Nurses are often the life and blood of any type of professional healthcare. Yet of course there are so many different types of nurses, from mental health nursing all the way to telemetry nurses. In this article, we will have a brief look at some of them. Hopefully showing the diversity within this sector and the different avenues you can go down, once you have received your nursing degree.

Firstly, the most common type of nurse would be a registered nurse. They assist physicians in hospitals and a variety of other locations. Registered nurses will have a broad range of medical knowledge, being a vital part of any healthcare team throughout the whole health sector.

Secondly, there are travel nurses. They play a very similar role to registered nurses, yet they travel nationally, or sometimes internationally. Working in places sometimes for days or weeks, depending on what is needed. This will often be done through the NHS bank or agency work. This means you are ore on general call to fill gaps when they appear, making sure seamless patient care is always given round the clock. The work availability may vary more, but often the pay is more as a result of this uncertainty.

Another type of nurse is a nurse practitioner (NP). Even though they often work under a practitioner, NPs are becoming more autonomous in their role. Usually educated to a higher degree than registered nurses, they are allowed make more medical decision than a registered nurse. They can be seen as a bridge between nurse and practitioner, and NPs often go into further training throughout their career to become a fully fledged doctor.

An operating room (OR) nurse is a nurse who deals with patients before, during and after surgery. Working alongside surgical teams, they will have a specialized area of medicine in areas such as surgery itself, but also anaesthetics and post-surgery care. As an OR nurse, you will also have a lot more interaction with the patient and family of those who are undergoing surgery than the surgeon might. Therefore, this is a good fit for someone who can be empathetic to the level of stress and discomfort these sorts of procedures can place on people.

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nursing roles, with many more still to consider. Yet, I hope this has at least started to show some of the diversity within nursing, and the different career paths it can lead to.