Careers advice

Whichever branch of nursing you’re studying – whether it’s adult, mental health, children and young people, learning disabilities or midwifery – we have professional advisers, forums and specialist zones to offer advice and support throughout your course and your ongoing career.

Children’s nursing

The RCN Children and Young People's community contains a wealth of useful information for nurses working with children and young people. There are numerous professional forums set up for nurses and students specialising in children’s nursing.

RCN Publishing produces Paediatric Nursing - a monthly journal – and offers reduced student subscription rates.

General adult nursing

Many students enter this branch of nursing as a broad base to their nursing career – and it is a varied course. Adult student nurses will see medical, surgical, accident and emergency, critical care, care of older people, rehabilitation, primary care, orthopaedics and much more.

Many of these areas have their own RCN forums and their publications and websites will be of invaluable use to you as you move through the areas. You can also find useful information for assignments and projects on www.rcn.org.uk/publications

Nursing Standard, Cancer Nursing Practice, Emergency Nurse, Nursing Older People and Primary Health Care are all journals produced by RCN Publishing that would be of interest to the adult nurse. These are available to RCN student members at a reduced subscription rate.

Learning disability

The learning disability nursing branch provides a wide variety of potential roles including working in primary care, community, voluntary sectors, secure settings and hospital.

The RCN can offer membership of the RCN Society of Nurses for People with Learning Disabilities, which organises conferences and other events, a newsletter and a source of expert advice to government and other bodies.

The RCN Publishing company produces a monthly journal Learning Disability Practice providing the latest research, discussions of key issues and information on resources. This is available to RCN student members at a reduced subscription rate.

Mental health

The RCN has a mental health adviser and several mental health forums – mental health nursing; mental health nursing practice; children and young people's mental health – among others.

The RCN Mental Health community contains a wealth of useful information for nurses working in mental health. The forums produce a newsletter called Nursing Minds and have an extremely active Discussion Zone on the RCN website.

There are over 30 mental health journals and all the latest textbooks relevant to your field of practice can be found in the RCN library. The RCN Publishing company produces the journal ‘Mental health Practice’ and this is offered to RCN student members at a reduced subscription rate.

Midwifery

Thousands of members have registered with the RCN Midwifery Society, formed to provide professional support and information to midwives and to represent the views of members at national and international levels.

An RCN professional midwifery adviser is there for you to ensure that your individual needs as student midwives are met.

The RCN is the only professional organisation that currently offers its members free access to MIDIRS IA, the definitive midwifery database.

Student forums

Nursing students have formed their own forums locally, with the support of the ANS Executive and RCN officers. Forums meet to consider the issues that affect them, or to take part in conferences, study days and seminars. To join your regional group you can contact your local RCN office.

Visit the student members online forum in the student area of the Discussion Zone.