and may be as simple as one phone call a week to an elderly person in your area. Still, it shows the willingness and passion that can make your application and interview stand out.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much nursing work experience is enough?

The more experience the better is an easy answer, but there are only 24 hours in a day. Instead of trying to gain multiple sources of experience, find the best way for you. If you have children to care for and a job or studies to focus on, then a flexible role may be best for you. If you are worried about time management, start small with flexible volunteering. Take on a role you can handle, and then you can always extend and expand later if you have more time or during holiday periods. It is always best to show you expanded your role rather than you started but quickly had to reduce or cancel an experience. If you work in healthcare or caring you probably have the needed experience already, but expanding on it is always going to be positive. 

What nursing skills should I try to develop?

Work, volunteering and personal experience will give you valuable skills to pull forward and highlight in your personal statement and interview. When considering the skills a nurse requires, always remember the 6 Cs and the NMC code. Compassion, communication and courage are all incredibly important, but so is organisation, time management, performance under pressure and self-reflection.

Why would I mention negative nursing experiences?

Self-reflection and development are a huge part of nursing and will be a theme throughout your studies. In an interview, if you can give an example of poor care you have witnessed or experienced or even a mistake you have made yourself but then explain the process of learning from that experience, you are already completing work that students and qualified nurses are constantly having to do. If you bring up a negative experience, use a reflection model and work through it to highlight what you have learnt; mention the reflection model you have used, and you will be showing a skill every nurse has to do. 

None of my experiences relate to care or healthcare; what should I do?

If you can, arrange a shadowing or volunteering opportunity in your local community. These can be arranged surprisingly quickly and look good on your application. These experiences will also broaden your insight and develop your skills. If you have no time, highlight how your experiences relate to nursing. Have you needed to be patient, compassionate and kind? Does the role require teamwork or great communication? Have you improved the role or work environment at all through great innovation? Have you had to be resilient and work under pressure? Have you expanded and developed your role through excellent work, an above-and-beyond attitude or certifications and training?