nternationally trained nurses may want to consider avoiding the UK unless you are desperate, have special connections, or long for a uniquely frustrating experience.
The people of the UK are wonderful and there is a profound nursing shortage here. However, the UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is costly and dysfunctional, especially when it comes to evaluating the skills of internationally trained nurses YET it has been confirmed to me by the UK's Professional Standards Authority that the NMC functions without any accountability to any other UK governing body. The UK's NMC can do and decide whatever it wants.
I have moved to the UK to follow my husband who was transferred for work. I successfully completed a complex and costly immigration process to become a UK resident.
1. However, the NMC has their own far less sophistocated Immigration process. They DO NOT recognize any information collected by the county's Immigration system.
2. If you are an experienced nurse (lots of hand washing) it may be difficult for you to obtain ink fingerprints. However, digital fingerprinting in the UK is only available for criminals, not for nurses needing to prove to the UK that they are not criminals
3. If you suffer extra cost or time waste due to an NMC related error or confusion, that is simply too bad. The NMC will never apologize or even state recognition that they may have done anything wrong. If they present a hoop for you to jump through, a hoop that you have paid significant monies for, and they move the hoop so you miss it then this is your fault and you must pay to try again. Regardless of how redundant this hoop may be, it MUST be jumped simply because the NMC says it must be jumped.
4. The final qualification exam is called an Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE). This exam costs 992 GBP. Most US university trained nurses passed such an exam to graduate. Typically this involves performing skills which you were taught and that you practiced during your training. However, for the NMCs OSCE, the training materials show processes that are inconsistent with the testing scenario. This is particularly problematic for International applicants who've not learned the required procedure in the first place! Further, there is no opportunity to practice prior to being tested. If you fail the NMC will tell you how sorry they are and they will offer you an opportunity to pay another 992 GBP to retest. Some candidates have paid again and passed. The challenge is that the NMC can decide just what is required to pass. There is no recourse, even if you suspect favoritism, and the NMC can be very particular.
5. I was told that the best way for an international nurse to enter the UK system is to take a job as a base level Health Care Associate (HCA). This is minimum pay and may not be particularly satisfying work for master's prepared nurses, but this role is not yet NMC regulated and will provide access to their test practice stations. This is not what I would consider an International application process.
6. Lastly, UK nursing pay is low and capped in the UK while cost of living is quite high, especially in London. And safety is become a greater and greater issue. I have fought my way through NMC processes, standing up for my rights when I've felt I was wronged but my MP (now a key member of the governing parliament) and the Professional Standards Authority have simply redirected my concerns back to the NMC, an agency which must answer to no one. I have been left with the impression that the nursing profession is not respected here in the UK. Nursing in the UK is profoundly over regulated with little autonomy and even less practice sophistocation. In fact the NMC spends most of its government funding to discipline nurses who have successfully completed their NMC testing processes. (think about that)
Yes it is possible for internationally trained nurses to enter the UK system. But, please do think twice especially if you were trained and have been practicing in the US. Certainly the US has its problems, but US trained nurses are some of the best in the world and I do believe that nursing in the US offers more opportunity to our profession than any where else on this planet. If you are bored and looking for a nursing adventure, consider getting a masters or a PhD or moving to another state or opening your own business. But whatever you do, this nurse recommends that you try everything else first and try very hard to Avoid the UK!!
