Military Wife stationed in Europe, need to go to school!

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Hello i am a Military Wife being stationed at RAF Lakenheath until 2013. I want to start my career as a Emergency Room nurse, and since we are currently still in the United States its very hard for me to find out any info on any nursing schools in the UK. Is my best bet doing online courses from the US overseas?? I have been homeschooled all of high school so im okay with working online, but i would love to be able to go to a normal college especially during deployments, so im not cooped up inside all by myself. are there any schools i could contact that would be able to get me started to become an RN? Or just to start my pre-req's. I am very school oriented and am very fast paced and couldn't imagine waiting three years to start my college for my dream career.

Please help asap!

Thank you! :D

I don't think it was directed at you JULESNY but rather at the OP who hasn't been back since she didn't get the answers she wanted.

Specializes in ICU.

My story is a little different, but goes to show that you can still achieve things...

Dad was a UK career soldier, joined up for National Service and stayed in till he was 55, when he retired as a senior officer. However, I had 16 different schools while growing up, due to moving around. I met and married my husband in Germany when I was 21 and guess what? He was working for the military so again, his needs came first.

During the early years of our marriage I worked at whatever jobs I could get but as time went on I managed to take some courses. Also did quite a bit of voluntary work in schools and the local communities.

Husband got made redundant in 1995 by which time I had managed to obtain a City and Guilds Diploma and some other bits and bobs, not much but it gave me a start when we came back to the UK.

My life long dream had be to go to nursing school and so I applied, by now in mid 30s and with no real hope of acceptance. Imagine my suprise when I was accepted, and eventually graduated in 1999 aged 40.

Since then I have worked almost entirely in critical care. Today is my 51st birthday and I have absolutely no regrets about becoming a nurse.

Last year I decided it was time to give something back...so went to Afghanistan for 3 months nursing in a military ICU (as a civillian).

So if you are a military dependent/spouse ... you can achieve things in your life, it might have to be deferred until you go back to the States or the UK or wherever but never give up.

As I see it, you could complete the prerequisite and corequisite courses online. Then you would have to physically be present to complete the nursing portion of whichever program you enter. Are you able to deal with Comm College of the Air Force? Or does that even still exist? Look at these two schools for starters. For science courses http://www.une.edu/com/online You will need anatomy, physiology, microbiology as a minimum for any nursing school. You may also need chem and biology For other courses like English and math look at http://www.ocean.edu These are only two of the schools that offer online courses that you could transfer to a nursing school. You could also probably take some of the same courses with your base University of Maryland offerings through the education office. The big problem you will have is this. Say you take all of your prerequisites, then you have to insure that you start a nursing program soon. Almost all nursing programs require that your science courses be no older than five years. So you can't take your anatomy course in 2010 and then not go into a nursing program until 2020 and expect the anatomy course to still be good. HTH

I am very glad you have been able to achieve your dream also who did you contact to new as civlian in ICU in war zone?? I have considered doing this but didn't know who to speak with.

thanks to everyone that replied to this, good or bad your replies have helped me a lot!

scarymary, happy birthday for one! :) my TRUE life long dream is to be a nurse in afghanistan, or in any war-type environment.. how did that go for you? did you work at a normal hospital, or as a civilian to the military?

i hope i can eventually get my goals together, my husband does come first, i mean hes protecting everyone, i think thats a little more important than me and my nursing right now. lol i hope to do my pre req's online, and maybe try to get a job volunteering at a hopsital somewhere in the UK while were there.. i'll be 21 when we return in three years to the US, so i think thats still some what young to start a career. i've just been on a fast pace my whole life, starting 1st grade when i was 4, and moving to another country and getting married at 17! so i feel so bad waiting three years to not start something, but i guess in reality thats not too bad right?? :)

thank you again so much for your insight, it really helps.

My husband is active duty Army taking a position at the NATO headquarters in Belgium. I respect and sympathize with each family supporting their spouses careers in the armed forces. Each family experiences PCs differently based on their position, education, and most importantly their state of mind. Rather than feeling defeated for not "making YOUR dreams come true," remember you and your husband are a united front and it's important you find meaning in your life while either overseas or stateside. Where there's a will there's a way. If you want to become a nurse there are absolutely ways to do so while overseas. Perhaps taking classes online and coming back stateside for clinical is an option. If you are without children you may choose to stay in the states while your husband leaves for his new duty station. Perhaps you could live overseas and work in the UK as a international travel nurse? Have you considered telephonic triage nursing? Never feel defeated. If you are already a nurse and are able to take a couple years off to raise children-embrace it if that is your desire. The possibilities are endless. Heads up ladies and gentlemen. Remember, you married you husband or wife because you love and support them, stay united and try not to take life too seriously.

Specializes in ER.

If you are at Lakenheath, then your nearest school would be the Uni of East Anglia. I worked at Addenbrookes sometime last century as we had a lot of US military wives who were nurses.

But that doesn't really solve your problem because a UK qualification is really only useful to you if you intend staying in UK/Europe. The training as it is now is not sufficient for you to apply for NCLEX later, so you might want to look at other choices.

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