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A Career in Nursing
Adult nurses have a significant role in caring for people and their family within a wide range of settings. There is a great variety of careers available within adult nursing and skills learned are valued around the world.
Adult nursing is both a challenging and rewarding profession. Adult nurses provide compassionate care to adults who experience a range of acute or long-term conditions, promote health and wellbeing and empower individuals to maximise
their independence.
Your Nursing degree course will provide you with opportunities to work with a range of professionals, groups and individuals. You will support people and their families during periods of ill health, promote health and wellbeing and care for those with enduring and/or life-limiting illness.
Today’s nurses are required to assess patients’ needs, care for them and support both the patients and their families, while playing a full and crucial role in the wider healthcare team.
Careers in nursing are dynamic as the healthcare sector responds to developments in health and emerging health priorities, rising expectations among users and carers and changing societal attitudes.
Since 2017 entry onwards nurse education at the Highland Campus in Inverness and the Western Isles Campus in Stornoway is conducted by the University of the Highlands and Islands. For further information visit: https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/studying-at-uhi/nursing/
Open University
Healthcare providers across Scotland can benefit from the Open University's (OU) unique open-access programmes which enable their staff to become nurses.
Staff at all NHS Boards in Scotland can participate in the OU Future Nurse programme. The funded programme includes routes for those already working in healthcare support worker roles to become registered nurses.
OU students can remain in employment to ‘earn as they learn’ and employers can retain their workforces.
For more information visit: Nursing | Open University in Scotland
Watch this video to find out more about the application process for OU – OU BSc(Hons) Nursing Programme Information session NHS Highland, Argyll & Bute and NHS Eilean Siar
Recruitment
The NHS is Scotland's largest employer with over 160,000 staff. If you want the chance to make a real difference to people's lives, why not think about a career with NHSScotland? There are hundreds of different roles available.
To view current NHS vacancies visit NHS Scotland Recruitment.
Revalidation
Revalidation is the new process that all nurses and midwives in the UK will need to follow to maintain their registration with the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC).
Revalidation is straightforward and will help you as a nurse or midwife demonstrate that you practise safely and effectively. It will encourage you to reflect on the role of the Code in your practice and demonstrate that you are ‘living' the standards set out within it.
This new process replaces the Prep requirements, and you will have to revalidate every three years to renew your registration.
For further information visit the Nursing & Midwifery Council.
Professional Development
NHS Western Isles encourages its nursing staff to undertake continued training to develop their competence and skills.
Many qualified nurses undertake additional courses (individual and group study, class-based and online), to specialise in areas such as cancer care, women's health, nurse prescribing, clinical advanced assessment of practice, health visiting, district nursing, emergency or school nursing to become advanced nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists.
We also offer a number of occasional development posts for Health Visiting (University of Highlands & Islands) and District Nursing (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen) teams.
Accredited training courses are regularly provided by or in conjunction with NHS Western Isles, with the majority of courses counting towards revalidation evidence.
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