Are you a US to England Travel nurse

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I have thought of moving from the US to England as a RN.Do you have any experience in this area. What were your challenges? I have seen several UK RN jobs with terms like Band 5 or 6 what does that mean? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Did you acquire a work permit? what was needed in order to work legally in the UK?

Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Thread moved to Nurse Registration forum.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Check out UK Borders website and skilled work permits. There is a time limit on work permits plus the government is talking on changing aspects which nurses will at the moment suffer when trying to renew as they will in most cases not meet required annual pay. Bands are pay scales with nurses starting at band 5. Suggest checking out RCN pay scale on web search. Also plenty of threads discussing application with NMC and the 2 different processes you go through

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Wow, I just read some of the threads on this registration forum! Lots of hoops for foreign graduates. I also had a look at current UK registration for foreign grads (like from the US). Wow again! Things have changed a lot. Lots of work and insane money like $2,000 to endorse over there now. I doubt I would have done it if the hurdles were so high back in 1998 when I worked there. I'm on the register there so I assume I could return fairly easily, or so their website seems to say, as long as I have recent clinical experience.

So I need to tell you that my experience was not good there. I was put into a bad situation on a unit that had not asked for me, and didn't want me. I ended up transferring to a different unit to finish my contract. While the issue was completely political, many US trained nurses have trouble working in other countries (or even USVI) because of very different practices and standards. A nurse that started the same time as me (who also went via Cross Country) only lasted a couple of weeks. I don't have those issues, just be aware that if you have never been to a foreign country, you may not be a happy camper. I've never made a 6 month commitment before (or since although I do extend often), and it just so happened to be my worst assignment ever. I loved England and the English and had been there before, it was just the job. The money was not that great either, but that is not why I went there.

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