From Scotland to the U.S?

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Hi everyone, It's great to be here :) I am a student nurse, I have 2 more years left of my BS degree in adult nursing.

I am wanting to move to the U.S with my fiance (American) when I graduate but I am not sure about what i'd need to do to become a RN there. I have heard something about doing more modules before I am eligible to sit the NCLEX exam?

I would really appreciate any help or advice.

Thanks very much.

:)

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Hi and welcome

Moved this to the International forum as per the red banner.

I presume you will be marrying your fiancée and obtaining a immigrant visa that route

Once you have completed your nurse training you need to look at the state requirements where you are hoping to be moving to. Links to state board of nursing can be found at the bottom of the page. A lot will depend on what your transcripts state to whether you need to make any hours up and if already in the US you may be able to do this if you contact nursing schools in the area you will be living. Once made eligible by the state you will have to sit and pass NCLEX before you can work as a nurse

I would look into this more once you have qualified as things may change between now and then

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Hi, thank you. I am not sure whether we will get married over there when I move, I am sure I could do that through my nursing degree? I know that we don't do

Surgery

medicine

pharmacology

obstetrics

psychiatry

orthopaedics

paediatrics.

We briefly touch on pharmacology and psych nursing.

I am not sure how long it will take me to do the rest.

Thanks very much.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

If you are not planning on using the K1 or CR1 then you will have a long wait to get a visa allowing you to work in the US at the moment everyone is affected by retrogression

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What are those?

Would it be better for me to get married over there? Could I work straight after that?

I am wondering if any colleges will let me do those modules that we don't do here anymore.

I cannot get in touch with the MS board of nursing as its very expensive to call from here.

Thanks

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

K1 = Fiancée visa and you have to get married within 90 days. CR-1 is if married less than 2 years

If K1 you have to wait until you are married and submit paperwork before you can work. CR-1 you can work sooner

Nothing can be done until you have a completed set of transcripts so you may want to see if you can organise anything with your university as your first post states you still have 2 years left

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Thats great, thanks for your help :D

Are there many nurses moving from the UK to the US to work?

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Specializes in Dialysis, Nephrology & Cosmetic Surgery.

Not as many as there was several years ago due to retrogression. The situation is that most UK nurses come under the EB3 visa catagory and this is backlogged, they are only processing applications approved up to Dec 2002.

To work as a nurse in the US you will have to show practical and theory in Medical, Surgical, Paeds, Psyche and Obs and then you will be allowed to sit NCLEX as part of your licensure process. I'm not sure how you will be able to address any deficits in your nurse training, but I'm sure there must be threads here on that subject.

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We touched on pharmacology, mental heath, though on this BS degree we do clinicals every year in med/surg wards i dont know if you are meaning the same? This is all confusing to me lol. It would be good if there was a specific agency out there that i could speak to about this.

I would probably end up married in the U.S as well.

Seems like I have a lot to catch up on that they dont teach on the BS degree here.

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Specializes in Dialysis, Nephrology & Cosmetic Surgery.

I'm sure you have plenty of clinical hours in Med/Surg. I have attached (I hope) of the transcript I had to send to my old school of nursing for them to complete, I think this form may have changed since though so this is just an example.

I did what is often refered to as traditional nurse training and during my training I had 8 weeks working at a childrens hospital, 8 weeks Obs & community and 8 weeks at psyche unit, before these placements we had a week or two in school. When my nurse training was evaluated I had 300 hours practical in each of these areas along with 37.5 - 75 hours theory applied to these areas.

I hope this helps with how it is evaluated, I have seen on this forum that nurses trained in recent years have been approved to proceed with their license application others haven't but I think there is a way to redress the balance. I would see if you could get an opinion from your Uni as to how many hours you have in each area as I'm sure they will have experience in completing these requests.

foreignnurseapp.pdf

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Hi Jane, thanks for that. With my prog we do 4 clinical placements every year which are 5-9 weeks look 37.5 hours per week.

I have med/surg experience and i did one clinical in mental health, one in community, we have done phycology too. We did not do the rest though (childrens nursing etc)

I am at panic stations, because my fiance recently moved back to live in MS and I was hoping to move there as soon as I graduate (I would be married). I am just wondering how long this extra training will take and costs, do you know of any agencies here that could help me? I tried to contact the state board but they only have a telephone number which i cannot afford to call :(.

I even thought about going there to do an associates or BS in nursing but i have already done my first year here and have 2 more years to go.

I feel pretty down at the moment.

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Specializes in Dialysis, Nephrology & Cosmetic Surgery.

I have just done a search of Allnurses and apparently there was a module(s) in Brighton but from one of the threads it looks as though this has stopped. You may want to contact them yourself to be sure and they may know of somewhere else that may offer this. It seems that there may be a way to make up hours when you are in the US - again this is what I read in a thread on this forum.

I would still approach your Uni and ask them for guidance as they may have come across the situation before and know of a way of helping, especially as you are only in your first year. I met someone a few years ago who had worked in the US and started his nurse training purely as a way of moving to the US. I was under the impression that he was able to manipulate his placements so as to ensure he got enough hours in each area, I seem to remember him being one fo the P2000 nurses so it may well have been easier then than now.

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