getting a job in the UK

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I am considering moving to Scotland and am wondering if anyone knows about nursing requirements there. I am a registered nurse with an ASN and about 5 years of general med-surg experience. Anybody have some advice?

Thanks

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Specializes in medical/surgical.

The job situation there at the minute is pretty desperate! The trusts are so deep in debt that newly qualified nurses are having trouble getting work. These sites might help though:

http://www.nmc-uk.org/ - for UK registration

http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/ - for jobs

I hope this helps!

Hanna

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
The job situation there at the minute is pretty desperate! The trusts are so deep in debt that newly qualified nurses are having trouble getting work. These sites might help though:

http://www.nmc-uk.org/ - for UK registration

http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/ - for jobs

I hope this helps!

Hanna

:yeahthat:

at the NMC site you need the overseas section and plenty of hoops to go through including english exam before they will give you a PIN which will enable you to work as RN in the UK. Will not guarentee a job. Plus your training should equate to 3 yrs or longer

Also immigration has changed for nurses and employers have to employ UK then EU before elsewhere in the world. This has made it really hard to get a work permit.

Good luck

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

mean't to say check out the UK forum within the international forum, plenty of info there on current situation

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I am considering moving to Scotland and am wondering if anyone knows about nursing requirements there. I am a registered nurse with an ASN and about 5 years of general med-surg experience. Anybody have some advice?

Thanks

It is going to be almost impossible for you to get a job there with the current situation going on. There are many lay-offs taking place, so if a job does open up it is going to go first to the UK nurse, next to a nurse from the European Union.

Unless you have some exceptional skills in a specialty area that they really need, you are not going to be able to get a visa that will permit you to work. Would definitely suggest that you focus on another country, but please be aware that many require the BSN for immigration purposes. Just like the US does for a foreign nurse.

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Hi..I'm new here and have been reading many posts over the last week. So much great information and interesting anecdotes and problems! I'm sure I'll be here for a long time to come.

Anyway, my question relates to getting a job. I've already gone through everything with the NMC. I'm an American RN since 1972. Yes, that's 35 years now. I graduated from a traditional hospital-based 3 year diploma program, and have earned about 50% of the college credits needed for a BSN degree (part-time over the years).

I worked in ICU's the first 9 or so years, mostly part-time after having 3 kids in 5 years. Then I got into Obstetrics and was full-time there until I took early retirement at the end of 2005.

Disregarding the current nurse immigration problems at present (I'm supposed to start the ONP next month), I'd like to know your opinions as to how to best use my 20+ years of experience in Ob (L&D, high-risk antepartum, postpartum, maternal-fetal medicine clinical research).

In the US, the nurse is the one to do 95% of the Ob care. Midwives are few in number and waay under-utilized here. It came as a real shock to me that *because* of my extensive Ob experience, I was denied access to a UK license 1 1/2 years ago. This being because I could only be licensed as an adult (general) nurse, and the NMC felt I needed 3 months supervised practice to prove myself as one (despite having old ICU experience, and caring for perinatal special-care patients with all sorts of medical problems).

Long-story short (a little, anyway :p), I desperately want to return to Women's Health when I get my PIN #, and would like to know where that experience might give me a leg up? Do RN's work with the midwives in L&D (as we work with the doctors)? How about in the private hospitals? I don't really wish to work in research again. How about IVF? Is there a huge supply of nurses wanting and qualified to work there?

I know you're probably wondering why I want to work in the UK - I've read your posts! Well, my g-grandmother was born in Wales, my grandmother in Liverpool. My Dad always used to say he was born on the boat going over, but never had a birth certificate. I've been an Anglophile all my life and started visiting once or twice a year since 1995, sometimes for as long as a month. I lived with friends in London the first half of last year and loved it. I follow the news through all the outlets and nursing sites. I feel more English than American, and seem to fit right in!

So, I want to do this for at least 2 or 3 years, if not the rest of my life. I wish I had followed through in the '90s when I first thought of it...now it's a really hard row to hoe to get there.

Well, if there's anything about American nursing I could help with, let me know. I wish I could just "job-switch" with someone (like a holiday "house-switch.")!! Thanks, Gail

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi..I'm new here and have been reading many posts over the last week. So much great information and interesting anecdotes and problems! I'm sure I'll be here for a long time to come.

Anyway, my question relates to getting a job. I've already gone through everything with the NMC. I'm an American RN since 1972. Yes, that's 35 years now. I graduated from a traditional hospital-based 3 year diploma program, and have earned about 50% of the college credits needed for a BSN degree (part-time over the years).

I worked in ICU's the first 9 or so years, mostly part-time after having 3 kids in 5 years. Then I got into Obstetrics and was full-time there until I took early retirement at the end of 2005.

Disregarding the current nurse immigration problems at present (I'm supposed to start the ONP next month), I'd like to know your opinions as to how to best use my 20+ years of experience in Ob (L&D, high-risk antepartum, postpartum, maternal-fetal medicine clinical research).

In the US, the nurse is the one to do 95% of the Ob care. Midwives are few in number and waay under-utilized here. It came as a real shock to me that *because* of my extensive Ob experience, I was denied access to a UK license 1 1/2 years ago. This being because I could only be licensed as an adult (general) nurse, and the NMC felt I needed 3 months supervised practice to prove myself as one (despite having old ICU experience, and caring for perinatal special-care patients with all sorts of medical problems).

Long-story short (a little, anyway :p), I desperately want to return to Women's Health when I get my PIN #, and would like to know where that experience might give me a leg up? Do RN's work with the midwives in L&D (as we work with the doctors)? How about in the private hospitals? I don't really wish to work in research again. How about IVF? Is there a huge supply of nurses wanting and qualified to work there?

I know you're probably wondering why I want to work in the UK - I've read your posts! Well, my g-grandmother was born in Wales, my grandmother in Liverpool. My Dad always used to say he was born on the boat going over, but never had a birth certificate. I've been an Anglophile all my life and started visiting once or twice a year since 1995, sometimes for as long as a month. I lived with friends in London the first half of last year and loved it. I follow the news through all the outlets and nursing sites. I feel more English than American, and seem to fit right in!

So, I want to do this for at least 2 or 3 years, if not the rest of my life. I wish I had followed through in the '90s when I first thought of it...now it's a really hard row to hoe to get there.

Well, if there's anything about American nursing I could help with, let me know. I wish I could just "job-switch" with someone (like a holiday "house-switch.")!! Thanks, Gail

Hi Gail

Womens health and midwifery generally have seperate wards (Did in the hospitals I worked in although came under the same department) and if looking at obs then generally staffed by midwives. Kay (madwife) would probably be a good one to tell you how it works over in the UK although she now lives in the US.

The problems I see will be finding a job and getting a work permit. Immigration has changed regarding work permits and making it harder for nurses outside the EU getting work plus with current financial crisis many hospitals are laying staff off not emploing. Lots of nurses newly qualified in all specialist areas (that is how UK training is currently) are struggling to find work.

Good luck

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Specializes in med/surg.

Hey I found something that might interest you OP - & other foreign nurses looking to get to the UK.

There's an ad in this weeks Nursing Times from NHS Scotland, it's basically asking if you're a nurse seeking an overseas nurse programme (ONP) because they point out they run things differently to England & Wales. If you have your NMC letter & passing IELTS score you call them on this number:

0131 220 8660 - don't forget you'll need your country's code for Scotland first. It's to the Central Applications to nursing & midwifery training Clearing House - CATCH for short.

They say that if they have a nurse vacancy that matches your skills you will be interviewed & provided with a funded place should you be successful.

Hey I wonder if all those English nurses without jobs qualify? :roll

Hope that is of interest to someone anyhow.

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