School careers fair - what do I tell Y5/6 about nursing?

[LauraNorder]

I have been approached by the school to do a 25 min chat about my nursing career. What sort of things do you think they will be interested in at that age? I don't want to bore the poor things!

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Huge generalisation coming up: The girls will want to know about the caring side of things. The boys will want to know about the blood and gore and stuff.

The best thing you could do is think of some really interesting case histories that you've been involved with that you could relate to the children. The ones where you thought it was going to end in tears but turned around to a happy ending or the ones that everyone thought was one thing but turned out to be something different. Any funny stories you can think of, remembering their ages.

Finish on a particularly poignant moment for you - give them something to think about for the rest of the day and maybe, if you have time, you could get them all to put each other in a sling?

Hope that gives you some food for thought and that it goes well for you.

Thank you, that's great. I'm finding it a bit hard to decide what they will find interesting at that age so your suggestions are just what I was looking for.

When my DD2 was in year three she wrote about how her ideal career was nursing, because "I would sit beside the patients and give them medicine and hold their hands and talk nicely to them. I wouldn't be a doctor because they do the messy stuff". I think you should be sure to disabuse any of them who might have similar notions.
I think one thing that would probably be interesting, would be the fact that there are so many different jobs that nurses do - you could even try asking them what they think nurses do in order to find out how much they know already.

I thought I would start with something like that themumsnot I trained in the NHS but I became an RAF Nursing Officer and did some really different, not your typical nursing stuff.

Good suggestions above! Could you use the last few minutes to let them ask some questions?

cynical here...tell them not to do it because even the NHS isnt a safe place to work any more.

Jobs are hard to come by and are not secure.

Ive been waiting since a week before Christams to find out if i have a job....still waiting.
22 years in the NHS.

It's already been requested that I allow at least 5 mins for a question and answer session.

I thought I would take in a BP cuff, pulse oximeter and a stethoscope rather than the sling idea. I think a practical session is most important to use up time

My thoughts are - brainstorming what qualities you would need to be a nurse? Types of nurses - medical/surgical/orthopaedic/paediatric/specialist nurses etc

After a little talk about that I thought I could lead into my RAF career with a brainstorm on where nurses work - hospital, GP surgery, school, prison, etc etc supported by some photos ending with an aeroplane which would lead into my aeromed nursing experience. Few fun snaps at the end (I have some photos of places I have been/worked - not all hard work ) and a practical session.

Oh - and do make sure you mention that men/boys can be nurses - just to get them out of the default thinking about carreers - unless you are a bloke Laura!

No I am not a fat hairy truckerbloke and you're right I should point that out. Thanks.