Ireland to USA Psych Nurses Any Irish nurses on here need advice urgent

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Feb 16, 2016

No you won't be able to work in the US or Canada as a psych nurse with that psych nurse degree. We are generalist trained over here. You won't be able to sit for boards without both clinical and didactic hours in ob, adult, peds, and mental health.

rockinghorse · Feb 16, 2016

thank you very much for answering me hippie girl... so the info I had read somewhere online was indeed correct, so it is a good job my top 3 electives are all for general..... would you mind explaining the following to me please..... suppose I do 4 yr general then do a 1 yr specality here in Pysch..... we are 10000000s cheaper for Nurse ed than USA so I intend to do all qualifications here including my msters.... If I do Pysch as the one yr specality can I technically work as both a general nurse or a pysch nurse or do I have to register with the state as either one or the other??? like... can i register as a psych nurse and then register s a General nurse and then flip and choose which I want to work as or mix them up depending on where I got the hours and the work, any help info advise will be so so so so appreciated xx

Fiona59 · Feb 16, 2016

Actually, psychiatric registered nurses work on the western provinces of Canada. They are not Ducati to work psych units and hospitals. Each province has a governing body called a colleg. So look for the College of registered psychiatric nurses of BC or Alberta or wherever.

Ontario, has a lousy job market, so you might want to reconsider where on Canada to move

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Feb 16, 2016

Oohh I stand corrected about Canada. In the US, you don't have to register as a "type" of specialty. A registered nurse is a registered nurse.

You might want to make sure that whatever general degree you get includes classroom and clinicals in OB. A lot of overseas nurses miss that component even with generalist training. It can be hard to find a program in the US that lets you do just that although they exist.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Feb 16, 2016

Moved to the International Nursing forum

Basically for both Canada and the US your transcripts need to show both clinical and theory in Paeds, Mental Health, Obstetrics and Adult. Only exception as mentioned previously are a few provinces on the West side of Canada that accept psychiatric nurses. Once you have graduated from nursing school/university you apply to the state/province and meet their requirements

rockinghorse · Feb 17, 2016

Fiona

are you in CA??? I am very familiar with Alberta and BC....however I was picking ontario for the simple reason my daughter and clan will be shifting there in around same time I would graduate so therefore that was my reasons and also cheaper flights home et al.... and Did I mention...I don't like the cold brrrrrrrrrrrr rofl.... however I know that BC has mild winters even if they can be as dreary dark dull and drepressing as here.... Now as you saying that If I train as a psych nurse here it is a straight transferrable degree to CA??

rockinghorse · Feb 17, 2016

HIPPIE AND SILVER

In our 4 yr Bsc degree here WE MUST SPEND EQUAL TIME OVER ALL 4 SPECTRUMS as this is how they say we decide after our full intern year in year 4 we can decide if we would just like to stay as aduld general nurses or go and do a speciality year.... then you have people like me who go straight into speciality from day one... intelc disabilities, Obs/midwifery or childrens... however we are ur own enemy, due to the the 4 yr degree and how little it is to wealthy people overseas getting a place can either go one way or the other.... to explain

if in secondary school it is based on your leaving cert and each college sets its own points system and then goes to the CAO to which we call a raffle as it is done by a computer generated random number in each catagory of points then goes down the line step by step

for mature students ie people over 23 we do not have to use a leaving cert instead we sit an exam in april and then go into the raffle...we still have to use the CAO tho.... however the places for mature students is TINY...as in one school I have applied to can only take 4 and maybe 700 will compete for those 4 places and not every college that does nursing takes mature students so many go to the uk......HOWEVER this is where it gets MORE COMPLICATED, THEY have also a BSC but their's is only 3 yrs so many do not get a job abroad once their degree is checked out as it is not a full Bsc degree ie if asks for 4 yrs, but theirs is used a lot especially for aus etc etc, The uk would be on par with the American RN degree to make a simple comparison

neither Ireland nor the uk have the LPN nor is it recognised here we have health care aides who must be certified and passed exam to work

rockinghorse · Feb 17, 2016

hippie

here you register as the field you trained and qualified in and can only work in that field

Silverdragon102, BSN · Feb 17, 2016

HIPPIE AND SILVER
In our 4 yr Bsc degree here WE MUST SPEND EQUAL TIME OVER ALL 4 SPECTRUMS as this is how they say we decide after our full intern year in year 4 we can decide if we would just like to stay as aduld general nurses or go and do a speciality year.... then you have people like me who go straight into speciality from day one... intelc disabilities, Obs/midwifery or childrens... however we are ur own enemy, due to the the 4 yr degree and how little it is to wealthy people overseas getting a place can either go one way or the other.... to explain
if in secondary school it is based on your leaving cert and each college sets its own points system and then goes to the CAO to which we call a raffle as it is done by a computer generated random number in each catagory of points then goes down the line step by step
for mature students ie people over 23 we do not have to use a leaving cert instead we sit an exam in april and then go into the raffle...we still have to use the CAO tho.... however the places for mature students is TINY...as in one school I have applied to can only take 4 and maybe 700 will compete for those 4 places and not every college that does nursing takes mature students so many go to the uk......HOWEVER this is where it gets MORE COMPLICATED, THEY have also a BSC but their's is only 3 yrs so many do not get a job abroad once their degree is checked out as it is not a full Bsc degree ie if asks for 4 yrs, but theirs is used a lot especially for aus etc etc, The uk would be on par with the American RN degree to make a simple comparison
neither Ireland nor the uk have the LPN nor is it recognised here we have health care aides who must be certified and passed exam to work

From the UK and trained in the UK. Initially was Enrolled Nurse which was similar training to Canada's LPN, 2 years and I converted to RN 17 years ago. Very common to see UK trained nurses fail to meet both US and Canadian requirements, mostly due to missing hours in Paeds and Obstetrics. also for a lot of Canadian provincial colleges common to see IEN go for assessment and end up paying $$$$ for courses that are required. Also a lot of UK universities do not cover all 4 specialties hence the issue when trying to register in the US and Canada.

loriangel14, RN · Feb 18, 2016

If you want to work in Ontario you will need theory and clinical hours in adult, PEDs, OB and mental health nursing on your transcript .