I am a UK educated and trained nurse looking to move over to the USA. i have passed my NCLEX and have applied for a load of jobs but I still work and live in England so they are obviously reluctant to employ me. I was just wondering if anyone had made the same move and what the differences between british and American nursing are? I understand there is more of a diagnostic aspect and the assessment process is more in depth than it can be here. If anyone could share their day-to-day duties and responisbilities that would be super helpful!
Hi. I went through the process in early 2011 & took the exam through the Ohio BON. From memory, once your CES report has been generated and sent to your nominated BON you can go onto the BON website and navigate through to the NCLEX application site. At least that's how it worked in Ohio. (By coincidence, my state of residence immediately prior to Ohio was Pennsylvania, which - I seem to remember - was not the most user-friendly for telephone enqs!) Hope this helps - Melissa
Thanks for your reply Melissa. You're right their website is terrible. I'm not really sure what to do next tbh, I don't want to apply until I have feedback from them re my CES report as not even sure if I meet the requirements for PA. But then again not sure if they will correspond with me if I haven't applied. I'm very confused.
Once your CES report has been sent to the PA BON, you should be able to log on to their website & book your NCLEX exam without further communication with them.
Once your CES report has been sent to the PA BON, you should be able to log on to their website & book your NCLEX exam without further communication with them.
But I'm not sure how I know if I have enough practical and theory hours in each field of nursing. Surely the BON needs to let me know if all is OK or if I'm lacking? Sorry if I've got this wrong, it just doesn't appear to say on my CGFNS report how many hours I need, only the hours achieved if that makes sense? I plan to give them a call tomorrow anyway, was just wondering if anyone could shed some light as it's a bit unclear
But I'm not sure how I know if I have enough practical and theory hours in each field of nursing. Surely the BON needs to let me know if all is OK or if I'm lacking? Sorry if I've got this wrong, it just doesn't appear to say on my CGFNS report how many hours I need, only the hours achieved if that makes sense? I plan to give them a call tomorrow anyway, was just wondering if anyone could shed some light as it's a bit unclear
I assume the site won't let you book your NCLEX if you don't meet the requirements? But it's a long time since I went through the process so I can't remember the exact process I went through. It also differs from state to state, of course. Anyway good luck calling the PA BON. (Do they have an email address that works?)
Hey! I had luck in 2018 through CGFNS. I studied pediatric nursing at LSBU. I think I was able to make it because a lot of my hours were made up in my first year. And even then a lot of my placements were on different specialized wards. What kind of nursing did you study?
Hey! Im currently studying at lsbu at the moment I was just wondering whether you submitted your own breakdown hours in regards to the other specialities or did lsbu do it for you?
Hi. I'm a bit confused by the timescale of this string(?) but if you've just posted, I believe your UK nursing school has to submit your breakdown hours direct to CGFNS. (Not sure why anyone would WANT to come to the US from overseas in the current climate? 😀)
Hi. I'm a bit confused by the timescale of this string(?) but if you've just posted, I believe your UK nursing school has to submit your breakdown hours direct to CGFNS. (Not sure why anyone would WANT to come to the US from overseas in the current climate? 😀)
Haha, yeah I've heard that a lot about moving to the US, I'm hoping the situation changes by the time I move! I know CGFNS like the uni to submit the breakdown directly, but I was curious how supportive they actually are. If you provide evidence that you were exposed to certain specialties, will UK universities submit what you show them, or are they very much 'by the book' and just fill in the form with what's on your transcript?
If you have direct contact with your uni, it makes sense to show them evidence of the additional specialties you had exposure to & ask them to incorporate that into your transcript. The worst they can say is no! In my case, I qualified nearly 20 years BEFORE I applied for the NCLEX. In the intervening period, the Royal Free where I'd trained, had been subsumed into an umbrella nursing school incorporating a group of North London hospitals. That had, in turn, been taken over by Middlesex University. So when I eventually managed to figure out who to request my records from(!) they had no personal knowledge of me & I was already living in the US. But it turns out they had my records on some giant database, as they provided a detailed & accurate breakdown of my training translated into an American format where it was displayed in terms of numbers of hours.
ScottishNurse22, BSN, RN
63 Posts
Thanks for your reply Melissa. You're right their website is terrible. I'm not really sure what to do next tbh, I don't want to apply until I have feedback from them re my CES report as not even sure if I meet the requirements for PA. But then again not sure if they will correspond with me if I haven't applied. I'm very confused.