Moving to UK - looking at nursing school?

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I recently found out my family and I may be moving to the UK next year. I had been preparing to apply for ABSN programs this fall - I took all my prerequisites, etc. So, I thought the easy thing to do would be to apply for some programs in England. However, I'm totally baffled at the process. As best I can tell it's a 3 year undergraduate degree - I can't seem to find anything about applicants who may have had a career before and already have a bachelor's degree (such as myself). Has anyone been through this process?

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Here's a link that might help. If your bachelors is in an associated field you can get accredited through prior learning to reduce by a year. One thing to bear in mind in the U.K. you are expected to have met the level of English and math going in. Degrees in the UK don't have a bunch of general courses, you start studying your subject. A' levels which you study from 16-18 are like pre-reqs and often requirements for specific degree courses.

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/nursing/studying-nursing

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The undergraduate path to nursing is a 3 year BSc (Hons) Nursing. You have to pick a branch for your registration, the branches are Adult, Child, Mental Health and Learning Disability. The most versatile is the Adult branch.

However there are 2 year Post Graduate Diploma or Masters degrees. You need to look for Graduate Entry nursing programmes. Again you need to pick a branch to specialise in. You won't find one shorter than 2 years though. You don't say where you are going to in England, but here's a couple in London

https://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate-course/msc-adult-nursing/

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/assets/PDF/cma/postgraduate-taught/Nursing-with-Registration-Graduate-Entry-PGDip.pdf

You can also take 3 year Masters degrees which will get your dual registration.

https://www.city.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate/adult-mental-health-nursing-pre-registration

Hope this helps.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the Nursing in the UK forum

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Also suggest speaking to the university on a couple of things. A) ask them about having degree in something else and b) can they ensure your training meets US requirements as generally they don’t so when moving back you will have issues unless the university helps you whilst training

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Threads merged

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Thank you so much for your help! I hadn't thought about the difficulty in moving back...

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Specializes in NICU.

It's extremely difficult to get validation at individual state boards of nursing with a current UK degree.

1. UK nurses are trained as adult, pediatric, or community health nurses. What this means is that the generally don't have hours in all fields, just their field.

2. USA nurses are generalist trained so they have hours in a bit of everything

3. USA nursing licensure requires hours in ALL of fields.

4. Most UK nurses are short in pediatrics, OB, and community as most of them do adult nursing degrees. You can do a top up degree to be licensed in the other fields but that is extra years of study

5. Most USA schools will not let you "do a rotation" in the fields in which you are missing- you have to start from square one in nursing school.

6. If you are lucky enough to get licensure in one state, you would still have to go through the verification process through the CGFNS and have it be scrutinized in other states. Just because you made it through one state doesn't mean you'll make it through to another.

I don't say all this to be a negative Nancy- just want you to be aware of the realities of the situation. if you plan to live in the UK most of your life, NBD. If you plan to live in the USA most of your life, a big deal.

Might be worth instead to get a health care assistant certification in the UK so you can at least get some healthcare experience and a job if you will be there short term. I don't know how that process works but I'm assuming it's more shorter than a UK nursing degree.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.
12 hours ago, babyNP. said:

It's extremely difficult to get validation at individual state boards of nursing with a current UK degree.

1. UK nurses are trained as adult, pediatric, or community health nurses. What this means is that the generally don't have hours in all fields, just their field.

2. USA nurses are generalist trained so they have hours in a bit of everything

3. USA nursing licensure requires hours in ALL of fields.

4. Most UK nurses are short in pediatrics, OB, and community as most of them do adult nursing degrees. You can do a top up degree to be licensed in the other fields but that is extra years of study

5. Most USA schools will not let you "do a rotation" in the fields in which you are missing- you have to start from square one in nursing school.

6. If you are lucky enough to get licensure in one state, you would still have to go through the verification process through the CGFNS and have it be scrutinized in other states. Just because you made it through one state doesn't mean you'll make it through to another.

I don't say all this to be a negative Nancy- just want you to be aware of the realities of the situation. if you plan to live in the UK most of your life, NBD. If you plan to live in the USA most of your life, a big deal.

Might be worth instead to get a health care assistant certification in the UK so you can at least get some healthcare experience and a job if you will be there short term. I don't know how that process works but I'm assuming it's more shorter than a UK nursing degree.

There isn't a Health Care assistant certificate in the UK, to work as a HCA you see a job you like advertised and apply for it.

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Specializes in ER.

I think that Health Care Assistants have to do NVQ training?

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.
On 2/22/2020 at 1:52 PM, skylark said:

I think that Health Care Assistants have to do NVQ training?

It depends where you work, my hospital its desirable but not essential

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