Confused english nurse

[sarah]

I'm a third year student nurse from England who has just discovered this website and I am quite confused (nothing new there) as to some of the things other student's are referring to, such as the "boards" and LPN's (i think thats it anyway). Training over here seems quite different and as I hope to travel and work in the USA one day I would like to hear from anyone who can tell me about nursing over their. Cheers!!

[CARLA]

Hey Sarah.... I just wanted to answer your questions and welcome you to the site... I'm new here to. In the US there are 2 kinds of nurses, RN's - Registered Nurses and LPN's - Licensed Practical Nurses. LPN's aren't in school for as long and don't have as much training in school. They don't do the managment/charge nursing that RN's do and aren't allowed to do certain procedures or pass certain kinds of meds/IV's. As to what "boards" are. They are the exam that you take after school to get your license. Each state has their own exam, although I believe they are very similar if not the same. Do you call them something else or don't you take them? I hope this answered your question. I'd love to hear from you. I'm also a nursing student.

[Tracy]

Hi Sarah,

It would be interesting to hear how nursing school is structured in England. I am in school in Southern California. Here we do three semesters of med-surg then one semester of OB and Peds then a semester of psych and community health then in the last semester we choose between primary care and critical care.

Tracy

[LindaC]

Hi Sarah! I'm looking forward to seeing your replies to the others. I have been leaving notes around on other websites asking to talk with nurses from other countries. What luck! I'm interested in what kind of "nursing theory" you study in school, and if you find yourself consciously using anything in particular as a framework for your nursing practice, or is it all intuitive.

For instance, there is a theory by a nurse named Helen Erickson that is called Modeling and Role Modeling: that teaches you to get to know the patient's world from their perspective (Modeling) and to help them achieve their own goals which might be a little different from the doctor's or nurse's (Role-Modeling). Some schools of nursing here choose a particular nurse theorist's framework to teach from, others just teach a smattering of the theories and leave it up to the students to integrate some of them or none of them. Would love to hear from you. . . I think you can reply back to this same site, as a "post a reply". And my e-mail is [email protected]

Good luck!

[glog]

Sarah, don't worry about being confused! Actually even our patients in the US are confused and don't, in most cases know the difference in our training. It is quite complicated. We have LPNs( Licensed Practical Nurses), who are generally trained for about a year after high school ( that is secondary education). After completing the course work, LPNs take a national exam called the NCLEX-PN to become licensed to practice. Registered Nurses can train in 3 different kind of programs, that emphasize different aspects of the nursing role There is the Diploma trained RN, who is trained in a hospital based program. This RN training is probably closer to the one you have in the UK. There is an associate degree RN, who studies for about 2 years, generally in a community college. There is a University prepared RN, who studies for 4 years and obtains a Bachelor in Science in Nursing. We all must sit for the same national exam, called the NCLEX-RN to become licensed to practice. The difference between a diploma/associate degree RN and a Bachelor of Science RN, is not so much in the patient care aspect but in the theory aspect. Bachelor of Science RNs take such courses as Research in Nursing, Statistics, Nursing Management and Leadership, one full semester of Physical Assessment, one full year of Anatomy and Physiology ( as opposed to 6 months), in addition to 2 years of liberal art courses( hystory, psychology, english litt, mathematics, 1 year of organic and inorganic chem, 1 year of biology, art, etc.). The Bachelor in Science RN, is the only one among the 3 RNs that can go on for her Master Degree. At this level you specialize in a particular area and become a clinical specialist or with a little more training a nurse practitioner. Nurse Practitioners (NP) are allowed under the supervision of a physician to care for patients, order tests, make diagnosis and in some States prescribe medications. Finally, with a Master Degree ( which generally takes about 2 to 3 years) you can go on to obtain a PhD in Nursing. Generally, this is the preparation required to be a researcher or a Professor of Nursing in a University program. It takes about 2 years and requires a research dissertation/thesis to complete. So as you can see, it is quite confusing and the education of an RN can span from 2 years to 8 years depending on our degrees. Some hospitals in the US will only hire Bachelor of Science RNs, ( for example New York University Medical Center in New York). Also, as you advance beyond a staff nurse position, you are often required to have a Master or PhD. To add to the confusion we also have non-licensed nurses, such as nurse technicians, nurse aides and medical assistants, Generally, their duties range from providing comfort measures to the patient ( bed making, feeding, bathing) to obtaining vital signs, performing phlebotomy, obtaining EKGs and some specimens. Hope this has shed some light on your confusion!

[lizzydawn]

Hi Sarah, i am an English student nurse as well i am in my 3rd and final year, i am new to this site also and finding it really interesting, what year are you in? where are you from, i am in the west midlands.

[truern]

lizzydawn, I don't think you'll get an answer from Sarah. This thread is from 1998 and she only posted the one time.

[lizzydawn]

oh dear!! i did not look at the date! how silly of me, but thanx for your information.

[truern]

I didn't think you did