Any nurses moved from US to England...and wished they hadn't?

Baboosh123 · Jul 28, 2010

Can someone please help me out? I am absolutely clueless and kind of going crazy:uhoh3:! Just a couple of words about life as a nurse in England and if you are happy...

Thank you

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 28, 2010

Nursing will depend on what experience you have, what speciality you will be in and where you will b working. Getting a work permit may be a hurdle to jump over as well as meeting NMC requirements

5cats · Jul 28, 2010

5 years is a long time, hard to make plans for such a long timeframe, but... I loved England, who knows, if the payment would have been better compared to the extremely high costs of living, maybe I would have stayed, the weather sucks though, all that grey during wintertime.

I had a good job there and could use a lot of my skills and learned some more. But if this, my personal experience will help you in making a decision?

good luck

5cats

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Baboosh123 · Aug 4, 2010

Thank you so much for getting back to me! 5cats, yes, that does help me a bit to hear that you liked your work in England. Most of the things I have heard have been negative things like outrageous nurse to patient ratios and too low of a salary. Did you feel like your workload was a balanced one?

Baboosh123 · Aug 4, 2010

Silverdragon, I have heard so many bad things about being a nurse in England compared to America...like lack of support when continuing education and feeling as if the salary does not fit the job. Were you happy in your work?

Silverdragon102, BSN · Aug 4, 2010

There was times I wasn't happy with my job but generally I was happy but I was fortunate to have good managers that respected their staff and where possible assisted with continual education but generally as well as benefiting myself it had to benefit the unit. Yes I found the pay not as good as it could have been but I do find that nurses generally get pushed around by what ever government is in power and the RCN lets them get away with it. (this is just my opinion and some may not agree)

5cats · Aug 5, 2010

I worked in an ICU in England and our ratio was 1:1 for ventilated Patients, and 1:2 for non ventilated. I think in many ICU's in the US you have a much harder workload, but I must also say, in England the ICU nurse does everything, no RT's and whatsoever, I still prefer that though I must admit, I could do without respiratory therapists :)

5cats

Baboosh123 · Aug 6, 2010

5cats, yes, that is a really good ratio...not what I was expecting lol.

How did you both feel about the fact that there are no LPN's or nursing assistants? Are there any other type of personnel (licensed or unlicensed) who are specifically there to help the RN?

5cats · Aug 6, 2010

We had a unit clerk during the day (8-4) and sometime assistants who would stock up and do vitals and stuff (for the HDU high dependy unit), or the floater would do that. I found it easier to work with RN's only in that unit, but maybe we also had bad luck with some of the nursing assistants. As I said I prefer nursing the whole of my patient and not only part of it :) Gives you also a better idea and even if it's sounds vain, but I still believe I wean the patients much faster from the vent that any of the RT's , just because I'm there all the time and can react quicker.

5cats

Baboosh123 · Aug 8, 2010

5cats thank you for giving me some of your experiences. There might be some hope after all. I think I might visit a hospital and see if I can have a word with some nurses on the floor...or contact a nursing department and see if they can help me as well.

RGN1 · Aug 11, 2010

It so much depends where you work. I was in an acute medical unit where, as the senior RN, I was overall responsible for up to 16 patients!!! I had 2 nursing attendants who are trained to a higher level than you are used to in the USA, so they did vitals & assisted with care. However, my drug round alone (which traditionally in many UK hospitals is done by 1 RN) took up to 2 hours!!! We also had to clean beds & lockers when pts were discharged plus serve, give out & help pts with all meals. I wouldn't want to go back to that for all the tea in China!

In the private hopistal (where I worked in med/surg) our ratio was 1:5 with no other help, it was way better though.

Personally I think the UK pay is completely rubbish, especially in context with the cost of living there. I'm out of it now & can compare. Basically now it's more buck & more bang for my buck!