What qualifications do I need to become a nurse?
If you’re considering becoming a nurse or changing your career to nursing, it’s important you research what nursing qualifications you’ll need. Thankfully, the pathway to nursing is clear-cut, and there are only a couple of options for you to choose from.
What qualifications do you need to be a nurse in the UK?
To become a nurse in the UK, you must register with the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC). You can only do so if you have a nursing degree from an approved programme and meet the NMC’s requirements of good health and good character.
The most common way to get a nursing degree is by studying nursing at a university, but it’s also possible to earn one with a degree apprenticeship.
What degree do you need to become a nurse?
There are three ways to get a nursing degree:
- Study an undergraduate nursing degree
- Study a postgraduate nursing degree
- Complete a nursing degree apprenticeship
Each nursing course needs to divide its time equally between training and clinical practice. You’ll get direct contact with patients and families to build your clinical experience in a number of settings, such as hospitals, in the community, patients’ homes, or within independent and voluntary sector organisations.
The most popular pathway is the undergraduate nursing degree, which requires three years of full-time study. The postgraduate route requires just two years of full-time study, but it has stricter entry requirements, so fewer people are eligible to take this route.
The nursing degree apprenticeship allows you to study while you work, but it takes four years to complete. Typically, you’d work part of your time as a healthcare support worker and part of your time as a nursing apprentice. You can find out more about nursing apprenticeship opportunities on the NHS jobs website.
What are the typical nursing degree entry requirements?
The entry requirements for a nursing degree will vary by university, but broadly speaking, you’ll need the following:
- Five GCSEs in subjects that include English, maths and science
- Two or three A Levels or an acceptable equivalent ((BTEC, T-Levels, Access to HE Diploma, etc.).
Some undergraduate nursing degrees require a minimum of BC at A Level or equivalent, while others ask for ABB or equivalent. You may need to have taken at least one science subject, but this varies by university.
The more competitive universities tend to have higher entry requirements. These can vary from year to year, so it’s always wise to double-check before you apply.
If you want to study nursing at King’s, you can find the entry requirements for nursing degrees on each course page.
If you don’t end up with a place to study nursing, it’s also worth taking a look at Clearing when it opens in July. You’ll be able to see which universities will welcome you with your predicted grades.
Can you become a nurse without qualifications?
You cannot become a registered nurse without qualifications. Nursing is a highly regulated career, so you’ll need to be registered with the NMC in order to practice as a nurse.
The only way to get registration with the NMC is to hold a nursing degree. That means you cannot become a nurse without a degree.
If you don’t hold any nursing qualifications but would like to pursue a career in healthcare, there are a range of roles open to you, for example, in social care or as a nursery assistant.
You may also want to consider becoming a nursing associate. This relatively new role doesn't require an undergraduate degree and was created to help bridge the gap between healthcare assistants and graduate nurses.
How to choose a nursing degree
Gaining a nursing degree is essential if you want to become a registered nurse. But with hundreds of options, it can be hard to narrow down your choices.
Step one: choose your specialism
Before you decide on the appropriate nursing degree, you need to decide which nursing specialism you want to pursue. You’ll have to choose whether you want to specialise in:
- Adult nursing
- Children’s nursing
- Mental health nursing
- Learning disabilities nursing
Adult nursing is the most popular discipline, accounting for 80% of all registered nurses, according to the latest statistics. Just over one in 10 nurses specialise in mental health (13%), and 7.8% are registered children’s nurses. Learning disabilities nursing has the lowest numbers, at 2.2%.
It can be hard to make this decision so early on in your nursing career. Often, the students who want to become children’s nurses already feel the pull to work with young patients, but it may be less clear for others.
You might find yourself torn between two specialisms, for example, wishing to work in mental health nursing but with a focus on children. Or you may not know which career path is right for you. If you’re struggling to decide, it can help to think about where you’d like to be in five years' time and consider which nursing degree is most likely to get you there.
If you need help, you can always chat with current students to learn how they made their decisions.
Step two: do you need an undergraduate or postgraduate nursing degree?
The next thing to think about is whether you should do an undergraduate or postgraduate nursing degree. For many, it’s a simple decision: if you don’t already have a degree, you’ll have to go the undergraduate route.
But if you do have a degree in another subject, this can be more of a dilemma.
Postgraduate nursing degrees usually take two years to complete instead of three. However, they typically require a lot of healthcare-related experience.
It’s worth noting that this experience can comprise any type of care where you’re giving direct physical or psychological care to another person. This could take many forms, including:
- Placements undertaken as part of a previous undergraduate degree
- Paid full-time or part-time employment
- Voluntary work
The types of roles and experience that have previously been considered include:
- Health care assistant
- Care assistant
- Support worker
- Worker with healthcare charities
- Personal care, e.g., of a relative or child (must be verified by the GP of the cared person)
- St John’s Ambulance
- Teacher of SEN (Special Education Needs) children
- Helpline advisor, e.g., 111, 999, Samaritans (but these hours may be capped)
You can combine experience from more than one position or role, but your healthcare experience hours must have been achieved within five years of the start date of your nursing programme. You don’t need to have completed all the hours before you apply, as it’s possible to build this experience during the assessment process—but everything will need to be completed and verified by the given deadline, which is usually around the end of July.
There are other factors to consider, too. For example, if it’s been a while since you last studied at university, you may find it challenging and could benefit from the three-year undergraduate programme.
You should also think about how to fund your nursing degree and how each pathway will impact your finances.
Step three: what grades do you have?
The entry requirements will vary by university and even by each nursing degree, so it’s important you are clear about your grades.
The best way to see the entry requirements for each nursing degree is to check the individual course pages.
King’s offers three undergraduate nursing courses:
King’s also offers three postgraduate pre-registration nursing courses:
Different universities will have different entry requirements, so it’s worth looking around to understand the broad spectrum of required grades. If you know how many UCAS points you’re predicted to get, you can search on the UCAS site to see all the courses you’ll be eligible to apply for.
If you don’t have the necessary qualifications to apply for a degree, you might be eligible to study a nursing degree apprenticeship instead.
Step four: where do you want to study?
Another important thing to consider when choosing a nursing degree is where you want to study. It may be possible for you to stay at home, or you might want to move to a new city altogether.
Since you’ll be studying for at least three years, it’s important you choose somewhere that you’ll be happy to live—and somewhere that offers good opportunities for clinical placements and extracurricular opportunities.
What if you qualified as a nurse overseas and want to work in the UK?
If you've trained overseas, you'll need to register with the NMC. As well as taking the Test of Competence, you have to apply and provide evidence that you meet the registration requirements. You can see a step-by-step guide to this process on the NMC website.
What other nursing qualifications do you need?
As your career progresses, you may wish to undertake a number of other nursing qualifications to strengthen your knowledge and clinical skills. This type of post-qualification nursing education often gives you the opportunity to refine your specialty, perhaps with a focus on palliative care or diabetes care and management. You could even move into a different role, like as a health visitor or school nurse.