Becoming a neonatal nurse

Hello!

I want to become a neonatal nurse, and I thought you could do both midwifery/ nursing degrees and then do the relevant training to become one:

(From the NHS) You'll need to be a registered adult nurse, children's nurse or midwife to work in neo-natal nursing. After a period of six months of relevant experience, nurses and midwives should be encouraged to undertake continuing professional development.

However we have a friend who is a midwife, and she's said you can't become a neonatal nurse with a midwifery degree - I understand you couldn't become one straight away, you'd need to train, but is this correct? You can't become one with a midwifery degree?

Reply 1

lilibet01

you need to apply for a Children's Nursing degree. In midwifery you are looking after women, not babies. Once you have qualified as a registered children's nurse you can do further training for ICU.

Reply 2

Gnome :)

Children's nusing would definitely put you in a better position to go into neonatal. As lilibet01 said, as a midwife you spend most of your time looking after the mother; the interaction with babies is minimal really. You could train as a midwife first, but personally if you want to work with neonates then child nursing is probably more suitable. I also believe that midwifery courses are generally the most competitive courses to get on, and although child nursing is also extremely competitive, I have been told that those who apply to midwifery and mention wanting to work with babies are less likely to get a place.

Reply 3

ant&bee

Thank you! I was thinking of possibly doing the midwifery degree (as I'm kind of torn between midwifery itself and neonatal nursing, but obviously I want to keep the option of neonatal nursing open). So I was thinking of doing thefast track children's nursing degree after, but obviously I need to do what's best.

Reply 4

angel_delight

You can go into neonatal nursing as a newly qualified childrens nurse or adult nurse. After about 6months to a year they then tend to put you on the neonatal practitioner course. They used to employ midwives but that has stopped now. The main reasons are down to cost, midwives go up to a band 6 therefore it costs more to hire one and also if the unit is quiet it is easier to send a childrens nurse to the wards. You would also struggle to keep your midwifery registration. The neonatal nurse practitioner I was recently speaking to said they dont even send midwifery student to the unit anymore.

Reply 5

moonkatt

Original post by ant&bee

It is unlikely you would be able to do a "fast track" children's nursing degree after qualifying as a midwife as the course structure is different. The top up dual registration courses tend to be for registered nurses who want to work on another part of the register ie Adult trained wanting to work in childrens or mental health. There is an 18 month midwifery course for adult trained nurses but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work the other way round.

Reply 6

ant&bee

Ah right, thank you. Hmm, I am torn about what to do really. I will have to have a think about it. A friend of ours is a Doctor and runs a neonatal unit at UCL so he has arranged for me to visit and speak to the head neonatal nurse so I will speak to her about it :-)

Reply 7

moonkatt

Original post by ant&bee

That's a good idea and it'll look nice on your application no matter what. In the end you need to think about what patient group you want to look after. Is it pregnant adults, or is it young children and babies? If it's the former then midwifery is for you, if it's the latter then kids nursing is what you should do. Hope you manage to work out what you want :smile:

Reply 8

Lily_123

Hi, i had exactly the same worries so i emailed the nhs careers office and this is part of their reply. Hope you find it helpful :smile:

"After qualifying as a midwife, to then qualify as a neonatal nurse you would need to complete a two year accelerated children’s nursing programme.

On completion, students are awarded both an academic and a professional qualification, through integrated study of theory and supervised nursing practice. Programmes are a minimum of 78 weeks full-time. A very limited number of universities may offer a part-time mode of study."

Reply 9

moonkatt

However, if you want to work with neonates it would be a much quicker journey to just study children's nursing.

Reply 10

Lily_123

Yes that's true but this way you have both options :smile:

Reply 11

Chloex

Hi I'm a first year student children's nurse who's just finished my first ward placement on SCBU/NNU and one of the staff members is a newly qualified children's branch nurse. I really enjoyed it but I'm not 100% sure I'd like to become a neonatal nurse. Alot of the staff who are on the neonatal practitioner course were complaining how hard it was :>

Reply 12

tash.emily

Hi, i'm just about to start my uni application to do child nursing because i eventually want to become a neonatal nurse, i was just wondering did anyone here who is studying child nursing get into university first time?! I'm so worried i'll get rejected from all my 5 choices and i really don't want to take a gap year! I've had good grades and i have a lot of work experience relevant to the course, i'm just hoping it's enough! :smile:

Reply 13

ricepudding

hello tash emily,

I applied to study child nursing this year after changing my course at uni. I had little experience other than work experience in a nursery in year 10 and work as a carer, and I now have an unconditional offer! My advice is: show lots of enthusiasm and knowledge about the course and relate your experiences to the role of a child nurse :smile:

If it's something you're really passionate about go for it :smile:

and if you don't get it first time use it as an opportunity to get more experience and an even better insight to the profession :smile:

good luck with your application!!!

Reply 14

tash.emily

Original post by ricepudding

If it's something you're really passionate about go for it :smile:

and if you don't get it first time use it as an opportunity to get more experience and an even better insight to the profession :smile:

good luck with your application!!!

Thank you, this has made me feel a lot better! It really is and i hope that i can show that in my personal statement and if i'm lucky in an interview! Thank you, i hope everything goes well for you also!! :smile: