Nurse Practitioners and UK nursing?

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Hi, I have two questions, due to the fact that my husband is English and although we currently live in the US, there is a chance we will be moving to the UK in the future (no plans yet)

1) I am trying to get a feel for how nursing in the UK differs from nursing the US. I am currently a peds RN on a cardiac unit and have been for 6 years.

2) Are Nurse Practitioners used in the UK. They are utilized a great deal in the US and their popularity is growing. I would like to go back to school to get my Masters or DNP, but I don't know if there are jobs for NPs or not in the UK.

Any information would be very helpful. Thank you.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

NP is used in the UK and a lot work in family care in the community along side GP's, there are some employed in hospitals. Demands will vary depending where in UK you go. Currently I believe still not registered as such on the NMC register (but that may gphave changed recently)

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

There are nurse practitioners within almost every setting now in theUK, however skills and remit vary greatly as do qualifications

There is no additional registration required to undertake a nurse practitioner position, it will depend very much on what the employer asks for.

In many areas nurse practitioners are also being asked to cover ward shifts due to financial constraints.

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Specializes in NICU.

You can have postings with the word "nurse practitioner" sent to your e-mail via the NHS jobs site (NHS Jobs)

I did a quick search for PNPs and came up with a peds oncology, peds ER, and peds diabetes, which is not very many for a country of 65 million.

I keep tabs on what the neonatal NP job market looks like and there's usually a few posted, although not too many of of late. Keep in mind that the pay is about what you would pay a US staff RN (and UK staff RNs are paid even less). Here's a link to pay rates: Agenda for change - pay rates - NHS Careers NP positions start around band 8a from what I've read and staff RNs start at band 5 or 6.

The benefits are that your health insurance is paid through national tax and you get a lot of holiday time (my English DH says it's the law to have 5 weeks if you're working full time, although Silverdragon and XB9S can chime in if this is different in the medical sector), among other things I'm sure.

You have to be registered with the Nurse & and Midwifery Council (NMC) and it can be a little tricky for US-trained nurses as our hours aren't nearly as much as the UK's programs, but it's doable and there are many threads on the topic. I went through the process a couple of years ago and although we have no immediate plans to move to the UK (especially with the new UK spouse immigration rules), I'm happy to keep paying my renewal fee so that I always have the option.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

When we lived in the UK my husband worked full time and only got 4 weeks vacation and I know things have changed a bit in the NHS and believe starting allowance is 4 weeks plus public holidays

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

The law says you are entitled to 28 statuary holiday days each year excluding bank holidays

In the NHS it depends on length of service

Up to 5 years 28 days plus 8 bank holidays

5-10 years 29 days plus bank holiday

10 years plus 33 days plus bank holiday

Nurse practitioner posts at 8a are rare and usually lead at Team. you will usually find they are a band 6 or 7

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Thank you for your responses. I am still unclear of how the work is different between the two countries, but I guess I will find that out if we move over there. I think registering now is a great idea to have it in my pocket. Thank you again

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From what I've seen on the UK show "24hours in emergency", there are nurse practitioners who seem to take lower category patients after triage. They can order X-rays and I think I saw one do some stitches but I could be wrong. They dealt with sprained ankles/knocks to the head/ cuts etc. It looked like a good system to continue patient flow and free up Drs for the more actual emergent cases.

I think US is the place that has the largest scope of practice for NPs.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

I guess a lot depends where they work. I know my friend works in a GP surgery as a family NP and she does everything that a GP would do. She opted out of doing training for minor surgery but otherwise she sees, advises, prescribes everything that is on the British formulary and can send people for MRI, CT as well as xray and referrals to hospitals

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Specializes in Critical Care/NICU.

This may help you it is a guide written by the Royal College of Nursing (Union)

http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/146478/003207.pdf

They are called Advanced Nurse practitioner and work generally at a level of a junior doctor. They work in most department within a hospital. They can not prescribe everything there are restriction with in the hospital but give the guide a read but help you out.

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