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Occupational health nurse

Occupational health nurses care for the health and wellbeing of people at work.

Annual Salary

£30,000 to £53,000

Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)

Working hours

37 to 40 a week

You could work: evenings / weekends; on a rota

3.8%
Future employment

There will be 3.8% more Occupational health nurse jobs in 2027.

Day to day tasks

In this role you could:

  • carry out pre-employment medical checks
  • assess and treat employees who are injured or become ill at work
  • provide counselling and support
  • give advice on health education, health and safety and sickness absence
  • carry out risk assessments and keep employee health records

Working environment

You may need to wear a uniform.

You could work in an NHS or private hospital or at a client's business.

Your working environment may be physically demanding.

You can get into this job through an apprenticeship or by working towards this role.

Apprenticeship

If you're a qualified registered nurse or midwife, you could do a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse Level 7 Degree Apprenticeship.

This usually takes a year and 6 months to complete and is a mix of learning at work and study at an accredited university.

Entry requirements

To do this apprenticeship, you'll need:

  • to be a registered nurse
For more information
  • search for apprenticeships on NHS Jobs|https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate
Work

You could apply to become an occupational health nurse if you're already a registered nurse and have the support of your employer.

You could take a qualification like an approved programme in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing - Occupational Health Nursing (SCPHN - OHN).

There's usually no minimum amount of post-registration experience needed. However entry requirements can vary between universities who offer the programme.

More information

Further information

You can find out more about how to become an occupational health nurse from Health Careers.

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With experience you could:move into management and lead a team of occupational health staff or run an occupational health centre; become self-employed and work as an occupational health consultant; work for a private company; take extra qualifications and go into nurse education or research

Skills required and how your skills match up

What skills are required?

You'll need:

  • knowledge of medicine and dentistry
  • sensitivity and understanding
  • a desire to help people
  • the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
  • the ability to work well with others
  • thinking and reasoning skills
  • to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
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