Difference between nursing in the UK vs nursing in the US?

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Seems everyone's legging it from the UK to the US. What's the deal?

pharmacy hand delivered a 30 ml pca cartridge to me as the narcotic was fentanyl and had to be especially mixed, it was wrapped in an a4 piece of paper,,,,,picked the paper up and the whole thing slipped to the flor and smashed, another nurse and i just wasted it in the medselect. good job i wasnt being charged !!!

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I have never known anyone to be charged in the US for a wasted med. Accidents happen.

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Hi, I am a new member. I really am interested in moving to england and working as an RN. Can anyone tell me what the usual pt to RN ratio is? What is the average pay rate for an RN? If you are a US RN working in england, would you recommend it? My husband is also in nursing school right now so he would be able to work there too. We have to wait until he has at least one year of experience. I really would like some candid opinions on this subject. Thanks.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi, I am a new member. I really am interested in moving to england and working as an RN. Can anyone tell me what the usual pt to RN ratio is? What is the average pay rate for an RN? If you are a US RN working in england, would you recommend it? My husband is also in nursing school right now so he would be able to work there too. We have to wait until he has at least one year of experience. I really would like some candid opinions on this subject. Thanks.

Hi and welcome to the site

Couple of starting points for the UK are NMC Internet Working in the UK - Home and RCN: Agenda for Change - Pay and Conditions - Pay 2006

Patient ratio will vary depending in what area you work in ITU CCU usually 1:1 or 1:2 whilst working on the wards can be much higher. I used to work on a ward that used to the ratio of 3 RN's for 28 patients.

Things may change in the next 12 months but currently a lot of financial difficulties are being experienced by hospitals with nurses being laid off and nursing students qualifying are uable to find a job. Also with immigration hospitals now have to employ nurses first from the UK then the EU and lastly elsewhere in the world. If they employ not following this they have to prove that they have tried UK and EU and people was not suitable. Also before you can apply for work permit you have to go through the NMC and get your number which can take up to 12 months to do.

Another website to check out nursing jobs is Nursing Times - Home

Good luck

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Specializes in med/surg.

Just to add to SD's post nursing in the UK is no longer a schedule "A" job & foreign nurses are not able to get work permits at present.

This will change, I can almost guarantee it because, as usual, the NHS is cutting off it's nose to spite it's face. In fact just today on the news there's a report out that says that within 3 years we're going to be really short of nurses. Now there's a suprise!!

In my NHS job we had 1-2 RN's & 1-2 HCA's to 16 patients, the higher number on good days (which became fewer & further between as the year progessed & the budget started to be used up). Now I'm in the private sector & the ratio is a maximum 1:5.

You do know that the wages here versus the cost of living is horrendous don't you? A recent report showed that when you add in all the hidden & known taxes we lose about 50% of our wages in the UK to the treasury. 50% of not a lot is tiny!!

Ward nurses can't afford to buy a house in over 95% of the UK now & we are officially the lowest paid public sector skilled workers, lagging some £8000 behind teachers & £10000 behind the police. Personally if I wanted to nurse abroad from the USA I'd look to Canada, Australia or New Zealand, at least you'd get to keep your lifestyle!!

As for me - I'm coming to your side of the pond!!

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I had 20 yrs experience in UK and have been in FL for 5 years.

There is very little similarity between the 2 - both have excellent and terible points. There was more autonomy in UK - and I honestly feel the "ward-based" training I did was excellent compared to the college based they offer here.

When I first came here I felt like I was starting a whole new proffession - not sure if I could cope with nursing in Uk again now - certainly couldn't cope with the pay!

If I had to choose - US any day

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THanks for all of the advice. I actually do about 6-8 patients by myself right now so the ratio is about the same. We wont be able to even begin to look at coming to the UK for about two and half to three years so hopefully things will be better. Im not looking to buy a house there, Im not much of a homeowner type. I think we could probably handle the decrease in pay. Mainly we really just want to experience living in a different country and do some traveling for about a year or so. I will continue to do research on the subject. We are also looking at working in Australia and new zealand, ireland and maybe scotland. Thanks again for your advice.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

The lack of Annual leave/sick leave in the US is a killer

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Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
So do nurses in the UK not start IVs?

not everyone cannulates

my clinicla background is Emergency Department / assessment units - nearly all of us cannaulte in both those settings, same in critical care / CCU opther areas it depends, - the key facotr really is how often you are likely to use the skill

Are you allowed to give IV push meds?

generally yes often a preceptorship outcome if not covered pre-reg

A couple of you mentioned that you can give angina meds at your own discretion, does this mean that you have a standing/prn order from the pt's doc or are you able to prescribe these meds yourself?

or a patient group direction for the clinical area

e.g. when working in the Emergency dept we had PGDs in place for

-analgesia at initial assesmsent ( paracetamol, paracetamol/ codeine / ibuprofen, and the NPS had a few more options)

- local anesthesia for wound closure, finger injuries and where indicated for eyes

- aspirin and GTN for cardiac chest pain

the Nurse practitioners had a whole further list around their practice

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Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
Starting pay for nurses in the UK is £19,166 which is staring band 5 money for a registered nurse, before you get your registeration you get paid at band 3 which is £14,037.

Hope this helps.

but it doesn't take account of the unsocial hours payments

+ 30% for night shifts, hours worked after2000 hrs if not part of a night shift and any hours on saturday

+60% for sundays and bank holidays

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Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
I have no idea! It's just an old traditional thing that I think has gone on into modern nursing for no good reason. I believe that if you work on a urology ward you are allowed to train to do so, I would also expect that goes for A&E/ICU too. However, if you are on a standard med/surg ward in most places you can't catheterise male patients - so they just have to put up with the discomfort until the doc is free!

Of course I expect things are changing, slowly, I'm sure there are hospitals now that do allow nurses to cath males but not in my area, at least not yet anyway. the biggest reason things might change though is the new cut backs on junior doc hours, I think they'll have to allow nurses to cath males in general wards or some poor blokes bladder's gonna burst!

it's a wierd and wonderful, primarily the not has been becasue of urology docs worried aobut their patients and the difficult catheterisation that soem of their patient's pose

most male RNs in the uk can and do catheterise Males - and it;s the unwritten rule that it's somethign that we will do and female RNs will cath females we (maleRNs ) look after , that said where i work now several of my female colleagues can and do catheterise males

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Hello,

I've read through this thread recently and have a few questions. What is the nursing status now that some time has passed? Are UK grads having a hard time finding jobs/ is there a huge shortage? I am a recent nurse graduate trying to gain experience before I am able to do travel nursing. I am very interested in working in the UK I have researched several travel agencies that advertise that they assist U.S. nurses. Any recommended locations to start/live? I'm not so worried about the pay cuts that I'll endure.. just the transition from moving so far away.

Thanks,

Kristin

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