At impasse with school in US, moving to UK

[Pecosjd]

I don't know if this is the appropriate forum but I am a pre nursing student, aspiring CNM

I'm going to be done with my prerequisites for an accelerated BSN program (already have a BA in psychology) in May and have been planning on applying for schools after that.

However, I am facing a few different options. I am in a serious long distance relationship (boyfriend is from England and lives there). We are wanting to start visa processes and get married in the next 1 or 2 years. If I get into a BSN program, I won't be done until mid 2017, at which point I would immediately move to England (for 2 years, not permanently). From what I understand it's difficult to work there as a nurse from the US, maybe this belongs in the international nursing or nursing in the UK forum, this is why I wasn't sure, haha.

Ideally I would move there and attend nursing school (I want to be a midwife so training there would be nice), however there are hoops to jump through transferring my existing credits to be accepted into school there and then hoops to jump through transferring a UK attained nursing certification to work in the US afterwards.

One option could be obtaining doula certification in the UK (fairly simple to do, as in the US) to keep myself in my desired field and get another part time job.

I know I want to be a nurse but the timing of school and life is going out of whack and advice from other nurses would be so nice.

Thanks so much for reading!

Jill

[spacemonkey15]

Hi there,

I'm a UK based nurse, while I don't know about how easy it is to come and work here as a US trained nurses I've found a couple of links that may be of use to you. The UK's Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a professional body and trade union, the webpage I've found has the email address of someone who may be able to help you out here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/support/services/immigration_advice_service

Also, the UK's regulatory body for nursing, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, they have a booklet you can download as a pdf which may be useful to you here: Trained outside Europe | Nursing and Midwifery Council

If you're planning on coming over here then hoping to train as a nurse you'll probably be in for a bit of a wait, you have to be resident here for a set amount of time until you can apply for funding to go to university and train as a nurse, there's no option to self fund over here, all courses are ran through the NHS and finding comes from them. We also treat midwifery as a separate profession to nursing, they have their own separate part on the nursing register and they train separately to nurses, there is scope for people trained as nurses in the UK to do a top up shortened course to train as a midwife though. Due to the timescales involved, you might be better off completing your training in the US (though you'll need to work for a set period following qualifying there to be able to register here I think).

I hope this is of some use to you.

[elkpark]

As you note, there are problems with movement in both directions (US-trained nurse practicing in UK, UK-trained nurse practicing in US). I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but I believe I have seen others post here in the past that the US accelerated BSN degree is not accepted for licensure in the UK because it doesn't include enough hours. That would certainly be something to look into before you commit to an ABSN program. Also be aware that midwifery training in the UK is different from here, and UK midwives are not able to get certified as nurse midwives here (without returning to school and completing a CNM program). I don't know whether there is a problem with practicing as a CPM (non-nurse midwife), but there are limited opportunities for CPM practice in the US (not all states recognize them and allow them to practice).

Best wishes!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials -

However, if you have spent much time here on AN, you will have seen that it is always a bad idea for any new grad to 'put off' getting that first job after graduation, no matter what the reason. This is a red flag to potential employers. I know of many organizations who will simply not hire an inexperienced new grad > 6 months after graduation. Since you know for sure that you will be moving to England, why not just delay your nursing education plans until you return to the US?

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

An ABSN is not accepted by the nmc due to serious lacking in sufficient clinical hours. It's virtually impossible to meet UK minimums in a one year ABSN program.

The best answer is always to train/go to nursing school in the country where you intend to live and work. It's not that simple as not all countries feel the need to open their doors to international students like the US does.

UK nursing is specialized training whereas the U.S. & Canada are generalist training.