Where can a Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing take you?

Postgraduate Diploma student Hanna talks about the career prospects open to hear after graduation, and the path she chose to take.

I’m studying for a PG Dip in Nursing at King’s because I want to practice as a nurse, with a view to eventually working in hospices for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. I knew King’s would give me the right skills and experience for the job and with its’ outstanding reputation, I hoped it would be an advantage when it came to employability. 

I’m due to qualify in July so for the last couple of months I’ve been juggling open days, job applications and interviews. There are many options but one thing that helped me sort through them was attending a university careers fair about half way through my course. By the time applications opened, I already had a good sense of what was out there and the benefits of different employers.

After much consideration I figured out that I wanted my first role as a staff nurse to be in an acute setting in the NHS. So I knew that much, but there were still plenty of decisions on the table. Like, which city I wanted to live and work in, whether to work in a Children’s Hospital or in paediatric department in a district general hospital and the big one, for which NHS Trust? It’s a privileged position to be in, and one of the things that makes nursing so unique – friends from my course are going in all sorts of different directions which is interesting and exciting, there is something for everyone and King’s are there support you to find the right path.

In the end I received a few different job offers and I chose to accept an 18-month paediatric rotation programme at University College London Hospitals (UCLH). I had a feeling once I walked in the door for my interview that it would be the right place for me, and although I thought I had done very badly at interview (always the case when it’s something you really want, isn’t it?!) they offered me a job the same day.

Every nurse will take a different path after qualifying, but graduating with a Nursing degree from King’s, one thing is for sure, you will never be short of options. It's up to you what that journey looks like!