Being a Nurse

Packed full of personal accounts, hints and tips to help student nurses and newly qualified nurses as they progress from graduation to revalidation.

Being a Nurse will help both student nurses and newly qualified nurses in their progression from graduation to revalidation.

It takes a special sort of person to be a nurse and starting a new career can be a daunting prospect for anyone – this book will prepare you for the transition from student to registered nurse and help you make the most of your time as a newly qualified nurse. The book provides advice to new starters on dealing with the challenges of being a nurse. It covers important topics such as:

• first-day nerves
• the value of teamwork
• how to avoid burnout
• coping with a bad day
• how to know when you’re ready to progress.

The author takes a jargon-free, supportive approach that aims to help you develop your confidence as a nurse so that you in turn can offer the best care for your patients.

Lauren Philpott recently qualified as a registered nurse and has drawn on her own experience to write “the book I wish I’d had”. In the words of one reviewer, “it’s like she’s taking you by the hand and helping you through the transition that she went through herself”.


From reviews:

“Being a Nurse is a great resource for anyone starting out in their nursing careers. It offers sensible down to earth advice, drawing on the author’s real life experience of what it is like to work as a Registered Nurse for the first time. The author tackles some really challenging topics, such as dealing with difficult situations/people, burnout, having a bad day (and importantly how to get over it!) as well as emphasising the many positives that nursing brings. She takes the new graduate through their nursing journey, from the first day on the job, to developing in confidence and how to work towards revalidation, taking a pragmatic, yet very readable approach. This would make a great gift for any soon to graduate or recently qualified nurse.”
Liz Williams, Assistant Professor, Year 2 Clinical Skills, University of Nottingham

“What I like about ‘Being a Nurse’ is that it is a first-hand guide to being a newly registered nurse; it gives helpful information about all those things you didn’t learn about when you were a student nurse. To name a few; annual leave, revalidation, finding your role within the team and CPD.
...The content of ‘Being a Nurse’ is written in such a way that it very much feels like an informal chat with Lauren herself, and this makes for a comforting read. Its easy layout is set with bullet points and ‘top tip’ sections which can help you easily summarise each chapter. There are also quotes of real-life situations and cases, which always helps put theory ideas into reality. Although Lauren is a children’s nurse, the topics discussed in the book are easily transferable to other branches of nursing.
I would recommend this book to any student nurses, especially students about to qualify.”
Online review from Diary of a Chief Nurse Junior Fellow