Are you angry about the NMC OSCE???

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I wonder if there is anyone out there who, like me, who has been slogging through the NMC application process and has taken or will take the OSCE? Are any of you ANGRY about the OSCE? I am.

Those of us applying to be registered in the UK have been put through the ringer, been vetted in every way imaginable (references, one year of practical experience required, education hours, training hours, IELTS, etc), and the fact that they add a practical test on top of that is just redundant, unnecessary, and a huge waste of time and resources for everyone. Especially amid the UK nursing shortage, when they should be facilitating the immigration of well-qualified nurses, not hindering us!

I recently took the OSCE and failed the skills section for absolutely bogus and arbitrary reasons. But before finding out that I had a "partial fail", I initially came out of that test feeling confident, like I had done well, and there is no way they would judge me to be an incompetent nurse. But despite my feeling that I performed well, I also emerged from the test simultaneously angry and frustrated, for having just committed 5 weeks of my life to stressing, floundering through disorganized, overabundant study materials on the Nile website, and traveling across the world... all for a test that clearly has nothing to do with assessing a nurse's competence. All the OSCE succeeds in testing is our willingness to jump through meaningless hoops and pay excessive fees!

The fact that we are subjected to this psychological roller coaster is infuriating... especially from an organization whose bedrock is the holistic caretaking of all people!

And why the exorbitant fees? Why do we have to repay the fee if we sit again for the test? Exactly whose pockets are we lining? The whole thing just rubs me the wrong way.

I'm just appalled at what I and others have been through with the OSCE. I plan to appeal my test result and also lodge a complaint both with the University of Northampton and the NMC, who are the controllers of the OSCE. If anyone is interested, I will share what I write, and I encourage ANYONE who is frustrated to write to the NMC and make yourself heard!!!

Oh how odd, the job offer states in latter 'supervised practice nurse (band 3)'. That's alright though. Thank you for the links~ I will go through them.

And yes, I have learned Royal Brompton will put me in a preceptorship program of 6 months to aid in the transition to staff nurse. I'd assume that is part of it. I'll be taking extra courses and study my butt off as well, for the OSCE. I heard I can take 3 months to get used to things there before I take the exam the first time~ So that's good to hear.

Hello all, I would like to chime in on this because I just took the OSCE Part 2 yesterday. I spent a lot of time researching ahead of time about what to expect (including reading these message boards). Nevertheless, having completed the IELTS and OSCE Part 1 back in 2016, and waiting over a year to receive authorization for Part 2, I decided to give it a try (and the international flights from the US and hotel/transportation costs that go with it). I can certainly validate that the frustrations and observations on this message board are very accurate. I am a military critical care nurse with 9 years of experience in hospitals and field environments, and am confident in my skill and ability. I left the exam feeling very discouraged, and felt like an idiot while I was taking it. Yes, I could have studied more. Yes, I've only used EMR during my career (and this is all paper documentation). Nonetheless, I don't know if further preparation would have made a difference! I have not received my results yet, but I am completely sure I did not pass. Without going into too much detail, I also strongly agree that the exam in no way safely measures competence, no was it by any means a fair or accurate measure of my skill or ability. I do not plan to resit the exam, until the process is improved. The troubling thing is, none of things they were testing nor measuring are difficult, and I am more than capable of all of it. Yet, there is less than a 50% pass rate. Why? They are eliminating a lot of good, qualified people who WANT to live and work in the UK. Add me to the list of fails! I sympathize with you all.

Specializes in Practice educator.
Hello all, I would like to chime in on this because I just took the OSCE Part 2 yesterday..

You put it very well.

It is a measure of whether or not you can sit an exam, and a poorly constructed exam at that, it is not a measure of whether you are a competent nurse. A more flawed system for competency could not be found.

Also bear in mind that it was previously £1000/£500 to resit and you had to resit the whole or half the exam even if you failed just 1 thing. For example if you failed Implementation (Drugs) you previously had to sit ALL of the APIE stations, now you only have to sit the 15 minute Implementation. So you will see second time pass rates jump a lot after this.

But guess what, you're still paying £500 for the pleasure of that 15 minute station!

The NMC do know how to milk every penny out of you. They're like the Mafia right now.

These guys are supposed to be testing your ability to safely administer drugs to a patient, and they give you 15 minutes. 15 minutes! Farce, con, joke and any other negative adjective you can come up with is a good use for OSCE.

I took the exam and passed it. I had 1 month of preparation and all. I strongly agree that OSCE is not a measurement to be a competent nurse. In fact, we are not doing only 15 minutes for each procedures to patient in real settings. We do not pressure ourselves and rush everything. For me, the OSCE is not difficult, it is just the time and the nerves that hold us back. If you really want to be a UKRN , then just follow their rules to get your PIN. If not, then do not bother to do it.

That's great you got a month of preparation. Did you train up in the UK? Many of the people taking the test are sponsored and trained up by a hospital in the UK. I'd imagine practical preparation in the UK would be very helpful. This is because it is more of a test of HOW you do things, and not WHAT you know. And the OSCE way is the ONLY way that flies.

If you fly over from the US or another country just to take the test (like I did) coming from your RN job that you do everyday, it really puts you at a large disadvantage. In my case, theoretical preparation alone was not enough. It is not a knowledge test or a critical thinking test, but more of a "can you do it EXACTLY our way" type of test.

Specializes in Practice educator.
That's great you got a month of preparation. Did you train up in the UK? Many of the people taking the test are sponsored and trained up by a hospital in the UK. I'd imagine practical preparation in the UK would be very helpful. This is because it is more of a test of HOW you do things, and not WHAT you know. And the OSCE way is the ONLY way that flies.

If you fly over from the US or another country just to take the test (like I did) coming from your RN job that you do everyday, it really puts you at a large disadvantage. In my case, theoretical preparation alone was not enough. It is not a knowledge test or a critical thinking test, but more of a "can you do it EXACTLY our way" type of test.

Yes, we give all our nurses at least 60 days to practice, I think our fastest start to pass is just under 2 months, but the average is more.

Our lowest amount of paid study time is 60 hours, our most is 127.5 hours the average being 89 hours. This in no way includes the 3 or 4 times as much personal practice they do.

If you can't take a member of staff of the wards and have them sit the exam and pass I think there is something flawed with the system.

Specializes in OR.

Hi future UK nurses, I just took OSCE and it is year one of nursing school all over again. It is simple tasks but when the examiner is staring at you with a clipboard it just rattles your nerves! I said my mistakes and hopefully I get positive points for that. But seriously we are RNs that have gone through years of school and they are insulting us by making us pay all this money and test us on procedures that we do all the time. How about the ICU or Theater nurses that rarely give pills by mouth or give injections. Everything is given IV in the hospital.

I just cross my fingers that I did ok and I also got a job offer the next day but that will depend my OSCE of course. Good luck to you all!

Specializes in Practice educator.

OSCE is much improved now, the pass rate has shot up due to simple but obviously needed changes. it went from 40% to about 80% and our trust now has a 100% pass rate in the last 8 months.

I am no longer angry about the OSCE, even though it is a flawed silly competency test.

Hi There,

I am a Registered Mental Health Nurse in Canada. I have received my decision letter and have been allowed to take the OSCE for my RN3 Mental Health Nursing registration. I am quite nervous about this test as there is not a lot of study material available to me. Also, I am not going through a trust or agency so I won't be able to familiarize myself with units or equiptment prior to the test. Are there OSCE training classes that I can register with to help prepare for this costly exam. I am moving to the UK at the end of the month and plan to take the test in May 2019.

Thank you.

Specializes in Practice educator.
9 hours ago, reneemadeline said:

Hi There,

I am a Registered Mental Health Nurse in Canada. I have received my decision letter and have been allowed to take the OSCE for my RN3 Mental Health Nursing registration. I am quite nervous about this test as there is not a lot of study material available to me. Also, I am not going through a trust or agency so I won't be able to familiarize myself with units or equiptment prior to the test. Are there OSCE training classes that I can register with to help prepare for this costly exam. I am moving to the UK at the end of the month and plan to take the test in May 2019.

Thank you.

I work for one such place but I'm not here to advertise my own courses so I shall share some information from google.

https://www.nursingjobsuk.co.uk/training/osce-training

https://yeovilhospital.co.uk/jobs/international-nursing-overseas-recruitment/candidate-looking-for-job/osce-training/

http://cec.hscni.net/Courses/Details/3257

I actually didn't see any more but I'm sure there are.

I don't really mind who you use but you must do one if you're going to be unsupported where you work, or you will end up failing your first exam for sure which could cost you another £500-1000 just for the resit.

I would also recommend you check out these pass rates before choosing which centre to sit your actual exam in. https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/joining-the-register/register-nurse-midwife/trained-outside-the-eueea/pass-rates-and-candidate-numbers/

Happy to be pm'd.

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