Clinical hours short of NMC suggestion?

[helricha]

First of all, I really hope Silverdragon reads this and gives me insight.

I have sent out my application as well as all of my paperwork to the NMC for my nursing license, except my training form. I was trained in the US at an accredited University and received my bachelor degree, which consisted of three full years of nursing training and one year of prerequisites.

I have been working for two years as a theatre nurse.

I passed my IELTS with 9's acrossed the board.

I have had my licensure body fill out the paper and mailed it.

The two references are filled out and mailed.

In other words, I fulfill all the requirements of licensure in the UK thus far.

My concern is: when the dean of my university took my transcripts, she needed to convert the credit hours to actual hours. The clinical hours that she calculated up was in the six hundreds. The NMC suggests approximately two thousand hours for clinical time.

How can there be such a difference?

Will this affect my ability to be licensed in the uk?

I am frustrated that with all of the work and money I've spent on this, that it may not come to fruition. In addition, I am moving to the UK next April regardless of the decision of the NMC, as I will be going on a spousal visa. But I am also aware that there is no more clinical training hours that I could have possibly taken to add up to their suggestion.

Am I missing something?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Heather

[helricha]

nursing clinical hours - 1352

nursing didactic hours - 733

total on form - 2085

this did not include any of the two semesters of prerequisites that I had to do including my anatomy, physiology, or microbiology courses.

[ExpatHopeful, LPN, LVN]

Hey Helricha,

How did your program calculate or convert your clinical hours?

[jennilamb007]

I am interested in this as well. I have been held up with the whole conversion from credit hours to actual hours. My university basically told me they wouldn't do the conversion and that I had to figure it out myself. Nice huh? I will say that the Dean of Nursing at least gave me a start but I am still not able to convert to actual hours. I have didactic and lab hours but it isn't what the NMC wants. Please let me know what formula they used if you don't mind. Thank you so much.

[jennilamb007]

Sorry, I should mention I have a BSN from Missouri State University.

[helricha]

Sorry guys.

I was postcall yesterday and still had work my 12 hours...rough week. Here is the info you requested:

After having two different meetings with the dean and having her correct the initial numbers that she put on my form, I ended up with 1352 clinical hours. I don't have my transcript with me as I sent it to the NMC but the website, Degree Requirements: Bachelor of Science in Nursing: Degree Options: School of Nursing: Indiana University

gives an overview of the courses I took but it doesn't break it out from didactic to clinical on the courses.

The dean did the letter which stated how the clinical coursework was calculated.

It states: For every one credit hour of nursing clinical practicum coursework, there are three actual training hours x the number of weeks of the clnical course (typically 16). So for a 3 credit hour clinical course, the formula would be 3 x 3 x 16 = total training hours for that clinical course.

I graduated from Indiana University School of Nursing. The dean was already aware of how to calculate up the credit hours and convert them to actual hours.

The didactic, or theory, portion of the calculations were figured by the university guidelines.

The letter from the dean states:

For every one credit hour of nursing didactic coursework, there are 50 minutes of actual classroom lecture x the number of week of that course (typically 16). So for a 3 credit hour didactic course, the formula would be 3 x 50 minutes x 16 weeks = total classroom hours for that didactic nursing course.

The dean did not include ANY of the courses that were not nurse specific

HTH

[helricha]

Please note in the instructions for the training form that it says that "if your institution uses credits rather than hours, they must tell us how many hours make up a theory credit and how many hours make up a practice credit. Without this important information, we will not be able to process your application."

The dean from my school wrote a letter to fulfill this part.

[MeditationPeace]

sorry guys.

the dean did the letter which stated how the clinical coursework was calculated.

it states: for every one credit hour of nursing clinical practicum coursework, there are three actual training hours x the number of weeks of the clnical course (typically 16). so for a 3 credit hour clinical course, the formula would be 3 x 3 x 16 = total training hours for that clinical course.

i graduated from indiana university school of nursing. the dean was already aware of how to calculate up the credit hours and convert them to actual hours.

the didactic, or theory, portion of the calculations were figured by the university guidelines.

the letter from the dean states:

for every one credit hour of nursing didactic coursework, there are 50 minutes of actual classroom lecture x the number of week of that course (typically 16). so for a 3 credit hour didactic course, the formula would be 3 x 50 minutes x 16 weeks = total classroom hours for that didactic nursing course.

the dean did not include any of the courses that were not nurse specific

hth

helricha, i was going to refer people to the nursing times message board about this, but i think you must be the same poster there who wrote of her experience is sorting this out, so i won't! congratulations for coming through the process so well. :)

[sarahaz]

Helricha,

Congrats on getting your acceptance letter. I just saw your post and 100% understand what you have been going through as I received my acceptance letter about 2 weeks before you and started this process with the IELTS on June 19th.

I was also concerned about the difference between credits vs hours and possibly not having enough, but apparently, its not as big of an issue as it leads you to believe. For the conversions, I ended up doing the entire thing myself and hand walking the form to each of the schools I attended and having someone in authority sign and seal it for me. Otherwise, NO ONE had a clue of what I was asking them to do except for the head of the program at NAU, who was an amazing person and was able to get a PDF file of the worksheet I designed for conversion and do everything else on her own.

I will be starting my ONP course in Jan at Bournemouth. What are your plans for taking that course?

Sarah

[babyNP., APRN]

Helricha,

Congrats on getting your acceptance letter. I just saw your post and 100% understand what you have been going through as I received my acceptance letter about 2 weeks before you and started this process with the IELTS on June 19th.

I was also concerned about the difference between credits vs hours and possibly not having enough, but apparently, its not as big of an issue as it leads you to believe. For the conversions, I ended up doing the entire thing myself and hand walking the form to each of the schools I attended and having someone in authority sign and seal it for me. Otherwise, NO ONE had a clue of what I was asking them to do except for the head of the program at NAU, who was an amazing person and was able to get a PDF file of the worksheet I designed for conversion and do everything else on her own.

I will be starting my ONP course in Jan at Bournemouth. What are your plans for taking that course?

Sarah

Hey guys, just talked with my dean about everything and we came up with a total of 500 hours of didactic and 1100 hours for clinical time, although we are on a quarter-based system, not semester based.

Sarah, would you mind posting how many hours you got with your conversion and whether it included all the pre-req's like microbio, a&p, etc?

Helricha, was it your dean who decided not to include all the pre-req's or was it more rather the NMC asking you not to include them? We share a lot of classes at my university with other majors, i.e. when we took a psych growth and development class, we had to share it with psych majors even though the focus was more nurse based as the majority of the students were nursing majors. Same thing with A&P and microbio, etc etc. I would have many more hours with this counted in...

Thanks again for everything you guys have posted; it's extraordinarily helpful!

[sweetiepiesteph410]

Hi helricha,

I am a U.S. citizen training in an accelerated BSN program. I have about 9 months to go but I want to move to the UK to be with my significant other when I'm done. I found out I have to have 12 months experience here in the US first before I could work over in the UK, which I'm willing to do to be with him but now I'm concerned about the hours you mentioned the NMC requires. Since my program is an accelerated 18 mth program is does give me 1950 contact hours including didactic and experiential(clinical). Do you know if the NMC will count my pre-requisites like the micro and physio/anatomy?

Also, do you or does anyone else know if an accelerated is disqualified from being considered an applicable Bachelor's of Nursing accepted by the NMC? I did over a year and a half of pre-req's plus this program is 18 mths and it's not online. Everything is in a classroom at a real school. I'm really concerned though as I just want to be able to be with my mate and work in the UK. I've considered getting a masters degree in nursing in the UK so I could apply for the student visa under Tier 4 but then I'm guessing I still wouldn't be able to work as a nurse there without the year of experience first.

Does anyone know about this?! I really am starting to worry but I read previous stories like yours Helricha and maybe it could eventually work for me.

Please, please, please help if you can!!! Thank you in advance!

[MeditationPeace]

i've considered getting a masters degree in nursing in the uk so i could apply for the student visa under tier 4 but then i'm guessing i still wouldn't be able to work as a nurse there without the year of experience first.

does anyone know about this?!

that's an interesting idea. i'm an american graduate of a bsc (hons) in midwifery programme here after arriving as an rn with experience, so i had my nmc pin number. but the visa that follows the tier 4 student visa is the tier one post-study visa which i am now under, and it gives one a two year "free" period to find work without many restrictions (except for the requirement to switch over to a tier two visa within 6 months of its expiration). if you were a graduate of a uk nursing school, you wouldn't need any experience to get your pin number, naturally. so, if you graduate with a masters from a uk school, perhaps you also wouldn't need experience? better ask the nmc directly on this one, because they are strongly preoccupied with basic nursing education, rather than post-graduate. but, you never know.

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Hi helricha,

I am a U.S. citizen training in an accelerated BSN program. I have about 9 months to go but I want to move to the UK to be with my significant other when I'm done. I found out I have to have 12 months experience here in the US first before I could work over in the UK, which I'm willing to do to be with him but now I'm concerned about the hours you mentioned the NMC requires. Since my program is an accelerated 18 mth program is does give me 1950 contact hours including didactic and experiential(clinical). Do you know if the NMC will count my pre-requisites like the micro and physio/anatomy?

Also, do you or does anyone else know if an accelerated is disqualified from being considered an applicable Bachelor's of Nursing accepted by the NMC? I did over a year and a half of pre-req's plus this program is 18 mths and it's not online. Everything is in a classroom at a real school. I'm really concerned though as I just want to be able to be with my mate and work in the UK. I've considered getting a masters degree in nursing in the UK so I could apply for the student visa under Tier 4 but then I'm guessing I still wouldn't be able to work as a nurse there without the year of experience first.

Does anyone know about this?! I really am starting to worry but I read previous stories like yours Helricha and maybe it could eventually work for me.

Please, please, please help if you can!!! Thank you in advance!

You really need to ask the NMC these questions because they may or may not accept accelerated programs. If they do not then working whilst doing your Masters may be hard because you will be required to be registered with the NMC and have a PIN. Not aware of any Masters courses in the UK being full time, the experience I have with Masters was part time but if the Masters requires clinical hours you may have issues if the NMC will not give you a PIN