What does a Registered General Nurse do?

Registered General Nurse

A Registered General Nurse (usually called an adult nurse in the UK) assesses, treats and monitors adult patients in hospitals, GP surgeries, community settings, care homes and hospices. The work mixes clinical tasks - giving medicines, managing wounds, monitoring vital signs, spotting patients who are deteriorating - with coordinating a patient's overall care between doctors, therapists, pharmacists and families. "Registered" means the nurse is on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register, which is a legal requirement to practise and work under the title of nurse.

Starting salary: Varies, see below
Live graduate jobs: Search all jobs
Main way in: The standard route is an NMC-approved undergraduate nursing…
They usually ask for: NMC registration is non-negotiable

Approximate graduate salary

Newly qualified nurses in the NHS start on Agenda for Change Band 5, which is typically somewhere around the high £20,000s to low £30,000s to start, though this varies and is adjusted periodically. London and surrounding areas attract a High Cost Area Supplement on top, and unsocial hours payments for nights, weekends and bank holidays can add a meaningful amount. Pay in the private, charity and care home sectors sits outside Agenda for Change and varies considerably - sometimes above, sometimes below NHS rates.

What you'd actually do

Takes handover at the start of a shift - a structured briefing on each patient from the outgoing nurse - and plans which patients need what, and when, across the next twelve or so hours
Carries out medication rounds: checking prescriptions, calculating doses, administering drugs orally, by injection or through an intravenous (IV) line, and documenting every dose
Takes and interprets observations (blood pressure, pulse, oxygen levels, temperature, respiratory rate), calculates early warning scores and escalates to a doctor or outreach team when a patient is deteriorating
Performs practical clinical procedures - inserting cannulas and catheters, taking blood, dressing wounds, managing drains and feeding tubes, depending on the setting and what the nurse has been signed off to do

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Writes and updates care records on paper or electronic systems, which are legal documents and take up a substantial chunk of the shift
Talks to patients and relatives about what is happening, including difficult conversations about diagnosis, discharge plans or end-of-life care
Supervises and delegates to healthcare assistants and student nurses, and coordinates with physiotherapists, pharmacists, social workers and discharge teams to get patients safely home

How graduates get in

The standard route is an NMC-approved undergraduate nursing degree (BSc Adult Nursing), usually three years, with roughly half the time spent on clinical placements in hospitals and community settings. You register with the NMC on graduating, then apply for a Band 5 staff nurse post - many trusts recruit final-year students before they qualify.
Graduates with a degree in another subject can take a postgraduate pre-registration nursing course (MSc or PGDip), typically around two years. These are common but there are fewer places than on undergraduate courses, and some providers prefer a related first degree such as biomedical science, psychology or health science.
The Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship lets you train while employed, usually by an NHS trust or care provider, with the employer funding the course. Routes in are often from an existing healthcare assistant or assistant practitioner job rather than straight from school, so this is less common for graduates but does happen.
The Nursing Associate route (a two-year foundation degree apprenticeship, England only) leads to a separate NMC registration as a nursing associate, and can then be topped up to full registered nurse status. A slower route, but a realistic one if you are already working in healthcare.

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Nurses registered overseas enter through the NMC's international registration process, which usually involves English language evidence and the Test of Competence including a practical OSCE exam in the UK.
There is no way to become a registered nurse without an NMC-approved programme - unlike some sectors, there is no graduate scheme that converts a non-nursing degree straight into registration.

What employers ask for

NMC registration is non-negotiable. Everything else follows from getting onto and passing an approved programme.
For undergraduate nursing degrees, entry requirements vary widely between universities - typically A-levels or equivalent (BTEC, Access to HE Diploma are all commonly accepted), with many but not all courses asking for a science subject. GCSE maths and English at grade 4/C or above are near-universal requirements.
For postgraduate pre-registration courses, usually a 2:1 or 2:2 in a relevant or science-related subject, though some providers accept any discipline. Check individual course pages - this genuinely differs provider to provider.
An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and occupational health clearance, including immunisation status, before you can go on placement or start work.

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Some care experience before applying - paid healthcare assistant work, care home work or structured volunteering - is strongly expected at interview even where it is not a formal requirement, because selectors want evidence you understand the reality of the job.
A values-based interview and often a numeracy and literacy test as part of selection, both for courses and for staff nurse posts. Drug calculation numeracy is tested seriously because dosing errors harm patients.

Skills that matter

Clinical assessment and spotting deterioration

Nurses are at the bedside continuously, so they are usually the first to notice a patient getting sicker and the person who has to escalate it convincingly to a doctor.

Drug calculation and numeracy

Working out infusion rates and paediatric or weight-based doses under time pressure is routine, and errors have direct consequences for patients.

Prioritisation under competing demands

You will routinely have more tasks than time - a drug round due, a relative wanting answers, a call bell and an unwell patient - and deciding the order is the core skill of the job.

Difficult conversations

You explain diagnoses in plain language, manage anger from frustrated families and sit with people who are dying, often without a doctor in the room.

Accurate written documentation

Care records are legal documents used in investigations, coroners' inquests and NMC proceedings, and 'not documented' is treated as 'not done'.

Delegation and team leadership

Even newly qualified nurses direct healthcare assistants and supervise students, and remain accountable for tasks they hand over.

Physical and emotional stamina

Twelve-hour shifts on your feet, night rotations and repeated exposure to death and distress are a structural part of the job, not an occasional hardship.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Newly qualified staff nurse (NHS Agenda for Change Band 5), usually with a preceptorship period of around six to twelve months - supported practice with a named mentor while you build confidence and get signed off on skills like IV administration.
Experienced Band 5, then specialisation: moving into intensive care, theatres, emergency department, oncology, district nursing, practice nursing in GP surgeries, or research nursing. Specialist areas often require additional post-registration courses, frequently funded by the employer.
Senior nurse or junior sister/charge nurse (commonly Band 6) - running a shift, leading a team, taking on specialist caseloads or a clinical nurse specialist role. Timelines vary a lot by specialty and local vacancies; some people move in a couple of years, others take much longer by choice.
Three broad directions from there: clinical (advanced clinical practitioner with a master's degree and often non-medical prescribing, able to assess, diagnose and treat independently), managerial (ward manager, matron, director of nursing) or education and research (university lecturer, clinical research nurse, practice educator).
Nursing is also a recognised exit route into non-bedside work - infection control, clinical governance, medical devices and pharmaceutical industry roles, NHS commissioning, health informatics and regulatory inspection all recruit from registered nurses.

What people get wrong

“Nurses carry out doctors' instructions.”

Nurses are independently accountable to the NMC for their own practice. A nurse who follows an unsafe instruction is personally answerable for it, and challenging a prescription or a plan you think is wrong is an expected part of the job, not insubordination.

“It is mostly hands-on patient care.”

A large and growing part of the shift is documentation, medicines administration, phone calls, discharge coordination and handovers. Many nurses find they spend less time with patients than they expected, and personal care is often delegated to healthcare assistants.

“All nursing is hospital ward work.”

Large numbers of registered nurses work in GP practices, community district nursing teams, prisons, schools, occupational health, hospices, the armed forces, cruise lines, pharmaceutical companies and NHS 111. These settings have very different hours, autonomy and pay structures.

“A nursing degree is the easy, less academic option.”

It is a heavily regulated professional degree with pharmacology, anatomy, physiology and research methods alongside roughly 2,300 hours of assessed clinical placement, including nights and weekends, which makes holding down a part-time job much harder than on a typical degree.

“Once you qualify you are done with exams.”

NMC revalidation requires you to demonstrate ongoing practice hours, continuing professional development, feedback and written reflection every three years to stay on the register, and most specialist moves need further accredited study.

Where this varies

The job differs enormously by setting. A ward nurse works long shifts in a team with doctors immediately available; a district nurse drives between patients' homes alone, making independent decisions with no one to ask; a practice nurse in a GP surgery works weekday office hours running clinics for asthma, diabetes and vaccinations; an intensive care nurse may look after one or two patients with intense technical monitoring. Pay structures split between NHS Agenda for Change bands, which are nationally set, and private and charity employers, who set their own. There are also differences across the four UK nations - NHS pay deals, nursing bursaries and student support arrangements are devolved, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have at times offered financial support that England does not, so check the arrangements where you plan to study.

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General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.