Are you considering nursing?
What do nurses do?
Nurses provide autonomous and collaborative care for individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. This includes the promotion of health, the prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) defines the nurse as:
a person who has completed a programme of basic, generalised nursing education and is authorised by the appropriate regulatory authority to practise nursing in their country. Basic nursing education is a formally recognised programme of study providing a broad and sound foundation in the behavioural, life, and nursing sciences for the general practice of nursing, for a leadership role, and for post-basic education for specialty or advanced nursing practice.
The nurse is prepared and authorised to:
- engage in the general scope of nursing practice, including the promotion of health, prevention of illness and care of physically ill, mentally ill, and disabled people of all ages and in all health care and other community settings
- carry out health care teaching
- participate fully as a member of the health care team
- supervise and train nursing and health care auxiliaries
- be involved in research.
Nursing is broken down into different strands known as nursing ‘disciplines’ leading to different fields of registration. Each discipline has its own third level education programme and focusses on a particular area of nursing practice. There are four different programmes you can choose to study in. Click on the links below to find out more about each one and the courses available.