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About Nursing
What can a nurse specialise in?
- Aged care
- Mental health
- Midwifery
- Orthopaedics
- Neonatology
- Oncology
- Critical care
- Paediatrics
Skills and qualities relevant to the position
- Kindness
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Time management skills
- Attention to detail
- Physically fit
- Adaptability
- Knows how to handle stress
Where does a nurse work?
Nurses don’t always have to work in typical healthcare settings. There are several career opportunities for nurses at schools, at their patient’s home, community centres, government agencies and research facilities.
How do you become a nurse?
The most common pathway for a registered nurse is to go to university, polytechnic or institute of technology to complete a three year Bachelor of Nursing. If that’s not an option, then another possibility is to complete a bachelor’s degree, preferably in health science, and then a Master of Nursing, which usually takes two years.
All of these must be approved by the New Zealand Nursing Council. Nursing students will also need to be registered with the Nursing Council of New Zealand, pass the Nursing Council assessment, a master’s degree approved by the Council and four years of experience in a particular area of nursing practice.
There’s also the option of becoming an enrolled nurse if you don’t want to become a registered one, which involves taking a Nursing Council-approved Diploma of Enrolled Nursing from a polytechnic or institute of technology. The main difference between an enrolled nurse and a registered nurse is that the former has less authority and responsibilities while the latter takes on more of a supervisory role.
