Registered nurses play a vital role, their role is complex and involves providing patient care, administering medications, and collaborating with other healthcare professionals. Learn more about the responsibilities and duties of registered nurses.
Recognising the responsibilities and contribution of registered nurses within social care is essential, with the workforce totalling 39,740 and growing this year for the first time since these figures have been recorded.
The registered nurse role is a complex, person centred, multi-faceted role, rooted in nursing knowledge and professional practice. Nurses working in social care often have high levels of autonomy, decision making and responsibility so that they can offer high quality support and individual choice to people with a range of complex needs.
PDF - 2.4Mb
This is a statement of role 'Recognising the responsibilities and contribution of registered nurses within social care'. It provides a detailed description of this complex role.
PDF - 1489Kb
This infographic brings the role of a registered nurse to life to gain an understanding and appreciation of nursing in social care.
PDF - 291KB
The care required by those who live in care homes is becoming more complex and driven by technology. These standards include a set of benchmarks that can be used to assess the skills and knowledge that a registered nurse will need to demonstrate in a care home setting.
Fields of practice
Registered nurses in the UK study a specific field of practice as part of their nursing degree programme and each field has a specific registration with the NMC. These fields are:
- adult nursing
- children’s nursing
- learning disabilities nursing
- mental health nursing.
The field of practice the nurse studies in gives them a specific focus and expertise that supports better experience and outcomes of care. Skills for Care are working with stakeholders and the sector to identify the specific requirements to support field specific practice. In 2022 we held a learning disability nursing roundtable to explore the social care experience. At this event the social care learning disability nurses said:
Learning disability nurses in social care lead in places that care for a person with a learning disability including in people’s homes, the community and in the criminal justice system. They manage multiple complex conditions in partnership with people, their families and carers and advocate for accessible holistic person-centred care. They work in roles that may not carry a registered nurse title often providing knowledge and skills of how to support people with a learning disability to lead fulfilling and healthy lives.
Learning disability nurse
Are you interested in learning disability nursing roles? Visit our nursing careers in social care resource to find out more.
Enhanced, advanced and consultant level practice
Skills for Care are working with key stakeholders to scope and identify different levels of nursing practice with direct relevance to social care and the wider health and care system.
In 2022 the NMC announced new standards of proficiency for the community nursing specialist practice qualifications (SPQ) and universities are working on programmes some of which will have a particular relevance to social care.
Skills for Care continue to support the development of enhanced and advanced practice and keen to hear from nurses in the sector who are in roles working at this level.
For more information please email SocialCareNursing@skillsforcare.org.uk.
This programme is specifically for registered nurses working in leadership roles across adult social care.
It increases leadership capabilities and creates opportunities for leaders to experience shared learning opportunities and develop greater understanding of leadership models and theories to support the development of new ideas and enhance leadership practices.
Programme aims:
- to enhance leadership capabilities among nurse leaders
- to increase confidence in their role
- to give a deeper understanding of leadership models and theories
- to be able to apply learning to real-world scenarios
- to enhance language and communication skills to articulate contributions within the social care system
- to feel empowered to reflect on personal and team practices
- to be able to lead transformational change within the social care sector to equip participants with tools to use in their own communities.
It’s a five day programme (non-consecutive days) including interactive workshops, dedicated action learning, developing your own leadership impact project and 360 feedback sessions to enhance your development.
The feedback sessions and the learning tools that we’ve had – not only have they been good for me personally, but I will use all that I’ve learnt on the course and implement it with my carers, with my support workers.
Sabina Kelly, Operations Director
Right at Home Central London
This programme has to have a minimum number of participants for it to run. However, if you’re interested but don’t have the minimum number of registered nurses in your organisation, please get in touch with us as there may be opportunities for us to explore how we could deliver this programme for you. It might be that we can pair your organisation up with others to enable cross-organisational learning.
Email businessdevelopment@skillsforcare.org.uk about the nurse leadership development programme.
Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care Awards
The Chief Nurse Adult Social Care Awards have been set up to recognise the outstanding contributions of the many talented and amazing people working in adult social care.
To nominate a colleague or a team, read the nomination criteria and complete the application form.
Ten myths about being a registered nurse in social care
We dispel some of the myths around being a registered nurse in adult social care, for example, ‘being a registered nurse in adult social care is easy’, ‘you do this if you can’t get a proper job’ and ‘you can’t get re-validated’.
Case studies
PDF - 83 kb
Nia says, “For me the distinguishing features are working as part of a team and being able to see the changes you can make to people’s lives.”
PDF - 98kb
Charlotte’s current role as a nurse trainer is helped by the experience she gained in the community of working across sectors and building working relationships across health and social care.
PDF - 115 kb
Patricia sees delivering holistic care as adding value to her role and enables working with the multidisciplinary team and families, she sees her role as key in coordinating, leading and being involved in all aspects of care delivery.