EU Registration to the NMC

babyNP., APRN · Apr 3, 2012

Probably better off asking the NMC themselves and skip the first person (they are lay people) and ask for a decision officer because they actually know more of what they're talking about.

The process is long and frustrating at times (as is anything with any government organization in any country). All I can say is that you have to follow by their rules...I've been reading on this board for a very long time and have done lots of searches...haven't really seen any cases of EU nationals trying to get registered on the NMC, but maybe some folks are lurking on here can answer better.

nursingtimes · Apr 3, 2012

Hello babyRN! Thank you very much for your reply and for the advice you gave. Yeah, I thought about calling the NMC on the phone right away but I wouldn't like to sound inquisitive to them in any way! That is why I'm not so sure that it could be a favourable thing to do.

The letter they sent says I must send a "CERTIFICATE OF CURRENT PROFESSIONAL STATUS" and a "TRANSCRIPT OF TRAINING" along with "THEORY AND PRACTICAL HOURLY BREAKDOWN INTO SUBJECTS". Well, if you read their guide to registration available to EU nurses you'll find that the process relies entirely on an European Directive dating back to 2005 and it stands for Automatic Recognition of the professional entitlement. They didn't refer to any curriculum analysis or credential evaluation in the first place nor did they mention it on their published guide to application. That analysis and predisposition of curricula uniformity was made possible by the Ministry of Education of each european country that (being part of the Union) had to politically comply to that Directive and change core curricula, many years ago. It is politics as far as I understand and was made law years ago! I don't understand why I am called to prove if my school complied to that Directive. I'm not the State.

I'm not saying my school program does not comply to that Directive. All I'm saying is that I can't see the need for that, as far as it is proved that I attended a Ministry approved course and hold a registration to the Board of Nursing in my country of training.

It seems to me that they're holding special discretion for themselves but if that is the case why do they refer to the Automatic Recognition under the infamous European Directive?

I sincerely don't understand that passage.

The sad thing is that I could have made all of these documents available right since the very beginning and have them sent together with the other ones and the signed application forms! Each document they require, thus even these new requests, must be translated in Court by an Official and it takes time and money. Each time you ask for an official validation of a translation you need to pay a high tax! If that was done all at the same time, I wouldn't have found myself paying all that money. Now add to that the cost and the amount of time (approximately 10 working days) for the shipping of documents through an " international signed for" postal service and you understand how terribly frustrating, time consuming, and long, this process is going to be! I started the whole process on the second week of January and it's April now. Let us hope it won't take forever given we're almost completing the first half of the year.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Apr 4, 2012

Even if going from the UK to another EU transcripts are still expected when meeting that country's requirements. Just moving around the EU is supposed to be easier?

http://www.nmc-uk.org/Registration/Joining-the-register/Trained-in-the-EU-or-EEA/

nursingtimes · Apr 4, 2012

Dearest Silverdragon102,

thank you very much for your reply. I'm afraid what you are properly referring to is the ROUTE of REGISTRATION UNDER GENERAL SYSTEM, as indicated here:

http://www.nmc-uk.org/Registration/Joining-the-register/Trained-in-the-EU-or-EEA/trained-in-Italy/

What I was talking about is the ROUTE of REGISTRATION UNDER AUTOMATIC RECOGNITION.

They did not provide evidence suggesting that requirements did not meet theirs or those of the European Directive made law in each single Member State.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Apr 4, 2012

Then all that you can do is discuss with the NMC

nursingtimes · Apr 4, 2012

Yes I sent an email asking for explanations.

nursingtimes · Apr 4, 2012

they did not provide evidence suggesting that requirements did not meet theirs or those of the european directive made law in each single member state.

erratum: they did not provide evidence that either their requirements (as indicated in their website) or those of the european directive were not met.

nursingtimes · Apr 13, 2012

Okay..I received a very nice reply from a NMC Officer informing that there had been a clerical error concerning the title of my thesis. It was misinterpreted as being another professional qualification, and that is the reason why they required disclosure of training transcripts and current professional status. Mystery solved! My application was accepted under automatic recognition.

babyNP., APRN · Apr 14, 2012

Thanks for letting us know! I don't think there are any other threads from folks in the EU trying to obtain NMC registration, so this will be helpful for them.

nursingtimes · Apr 15, 2012

You're more than welcome! Cheers!