Nursing professionals

How to become a registered children's nurse

Official title: Registered children's nurses

Also called: Staff nurse, School nurse, Neonatal nurse, Children's nurse, Paediatric nurse, School health nurse, Neonatal staff nurse, Paediatric staff nurse, Community children's nurse, Registered children's nurse, Registered sick children's nurse, Neonatal sister

Registered children's nurses nurses provide general or acute nursing care for children and young people with chronic or acute conditions and assist medical doctors with their tasks.

Main tasks

Assists medical doctors and works with other healthcare professionals to deal with emergencies and pre-planned treatment of patients
Manages own case load
Monitors children's progress, including the interpretation of the behaviour of young children too young to communicate
Administers drugs and medicines, applies surgical dressings and gives other forms of treatment
Works with parents to explain procedures and health conditions and to help them care for children when they return home
Advises on nursing care, disease prevention, and nutrition
Plans, manages, provides and evaluates nursing care services for patients, supervises the implementation of nursing care plans

How to become one

Entrants will need a degree or equivalent qualification in children's nursing and to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. A DBS check is also required.

Ways in

University: Nursing & Midwifery degrees, Offered by 16 universities in the UK

Pay · Outlook

Median full-time pay: £41,963 a year The middle half earn £33,833 to null.
About 35,300 people work in this job now, and about 38,700 are projected by 2035. (+9.6%)

Questions people ask

How do I become a registered children's nurse?

Entrants will need a degree or equivalent qualification in children's nursing and to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. A DBS check is also required.

How much does a registered children's nurse earn in the UK?

Median full-time pay is £41,963 a year (Office for National Statistics).

Is a registered children's nurse a growing career in the UK?

Yes. Employment is projected to grow 10% by 2035, from about 35,300 to about 38,700 people (Department for Education).

Do you need a degree to become a registered children's nurse?

Usually. 82% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Sources

Office for National Statistics: Annual Population Survey: employment by occupation (April 2025 to March 2026), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: SOC 2020 Volume 1: structure and descriptions (2026-08-27 edition), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Department for Education: Skills Imperative 2035: employment projections by occupation (2021 to 2035 (Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics)), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (2025 provisional), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03

Updated 2026-10-03

Graduate outcomes: Discover Uni dataset, HESA (www.hesa.ac.uk), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Aggregated by subject and adapted by Peernovo.