American Resident, British Trained: CGFNS help?

[Kabenn]

Hi,

Sorry if this has been asked before but I cannot find an answer anywhere.

I trained in the UK with a DipHe in Adult nursing graduating in 2013, at beginning of 2015 I moved to the US with my husband who is an American citizen in the USAF.

I have decided to try and purse nursing here but I have no idea how to go about this. I have looked in all forums and they are people trying to move from the UK to here and seem to be discussing visas which is not my problem. I was advised to submit my credentials through CGFNS.org, is this correct? I understand I will need to take some more classes but I don't understand how to go about any of this!

Should I apply through CGFNS and they will tell me what classes I need to take?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Many Thanks

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

From the nursing Board point of view, you are just an international nursing graduate totally equal with any other such grad from Philippines, China or Russia. Sorry but that's the truth. It doesn't matter for them if you are US citizen or not

You should apply through CGFNS and go through their motions. Meanwhile, make copies of your transcripts and start shopping around local nursing programs. You need to find one which will be able to include you as a student for incomplete course. Counting that you graduated as an adult nurse, you possibly might need credits in Peds and Obgyn, so ask about these courses. Optimally, you can also do whatever coursework to make it up to US BSN and do not spend a fortune on it. Pay very close attention to school's credentials. As your education is already (and, sorry to say it but it might happen) will be considered of "second class" just because it is "foreign", whatever coursework you do here in States must be of high quality, not from diploma mill.

If CGFNS says that you do not need additional coursework, the better for you. Just take NCLEX, passing it and start working!

[etphonehome1]

I spent so much time looking for information through out the last few years on this site so I thought maybe I'd share my story. I am an American citizen who studied abroad in the U.K. I completed my bachelors degree and worked for a few years in surgical units in England and Wales. I decided to go back to the States and started the cgfns process in october 2014. I was expecting and prepared for there to be a deficit in my education and I have very few pediatric or maternity hours. I spent months hassling the cgfns, because they are honestly pretty awful to deal with. I would get messages from them that they didn't receive my information from the school, and the nmc. I was constantly bugging people to get confirmation that information was being processed and getting vague responses. This went on for 10 months. The evaluation was finally completed then I applied for a nursing license from the State of Oregon. From there, things started to look up! They gave me authorization to test after about a month, I gave myself some extra time to study. Took the ncsbn review course for international nurses, and also studied with uworld. I took the nclex saturday, and passed with 75 questions! study and don't give up! it's a process but you can get there!