I want to nurse in California, USA - Help!

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My name is Megan and I am a 19 year old nursing student living in the UK about to finish my first year at uni of my Adult Nursing degree.

I am determined to move to America in the future, specifically California, to live and work as a nurse. Now I know and fully understand that this is REALLY HARD to do and it's not easy to fulfil the requirements that America want me to have.

Which is why I thought if I start planning now before I've even become an RN I'd be able to figure out what I need, what I don't have and what exams I need to pass. I really want this to become a reality for me and am willing to go to any length to make this happen.

I would appreciate any and all advice that any nurses could give me especially if you are from the UK and have already made this near impossible journey.

I really want to do my research so please tell me anything that I need to know!

Thanks. :)

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Starting point would be making sure your transcripts when you graduate shows both clinical and theory hours in Paeds, Mental Health, Obstetrics and Adult. NCLEX will be a certainty but unless you meet US requirements you can not sit it.

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Hi silverdragon, thanks for your response!

I may sound really naive and silly asking this but what exactly is a transcript? I could try to arrange my placements to be in these areas hopefully, but if that seems too hard for my uni to accommodate I may consider trying to transfer to a university over in California to complete my training (however that seems difficult as I know in california it could be competitive).

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Since I am doing an adult nursing course the chances are that I could ask my university to provide me with placements in these different areas, however I'm more worried about the theory side of it as I may not have the opportunity to have theory sessions in paeds and obstetrics because in the UK that's a different course at uni called Child Nursing (Bsc).

I'm wondering if I really should instead be looking at trying to apply to a university in CA to undertake my training there as I would at least have the required amount of theory and clinical hours then.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

It will be very difficult to transfer to another country as usually prerequisite are different and going to the US will be very expensive and no guarantee you can stay afterwards. Transcripts are something the university presents showing you attended courses and what credits or hours are involved with the various subjects. Clinical hours are important as well as theory hours and CA especially requires them to be done together

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Specializes in Labor & Delivery, Med-surg.

Of course it would be easiest if you trained somewhere in the US, but training and immigration are two separate issues.

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