English nursing student wanting to spend 1 month in a NYC hospital

[Purple_Nelly]

I am an English 1st year nursing student. In our third year we have the opportunity to spend 4 weeks on a placement of our choice. My ultimate aim is to emigrate to the US potentially NYC. Therefore I would love to be able to spend my four weeks in a NYC hospital, does anyone have any idea on how I would go about organising this?

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

I would say very hard, maybe not impossible, you may need to check with your student advisor and see what help they can do. Trying to get a visa allowing this may be an issue.

Also be aware that UK training doesn't always meet US requirements as you need clinical and theory hours in Paeds, Mental Health, Obstetrics and Adult and not all UK training offers this. Also look into retrogression as well as what current job situation is as lots of NY nurses have posted about difficulties in finding a job and hospitals closing down. (keep an eye on the International forum lots there about retrogression) as I doubt retrogression will vanish in the next few years and many nurses have been waiting over 5 years for a visa for the US

[Purple_Nelly]

Thankyou for your reply. Emmigrating is the long term plan, for now im just hoping to do my final four week placement in NYC or anywhere in the US, if anyone has any ideas on how i go about this?

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

I will move this to the international forum in case one of the US International students read this, however I do think you will have problems finding a place due to how the US do their training

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I wouldn't say that it's impossible either but you may have to jump through a lot of hoops. Nursing student clinical rotations happen via a contractual agreement between an individual nursing school and a hospital (unless the university and the medical center are part of one entity such as university-affiliated hospitals). Without a contract, students can not start clinical rotations. Typically, hospitals have additional requirements for nursing students to have before starting a clinical rotation which can include training on HIPAA, TB tests, titers for common communicable disease (such as measles, mumps, rubella), and a student malpractice insurance. One way to arrange this would be the have your educational institution start the process with a specific hospital in the US you are interested in. There is usually a department within the hospital who takes care of this. I would assume university-affilated medical centers would be more open to arrangements with international schools of nursing. The other factor is the cost of getting a visa, flight to the US and back, and staying/living here during your placement which will likely be your responsibility.