Continental Nursing

I've been working with them to get my UK license for over a year now . Its partly my fault its taken so long. I over studied for the computer based test and I attended five universities and was required to get each of them to send a letter with my transcript for the application and not all of them were very willing to do this .

First, some things you should know. Its now called Continental Nurse instead of Continental Travel Nurse because they can no longer be a sponsor for your work visa, so you can't really be a travel nurse in the usual way. They told me this is related to Brixit. But basically if you are not closely related to a UK citizen or are a citizen of a commonwealth country you'd have to take a permanent position, which the agency will help you find, in order to get the visa. This also means that once you're over there and settled they're out and you're on your own. I guess they work more in a headhunter capacity now. They told me you just have to give a four week notice so you can still work a short time if you wanted to. Another downside to this is since its a permanent position you're not getting travel nurse pay and nurses in the UK are not paid as well as in the US.

The process is brutal and expensive. By time I'm through with this I think I will have spent about $3500 not including airfare.

I had to take an English test to prove I speak English, I'm from the USA. They have since changed that but after looking at the paper work I think I'm glad I just took the test.

The next step is the computer based test. I really over studied for this. Its not nearly as hard as the NCLEX. It's not a computer adaptive test but there are something like 10 critical questions that you have to answer correctly or its an automatic fail so it still messes with your head. I felt like the test focused more on communication and patient's rights then on medical knowledge.

After passing the CBT you get to pay to access the application. Here is were having a resource like Continental Nurse was really important. I don't believe there is any way that you could log on, do what they tell you and get approved. There are so many little things that if you don't do just so (even though it doesn't say to do it that way) you'll get screwed. The Application is MASSIVE. It involves a FBI background check, a physical completed by a MD (can't be NP, can't be someone you work with, and must be a primary care physician and must be within I believe it was three months of submission). I had to have letters of recommendation but I think they stopped that. You also need your nursing school to fill out a form that is not intuitively obvious nor does it have much space to complete. You'll need a transcript along with a letter explaining how much time was spent in the classroom and in the lab/clinical for every single class. This was the worst part for me because I attended so many school. Some schools really struggled with this and kept shuffling me between the registrar and the department because no one wanted to do it. I almost had to fly to AZ to walk the letter from the bio dept to the registrars office. Fortunately, my friend, who worked for the college, was able to walk it after I signed a letter in blood.

The application also requires a letter of good standing from all States and/or counties that you hold or have held a license in. Anything that's out of the norm, like states that have online licensure verifications or working in a compact state and thus not having that state license, requires a letter explaining the irregularity. But the best part is that for every form and letter that is sent another letter must accompany it to authenticate the first form/letter unless by some miracle the institution has a stamp that has their name and address on it. This can get really confusing.

The application was by far the biggest headache, but the staff at Continental were very helpful and encouraging. And finally when the NMC decides that you "meet the minimum requirements" you can proceed on to the OSCE.

But wait! they're not done messing with you. Because upon having your application accepted you must log in and download your decision letter by "click[ing] below" but there is no place to clink below. After panicking that they sent the acceptance email by mistake the wonderful staff on continental explained to me that no there are about five steps you have to take to download your decision letter.

And after that wonderful experience you get to pay about $1300 to go over there and take a practical exam. That's right they're taking you back to nursing school with the dummies and actors and you get to play med/surg nurse. Here they judge you on things like writing care plans and transfer letters, giving meds, wound care, hand hygiene, patient interactions and communications. They're not grading you on your competency its really about can you do things exactly the way they want you to, this might require mind reading. The test use to have a 50% first time pass rate but has improve in some centers to about 75%. If you fail only half the test you can retake that portion for just $600. But if you fail a second time I believe you have to re-due the application and the OSCE still has to be completed within 2 years of passing the CBT.

I haven't taken the OSCE though I do have it scheduled. In fact I'm choosing to write this rant over studying. I believe there are ways in which you can start work over there without completing the OSCE but you have to complete it within a specific time frame and you are not paid as well since you're not fully licensed.

All in all my experience with Continental has been pretty good. My recruiter is sometimes slow at getting back to me and I find that annoying but the guy who helps with the application and OSCE usually response in 24hr (even with the time change) My experience with the NMC however ... My thoughts are that if you want to do this just because you think it would be fun, don't bother. It is way to much work and money and the pay over there is likely not work the headache. But if you really want to or need to move over there for some time then good luck and having someone like Continental on your side is a good idea as the process is nowhere near easy.