NMC fee to raise to £120/year

As someone who works in both the UK and the US, this is the better deal.

Your username suggests that you are planning to move to CA, so I suggest you check out the expenses associated with nursing there : )

CA is by far the better deal. CA $140 licence every 2 years v UK £120 every year. Plus as a percentage of earnings it is significantly less to be registered in CA!

Here in my province in Canada we have just been informed our fees go up next year to over 300 pounds a year. Good job I actually get paid a bit more than I did in the UK

CA is by far the better deal. CA $140 licence every 2 years v UK £120 every year. Plus as a percentage of earnings it is significantly less to be registered in CA!

How much do you pay for your malpractice insurance?

CA is by far the better deal. CA $140 licence every 2 years v UK £120 every year. Plus as a percentage of earnings it is significantly less to be registered in CA!

Except that you need liability insurance and health insurance as well : )

CA earnings are great until you realise there is no annual leave, maternity leave, etc, and sick time is precarious, and there is no job security to speak of.

I still have a CA licence but working in the NHS wins for me.

How much do you pay for your malpractice insurance?

I pay about £180/year

Except that you need liability insurance and health insurance as well : )

CA earnings are great until you realise there is no annual leave, maternity leave, etc, and sick time is precarious, and there is no job security to speak of.

I still have a CA licence but working in the NHS wins for me.

Honestly I work for the NHS also and still think that I need my partners private insurance also. The NHS is good at Primary care but if you need anything beyond that then its pay or wait!

I think my original point was to look at what nurses here paying for registration in relation to what our NHS colleagues are paying ie OT,s & PT ect with the HPC. It just seems like nurses are always targeted for increases.

While I would never say that conditions are better in the US than the UK in every state, California is one of the best ones in terms that you described, skylark.

-You don't need liability insurance, although you can buy it. I don't know any nurses personally that have it and we were taught that it's best not to have it because it's known that nurses have no money compared to docs and hospitals, therefore much less likely to get sued, especially if you don't have liability insurance.

-California is an enormous pro-union nursing state and probably the most powerful one in the USA, so it's pretty hard to get fired. The benefits are also generally fantastic, although you're right that they do have to pay for health insurance.

-California has paid maternity leave, one of the few states that do and I can't imagine that any hospital wouldn't offer vacation or sick leave time. TBH, I can't see any hospital not offering this, but I could be wrong. Of course, it's probably nowhere near as much as the NHS offers, which is about 4 weeks, right?

Vacation /annual leave - currently 7 weeks in the NHS, if you count bank hols.

I have a union job in the US and get 2 weeks.

Sick leave is max 4 days per year, mat leave 3 weeks, (a year in the NHS?), and although I have more job security that my non-union counterparts, its nowhere as safe as the NHS.

One drug error and you are out, the same day. That seems to be standard across the US, unlike the UK where you just do an incident form and maybe spend a day back in school doing drug calculations!

So if you have a mortgage and then get fired, what do you do?

Go back to the NHS!!!!

Wow, it sounds like your union isn't really doing much for you guys...and firing people for just one drug error? Sounds like your facility is very punitive and not very supportive of its nurses. I don't think I'd like to work there...

Its a heck of a lot better than the non union places i worked at before.

Firing after one med error seems to be standard, and vacation leave is 'discretionary' meaning you don't get it.

I personally know one nurse who has been refused leave for three years running.

The manager gets to choose who gets leave and who doesn't.

It depends where you work in the US. 12-14 days + public holidays is standard.