Are you considering becoming a Nurse or a Midwife? There are many interesting career paths and employment opportunities available to you. Some of the key attributes required to be a nurse or midwife include kindness, compassion, caring nature and patience.
If you have these attributes a career in nursing or midwifery could be the ideal profession for you. Nursing and Midwifery is an exciting and varied four year degree programme, with opportunities to work across many care settings such as ambulatory care hubs and emergency department.
Once qualified, there are streamlined career development pathways available in clinical, management, education or research. These pathways are supported with funding streams for education and training via continuous professional development.
As well as Midwifery there are four main disciplines of nursing including; Mental Health, Intellectual Disability, Children's and General and you can work in various settings such as; hospitals, community (clinics, residential settings, schools ), in education (nurse/midwife tutor/ lecturer ) or the private sector (occupational health, sales, GP practice ).
My name is Rayna and I work as a Nurse Tutor, as a young girl I always wanted to be a nurse and I have been fortunate to progress my career into nurse education.
I work in a stimulating classroom environment where I can help others to grow professionally to support safer patient care. I love working with nurses and midwives who are enthusiastic and interested in learning. While preparing this article I asked some of my colleagues what they like about being a nurse or midwife.
Lauren, a mental health nursing student said “I really like being able to support and care for individuals during the most vulnerable times in their lives and helping them find strength and resilience. The role is interesting as we learn about all the different types of mental health conditions and it really gives you a bigger outlook on life”. Kierstin is a nurse on the surgical day ward and she said ‘we have a saying in my ward “teamwork makes the dream work” and it really does.
I love working with my colleagues and the multidisciplinary team to help patients get a little bit better every day. I am always learning something new and I enjoy getting to know my patients and their families and supporting them on their journey”. Helen - a midwife for over 30yrs said ‘I knew I wanted to be a midwife since I was on my maternity placement as a student nurse. It is an honour and a joy as you share bringing new life into the world. Midwifery is a rewarding career and you can work anywhere in the world, so come and be part of this amazing profession’.
For further information please go to www.nmbi.ie
