Clinical hours short of NMC suggestion?

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First of all, I really hope Silverdragon reads this and gives me insight.

I have sent out my application as well as all of my paperwork to the NMC for my nursing license, except my training form. I was trained in the US at an accredited University and received my bachelor degree, which consisted of three full years of nursing training and one year of prerequisites.

I have been working for two years as a theatre nurse.

I passed my IELTS with 9's acrossed the board.

I have had my licensure body fill out the paper and mailed it.

The two references are filled out and mailed.

In other words, I fulfill all the requirements of licensure in the UK thus far.

My concern is: when the dean of my university took my transcripts, she needed to convert the credit hours to actual hours. The clinical hours that she calculated up was in the six hundreds. The NMC suggests approximately two thousand hours for clinical time.

How can there be such a difference?

Will this affect my ability to be licensed in the uk?

I am frustrated that with all of the work and money I've spent on this, that it may not come to fruition. In addition, I am moving to the UK next April regardless of the decision of the NMC, as I will be going on a spousal visa. But I am also aware that there is no more clinical training hours that I could have possibly taken to add up to their suggestion.

Am I missing something?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Heather

Specializes in med/onc; cardiology;.

BabyRN,

I actually did read all the posts in this thread..thankfully. Im still confused tho lol It is something that I really want, as I see it is with others as well. I don't think that I understand calculating the hours, to be honest. The hours that I posted were actual hours spent int eh clinical setting just added up, but isnt there an actual formula that is used? What about time spent in skills laboratory and clinical preparation? Does that count? I know some schools do not require chart studies the nite before clinical, but mine did. I would often spend two hours going through my patient's record, then coming home after an hour drive and finishing up preparation for the next day, which would often take me up to three hours (I went to a very strict school, and they would send you home if you didnt know the answer to a simple question).

I also came from a school where 75 was a failing grade. I find that is everywhere but there are also more schools that consider a lower grade as passing. It was just an over all tough school and if you made it through then it was quite an accomplishment (as it is anywhere really!). Just nightmare-ish and I often equate it to military boot camp lol! thank you for sharing your insight with me, I truly appreciate it!

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Generally it is required that your training matches UK training which for most people is just over 3 years full time in university. For several years the UK training has changed and for most it is specialised with options to only do Adult nursing, mental Health nursing or Paeds nursing. Midwifery is totally different and a course on it's own. For the ones doing Adult, mental Health or Paeds the first 18 months is a foundation course and the last 18 months becomes more specialised but even then many students do not gain experience in all areas enabling them to be general trained making it easier to register as a RN in both Canada as well as the US. Presently UK training is either diploma or degree level but from 2013 all nurse training will be at BSN level

Specializes in med/onc; cardiology;.

Silverdragon,

Thank you for explaining that to me! Oh my, I am wracking my brain trying to figure this out... and i honestly did not know this forum existed as I just joined today. I also do not know quite how to use this site either so it will take me som e time to get used to it :)

Interestingly, 2013 is the year that many changes will take place here in the US as well. I am working toward my BSN, and am very close to finishing (will be finished in 2012). After which I would love to continue on and get my masters and be a nurse practitioner. In 2013, a PhD will be required for NPs. Also, BSN will be required in all states, as of timing I don't know, but ADNs will no longer be eligible to work in the US. Many facilities are requiring BSN now as well. I lived an hour from Boston last year and every hospital I looked at required the BSN no matter how many years of experience you have. While discouraging, it makes sense in that evidence shows better patient outcomes with bachelor prepared nurses. The movement has begun! Im' glad I'm doing it now to be honest :)

Specializes in NICU.

A PhD will NOT be required of NPs, although a DNP may be. In actuality, it's a guideline posted by the AACN, not a requirement (and it's 2015, NOT 2013). There are many universities who are not complying with this recommendation. There is also no truth in the ADNs not being eligible. There are some states that have lobbied that one makes it so you have to get it within a certain number of years, but by no means is this every state.

Try not to post information unless you're sure of the information because you inadvertently mislead others and discourage those that may seek an advanced path but do not want all extra work you've described.

edit: it's actually the AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing), not the ANA like I originally described. Link in my next post.

Specializes in med/onc; cardiology;.

BabyRn,

well, excuse me. I find that your a little rude. and Yes, the information that I posted is INDEED true, as told to me by a friend who has a PhD and is also the director of a prestigious nursing college that is part of an ivy league military university!

I simply was sharing information that I know is accurate, also where I am currently working toward my BSN, it has also been said by faculty there as well. I think they would know.

Have a nice day.

Specializes in NICU.

If I sound a little off-putting, it's because you're wrong and it's frustrating to me when people post such grossly inaccurate information. You didn't even get the year right! Perhaps what you're referring to is at a specific school, but in no way is it to the country.

Any simple search would tell you that...to anyone reading this: please do a search so that you know for yourself instead of taking our words for it.

A doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) is clinically-based and is what this person is supposed to be referring to. A PhD is research-based. There is no way at all that a PhD is going to be required. I doubt the DNP will be required, in any case, the way things are looking at this point. I imagine that MSNs are here to stay for a long while past 2015...

edit: here's a link from the AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing)--the folks who have put this forward:

http://www.aacn.nche.edu/DNP/dnpfaq.htm

Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

Back on topic please guys, this is about nursing in the UK so if you want to discuss anything else take it to a new thread in the relevant forum please.

Off topic will be deleted

Everyone,

As of two days ago, a staffer at the NMC who is a decision maker on applications informed me that accelerated BSNs will not be accepted. It was a pleasant (sort of) fluke that I got her number, which was given to me by the ever-friendly and uber helpful recruiting staff at Continental Travel Nurse. They are excellent and I highly recommend calling them for guidance. I have called the NMC before, but was unable to get anyone with real insight, therefore I agreed to move to my husband's home country without the facts. They should simply add to the website the direct verbage, "If you are an American nurse with an accelerated BSN, please do not apply." Just as they do with the ADN, etc.

Since it's been established that there are American BSNs with NMC approval, that also fell short of the requirements set out by the NMC, I'm wondering what the criteria is for dismissing the accelerated program? Baby RN -- were you able to include courses like Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, etc. to your total theoretical hour count? If so, I would be perplexed as to why the contact at the NMC said that these are prerequisites which are necessary to "commence the nursing program and cannot be included in the count." She did emphasize that their policies are based on EU and immigration law, thereby NMC's hands are tied.

All of this sounds a bit confusing. I will be meeting with our local MP, to see if he can help me sort out the immigration and legal side of the policy. As for fighting tooth and nail for NMC registration, although this has devastated our plans to be in the U.K., they can keep it, and I will continue to be a happy, contributing member of American society. And at least the NMC offered me a refund for my application fee.

Specializes in adult med/surg.

Hey, congrats Helricha! I appreciate your conversions etc. I was wondering if you could give me a little more info about the letter your dean wrote for you? Was it on University letterhead? Did you also have to get an 'official seal' on the letter? Was it addressed to the NMC in business letter format? Was it straight to the point of explaining the conversions, or did it include any other info? Thanks so much and good luck!

Specializes in adult med/surg.
Helricha,

Congrats on getting your acceptance letter. I just saw your post and 100% understand what you have been going through as I received my acceptance letter about 2 weeks before you and started this process with the IELTS on June 19th.

I was also concerned about the difference between credits vs hours and possibly not having enough, but apparently, its not as big of an issue as it leads you to believe. For the conversions, I ended up doing the entire thing myself and hand walking the form to each of the schools I attended and having someone in authority sign and seal it for me. Otherwise, NO ONE had a clue of what I was asking them to do except for the head of the program at NAU, who was an amazing person and was able to get a PDF file of the worksheet I designed for conversion and do everything else on her own.

I will be starting my ONP course in Jan at Bournemouth. What are your plans for taking that course?

Sarah

Hi Sarah. Congrats! How was the ONP class? I'm also hoping to take it at Bournemouth Uni ASAP! My application is complete thus far, minus the credit conversion sheet. My Uni hasnt been very helpful thus far, so I was interested in talking to you in regard to your experience converting credits to hours. How many did you end up submitting for theory and clinical hours? What did you submit to the NMC as an explanation of how your Uni converts credits to hours? I read in one post by Helricha stating that her dean wrote a letter explaining the breakdown to the NMC for her...did you do anything like this? My Uni has been so unhelpful that I dont think they could even write such a letter! Any suggestions? Also, once you got your approval letter, what was the process like applying to the ONP? I'm hoping to mail the final piece of my NMC application this week and fingers crossed I get approved, I'm really hoping to take the ONP class at Bournemouth Uni that starts April 20th. Do you think this is feasible if all goes well with my NMC app? Thanks so much for your time and insight. Hope things are going well for you!

I would like to know whether NMC takes into consideration the annual leave time period into the experience of a candidate. Or are they asking for specific hours to be done in a certain time period for calculating the experience?

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Have you tried asking the NMC? they are usually very approachable when asking questions.

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