Today’s article is all about a day in the life of an NHS Nurse. We will be talking about what a nurse’s daily routine looks like during a long day shift. Also, we will briefly explain the key duties that nurses do on shifts for their patients. Lastly, we have added links to a few videos of Nurses telling us their versions of a daily routine.
NHS Nurse’s Daily Duties
All nurses work along with other healthcare teams such as Surgeons, Physicians, Specialists, Technicians, and many other professionals every day. When they work in a team they have a set of duties that are very important for them to follow and to make sure that there is no issue with the patients.
We are recruiting Locum Nurses for Registered Nurse (Band 5) in Birmingham and Lancashire. Click here: Register with us now!!
Timeline of Daily Routines for Nurses
Every nurse has different daily routines depending on how many hours they are working, which could be 24 hours, 12 hours, or even 8 hours shifts. We will be talking about a shift from 7 am to 7 pm.
7am – 12:30pm
Shifts normally begin early in the morning for nurses when they start to arrive at the hospital or clinic to start a 7 am shift. Nurses will have to go through patients’ charts to see if there were any emergencies that took place throughout the night.
The next thing is the rounds where they have to do tasks during this time period. Here is what they have to do during the rounds:
- Wound care and changing the dressing
- Monitoring patients for a change in condition
- Chasing labs
- Keeping regular updates with patients to see how they are, how their night was, and what they need
- Make sure patients have had their breakfast and are comfortable in their bed
- Helping mobile patients to get up and encouraging movement if necessary
- Administering morning medication
- Talking to the family members during visiting hours to keep them updated
- Admitting new patients and putting them on the system
- Preparing patients for surgery
12:20pm – 1:30pm
During this time it would be your break. It is best to pack or buy something healthy to eat because you just need something to fill you up for now because you still got 6 hours left of the shift to go.
Make sure that the food you have now is something light but still fills you up with some energy in your system. The types of food you can have are:
- Fruit Smoothies (apple, banana, mango, and mixed berries)
- Quinoa or Couscous Vegetable Salad
- Light Wrap (salad or meat inside)
- Snack Bars (granola)
1:30pm – 6:45pm
Afternoon ward rounds are similar to the mornings, these are the round tasks nurses are required to do:
- Discharging patients
- Administering afternoon medications
- Catching up with morning outstanding tasks
- Updating charts
- Attending multidisciplinary meetings
- Caring for post-surgery patients
- Preparing documents for the staff on the evening and night shift
- Updating family during family visiting hour
We are recruiting Locum Nurses for Community Nurse (Band 5) in Birmingham and Lancashire. Click here: Register with us now!!
6:45pm – 7:00pm
The handover is a critical part of the nursing role because it is important that the correct information and updates are given to the staff that are coming for the night shifts.
Like we said in the morning, a patient’s health can change all of a sudden through the rest of the night when you’re not present.
Keep in mind that all patients’ safety and well-being are being carefully monitored by all staff.
7:00pm
Finally, your shift is over now which means you can go home and unwind yourself. A lot can happen during a day shift because you never know what could happen overnight with your patients.
That is why you must take advantage of the time you have now before the next 7 am morning shift which will repeat your whole day again with need issues, so put your feet up and get some good rest.
We know that working as an NHS nurse is a very busy professional to do because you have to do long hours, and make sure you are fully forced in your patient’s conditions.
This is the Registered General Nurse (Band 5/7) we currently have in London.
More information about a day in the life of a real NHS Nurse
If you are interested in this blog and you want to know more about different types of daily routines for NHS nurses,
We have gathered a few video links from different people, which are the following:
Jessica Parry:
Sky News Video – A Day in the Life of an NHS Nurse
Meet Jessica Parry, an NHS nurse who describes her normal day by arriving early and visiting patients who remain overnight. Going on ward rounds with the doctors and helping with whatever else needed to be done that day taught her a lot. gives the patients she is assigned more medication.
Maria Avi Nursing Personal Statement
YouTube – Day in the life of a nurse in the UK
This YouTube video was made by registered nurse Maria Avi, who discusses her daily life in the UK. She discusses her morning routine and the importance of having a safe medicine round in this video to help viewers understand what it’s like to work in the NHS.
Claire Carmichael
YouTube – A Day in the Life of a GP NHS Nurse UK
In this video, Claire Carmichael talks about her daily journey in life as a GP Nurse who works in the NHS. She covers the basic routine from morning to evening by sharing medical tools.
We hope you enjoyed this blog and the videos by real NHS Nurses!
You can go visit our website and you can go to the CV-Library to find more job opportunities for All Healthcare Workers.
