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Adult nursing application

Soooo I want to study adult nursing because I want to do aid work with an organisation like The Red Cross or Oxfam. However I don't know if I should disclose this in my application because it is NHS funded and I don't know if mentioning other nursing options would be detrimental to my application.

Thoughts?
Reply 1
Avatar for Owlet
Owlet
International aid organisations usually require pretty significant specialised clinical experience in the UK, and maybe even postgraduate study (I think that MSF, for instance, require nurses to have a diploma in tropical nursing). I don't think many people finish their courses and then skip off to work as a newly-qualified international aid nurse, so I don't expect that tutors will be put off if you mention it . . .

I also want to do this sort of work eventually -- I didn't mention it in my personal statement, but I did mention a general interest in international health and tropical medicine, and the study I've done around those areas. It didn't put my unis off.
Reply 2
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wbnurse
9
I'm sure you have to work within the NHS for a year after anyway. Then you can go wherever


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Original post by wbnurse
I'm sure you have to work within the NHS for a year after anyway. Then you can go wherever


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Nope you're not committed to the NHS for any length of time :smile:
Reply 4
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wbnurse
9
Original post by PaediatricStN
Nope you're not committed to the NHS for any length of time :smile:


Really? I was told you had to do at least a years nhs practice (after all government did pay for my training lol) so I thought going off private etc straight away was a no go? Not sure where I heard that though


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Original post by nicolewarwick
Soooo I want to study adult nursing because I want to do aid work with an organisation like The Red Cross or Oxfam. However I don't know if I should disclose this in my application because it is NHS funded and I don't know if mentioning other nursing options would be detrimental to my application.

Thoughts?


Like another poster has said, you need significant UK clinical experience. You'll probably want to start your UK nursing career in an A&E or Intensive Care unit. That will be challenging as a newly qualified, but these are the clinical areas that have the skills most foreign aid charities are looking for. Taking a newly qualified post within an area of the UK that is culturally diverse would be additionally beneficial to this, so for example Luton, Birmingham or certain boroughs of London. Although of course these places are not a patch on what you will experience doing foreign aid work, you'll get some level of exposure to a diverse community, which will give you a taste of the sort of challenges you may encounter abroad.

Mentioning future plans to work abroad in foreign aid will not put off any universities. If anything, the fact you have thought about your long term career goals will appeal a lot to them, and the likelihood is you won't spend your whole career doing aid work, and therefore will return to the UK to work with a very unique skill set obtained while abroad.

That said, be careful how you explain your desire to become a nurse. I'm sure it is just the way it is written above, and not accurate of what your motives actually are, but saying "I want to study adult nursing because I want to do aid work" doesn't show an appreciation of what an adult nurse does here in the UK - and you need to show that you understand that before expressing a desire to take those skills abroad - otherwise it looks like you are trying to run before you can walk, if that makes sense? Make sure your personal statement isn't too focused on the aid work, as not even qualified nurses in the UK understand what foreign aid work is like unless they have experienced it themselves. Perhaps say you'd like to start in an A&E or ICU, with a view to doing aid work once you have obtained more experience? For the record, I'm not saying that you don't understand what an adult nurse does, and nor is it a personal attack on your motives for wanting to become a nurse, I just thought I'd highlight that to you, as it may come across to the universities in a way that you wouldn't intend or foresee that it could be construed like that :smile:
Original post by wbnurse
Really? I was told you had to do at least a years nhs practice (after all government did pay for my training lol) so I thought going off private etc straight away was a no go? Not sure where I heard that though


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No that's a complete myth. You're free to work wherever you like!

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