Anyone In California

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any uk nurses workin in california particualary with ogp what are conditions like

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Specializes in ICU,ANTICOAG,ACUTE STROKE,EDU,RESEARCH.

Hi

I spoke to OGP re sponsorship and wasn't impressed with their payor the fact that they were offering only nights and full time, especially when I have 10 years ICU experience. I suggest you visit the International nursing forum to get info from UK RNs actually working there.

There are some bad things said about OGP. Most recomend doing it yourself,rather than any agency- I am!

Good Luck

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
Hi

I spoke to OGP re sponsorship and wasn't impressed with their payor the fact that they were offering only nights and full time, especially when I have 10 years ICU experience. I suggest you visit the International nursing forum to get info from UK RNs actually working there.

There are some bad things said about OGP. Most recomend doing it yourself,rather than any agency- I am!

Good Luck

i think its too late for me and topscot ogp own us already :uhoh3: :rolleyes:

:chuckle

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Specializes in ICU,ANTICOAG,ACUTE STROKE,EDU,RESEARCH.

OK.So how are you finding them? Interested to know what experience and academic quals you've got .I am concerned that as once I've passed NCLEX I have to find an employer who will petition for Green Card from me and as they have to prove they cannot fill the post with a US nurse it's probably going to be at the bottom end and nights anyway.

I am hoping that as as well as ICU experience I'm working as an Anticoag CNS

and have also got 4 years od acute stroke clinical trials experience.However ,I don't have a Masters.

We (hub and son ) are looking at North Carolina.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
OK.So how are you finding them? Interested to know what experience and academic quals you've got .I am concerned that as once I've passed NCLEX I have to find an employer who will petition for Green Card from me and as they have to prove they cannot fill the post with a US nurse it's probably going to be at the bottom end and nights anyway.

I am hoping that as as well as ICU experience I'm working as an Anticoag CNS

and have also got 4 years od acute stroke clinical trials experience.However ,I don't have a Masters.

We (hub and son ) are looking at North Carolina.

I think you may find when you get here you may have to work Med/surg ward on nights but there are day jobs. They will only be interested in your RN qualification and you will work as a staff nurse. Your experience may help but realisically nurses from the Uk are completly different than the nurses from the US, we have a very different job and in my opinion the only thing we are similiar in are the machines and the patients. US nurses have a completly different way of working and have different responsibilities.

The hardest thing to remember is that they have no understanding or concept of how we work in the UK, we are the ones who have to adapt and understand this, and this is the bit I believe is why we have difficulty in settling initially. The hospital jargon is different and people do have some difficulty in understanding what you want, so sometimes it takes a long time to get what you want, but you quickly learn the equivilent words and can then ask and get what you want asap. I sometimes forget and quickly substitute the word. Everything and I mean everything is abreviated, and some of the abreviations have different meanings in the UK.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
OK.So how are you finding them? Interested to know what experience and academic quals you've got .I am concerned that as once I've passed NCLEX I have to find an employer who will petition for Green Card from me and as they have to prove they cannot fill the post with a US nurse it's probably going to be at the bottom end and nights anyway.

I am hoping that as as well as ICU experience I'm working as an Anticoag CNS

and have also got 4 years od acute stroke clinical trials experience.However ,I don't have a Masters.

We (hub and son ) are looking at North Carolina.

I wouldnt worry too much about this in most states there are hundreds of jobs. There is a huge massive nursing shortage in the US. I would recommend coming via a hospital, I came with OGP and they have been very supportive recently. But your wages are less. If you come via a hospital there are lots of perks but it may take up to 3 years to get here. They are slower at processing. Where as agencies tend on the whole to work quicker they are a business and if they cant get you over here they dont get paid.

My friend and I considering writing a handbook of some kind to help the UK nurses, it may help to prepare the way-anyhow it cant do any halm. We are aware that it may also help the Irish/Aussie nurses too, most of the other countries dont have the same big mouths as we do from the Uk, so adapt better. Unfortunatly UK/Irish nurses and Aussie nurses question everything, because we are taught to do that-that is not the way here. Whilst the US nurses do question it is not the same, and people feel quite intimidated by our approach. This is not just my opinion but where I work there are lots of UK/Aussie and Irish nurses and they all have a hard time initially because we question practice and proceedures. We all aggree when you shut up you settle in-obviously sometimes you cant but hey you cant teach old dogs new tricks. By old I mean the majority of UK nurses are over 30 and been qualified for ages and I have met loads over 40, nobody over here and I mean nobody has come from the Uk as a D grade they have all been very experienced nurses who have management experience. All the nurses I have met from Uk have got in excess of 10 years post qualification nursing experience. When you arrive here you will be bottom of the career ladder-that is difficult to come to terms with and a is bitter pill to swollow. Even if you have a master degree in your chosen subject, you will still be treated like a new grad.

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Specializes in ICU,ANTICOAG,ACUTE STROKE,EDU,RESEARCH.

Thanks Kay

All that talk about big mouths- mmmm ,I will find it difficult .As you say any nurse worth their salt will question (?an order) if they are not happy .So you are saying that this is not hte case in the US.

Do you find that some patients on ICU in the states would be looked after on the wards in the UK ie if someone looks like they might be heading towards sepsis/pneumonia etc they will send them to ICU earlier? Just something I read ages ago on here made me think this might be the case.

How do you find basic nursing care over there? I gather RNs don't touch ventilators or provide much basic nursing care

Sue

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OK.So how are you finding them? Interested to know what experience and academic quals you've got .I am concerned that as once I've passed NCLEX I have to find an employer who will petition for Green Card from me and as they have to prove they cannot fill the post with a US nurse it's probably going to be at the bottom end and nights anyway.

I am hoping that as as well as ICU experience I'm working as an Anticoag CNS

and have also got 4 years od acute stroke clinical trials experience.However ,I don't have a Masters.

We (hub and son ) are looking at North Carolina.

With a green card, then you figured into the quotient like any American-trained nurse. You definitely do not get the bottom of the pile, unless your agency does that to you. And some agecneis will, remember that you get shift differential, and the agecny gets either a percentage of what you make, or $5 per hour off of the top of each hour that you work.

If going the agency route, look for one that places you in a direct hire position directly with a hospital. And stay away from any that are trying to place you in nursing homes, no place for a new foreign nurse in the US.

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Specializes in ICU,ANTICOAG,ACUTE STROKE,EDU,RESEARCH.

Suzanne

But if I don't go agency route I will need a job offer so that they can petition me for Green Card- is that correct? This is only way to get a green card?

Have posted on recent thread on international forum re agencies to try and find who good ones are

Cheers

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well nearly in california.......in reno right now. 10 miles from the californian border. I lucked out with ogp and had a good time doing my 18 months in the caribbean, on nights by choice, I could have stayed on days, the pay is definitely less with them but I did ok out of them. through choice I have signed up with another agency, but to be quite honest had just as much hassle with them to get here. but the pay and benefits are much better now that I have finished with them. it is a lot different being an american nurse, they speak english but not the way that we speak it, and they have abreviations for everything and of course they spell things differently as well so it doesnt always make sense to us. a totally different way of working, working in california , they like you to do 8 hour shifts on days because of the regulations there that make some agencys pay you overtime after the 8 hours. it all depends on the contracts and where your agency is based, I dont know how you would come off signing directly with the hospital.

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