Nurse Practitioners in the UK?

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Hi!

I am currently a RN at a pediatric hospital in the US. I have been working for almost 3 years now. I married an British man and although we are currently living in the States, I believe he will want to move back to the UK at some point. I have always planned on going back to school in the US to become a PNP, but I wanted to know if the UK has NPs, PNPs? and if I would be better off being more or less specialized? Or if I will even be able to get a job as an NP over there. Or would it be better to go to school in the UK or AUS? I realize the economy is bad here and there right now and we are not planning on moving for a few years, but I want to be able to work when/if we move to the UK. If anyone has an answers I would be most appreciative. Thanks so much. :)

Specializes in NICU.
babyNP- I am so glad I came across your post. I will be finishing FNP school in the US this month and have 6 years NICU Level 3 RN experience. We will be moving to the UK next fall (my husband will be getting his MBA in London). Would you advise working as a NICU RN in London or FNP?

Keep in mind that I've never worked in the UK before and all of my information has been done through research and reading others' posts. That being said, here is what I would say...

1. Are you moving this fall as in this year 2017 or 2018? If in 2018 then you should definitely try to get some job, any job as a FNP in the USA so that you can transition well to the provider role. It would be extra hard IMO to transition to the provider role as a new grad because healthcare is set up very differently in than in the US, even down to things like basic nurse autonomy.

2. Is your husband on a student visa to do his MBA? If so, does it allow you to have a visa that will let you legally work in the UK? If not, you're out of luck unless you can work on one of the US military bases.

3. I have no idea on job prospects of FNPs in London...but if you can't find anything at first, getting a job as a NICU RN shouldn't be too difficult as there are agencies you can work with to do per diem type stuff, alternatively you can look directly on the NHS jobs site (type in neonatal rather than NICU). If you can't get a job straightaway as a FNP, might be good to work as a NICU RN to get to know the system and start making connections. How long is your husband's program? I would just hate to see you not practice as a provider out of school because it would be harder for you to get a job with such a huge gap in practice.

4. Do you have a UK license? If not, you need to start working on that as it can take several months to get (it took me ~6 months in 2012). You start the process by going to the NMC website and requesting an initial application. I had to take the IELTS English test (even though English is my first language) which also took awhile to do... Beyond that, the process recently changed where you have to take an NCLEX style test and do a practical skills station (you can read about it on many threads on allnurses).

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Hi, I am glad I found this thread.

I am a dual citizen NP with and old UK RN license from 1986, and 15 years experience as an ARNP in USA, and about the same experience as an RN in USA

I am wanting to move back to UK and work as an ARNP there.

If anyone has experience of getting licenced please email me I would be very appreciative. We should make a support group !

My email is [email protected]

Thank you !

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

hoping you still have friends in the UK on the NMC register, check out the UK forum on old UK nurses having issues re-registering in the UK with the new guidelines?

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Thank you so much for your answer. Will follow that thread.

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