Nursing in the UK....hummmm....

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hello all!

since i will be have my bsn by 2006 i am currently considering the location of where i want to work and live. i'll be fresh out of college with no serious responsibilities (like kids) to deal with. i'm thinking this will be one of the few times in life that i will be able to make a big decision like this. i've been playing with the idea of leaving texas and the us. i mean i've never seen the world outside of north america before... since i can't just hop in a bus to go to the uk, i wanted some opinions and advice from the people who live there. i know this is pretty general...but what do you think of nursing in the uk? have you ever considered nursing away from home? and also...can you provide me with links to the various hospitals and clinics in the uk? i'd like to do some research of my own too! i'm doing a lot of reading on the culture and life there to get a feel of what it would be like living so far from home...but of course nothing is better than to hear stories from real people instead of just out of books!:specs:

-babyrn

Specializes in midwifery, ophthalmics, general practice.
London is blighted by gangsters from eastern Europe etc. I gather most arrests of Arabs are for trivia. Before the Arabs, it was the Irish who were rounded up in racist witch hunts.

The usual trend is many hundreds of arrests and a near zero conviction rate. How many convictions out of the last 600 'terrorist' arrests, a round dozen or so? Tony Blair and David Blunkett do media stunts.

ok I was trying to be polite and reasonable..............

but you clearly dont live in London. I would suggest you look again at your comments. As I said we have problems, similiar to any large city but this is a great place to live. My friends come from all races, creeds and walks of life. This is remarkably tolerant place to be...

exactly which newspaper are you reading........... the sunday sport???

Karen (who is still trying to be polite!)

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London is blighted by gangsters from eastern Europe etc. I gather most arrests of Arabs are for trivia. Before the Arabs, it was the Irish who were rounded up in racist witch hunts.

The usual trend is many hundreds of arrests and a near zero conviction rate. How many convictions out of the last 600 'terrorist' arrests, a round dozen or so? Tony Blair and David Blunkett do media stunts.

When were the irish rounded up by witch hunts????

I only remember being welcomed.

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Thought I may add my 2 cents worth. I think it is being very disingenous to claim that we dont have gansters and turf wars in London. Maybe not big shoot outs but things are definetly getting bad. I thought it was well known that Turkish/Kurdish groups control the heroin trade, Eastern European gangs are heavily involved in the people smuggling/prostitution, Yardies are involved in the cocaine business and each group wants to get involved in another groups activities.

I also belive that 25% of London is ethnic minorities. This makes it such a wonderfull city to be in, but of course there are small elements everywhere that give the larger group a bad name.

And the Irish were rounded up during Thatchers years in office because of ideas that they were somehow connected to the IRA.

And I completely agree with Moscow that arabs are currently being persecuted against. 600 hunded arrested, most let free and a few get done for Visa irregularites. Media stunt.

Take care

Wandering_U

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London is one of the most vibrant cities in the world. Moscow you clearly don't know alot about our city.

caramel

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I'm afraid i do live in London. I live in a place called Camberwell and if YOU really live there you could tell me exactly where it was.

I'm there studying nursing as a matter of fact at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and training at Guys and St Thomas' hospital.

I never grow tired of being right

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Specializes in midwifery, ophthalmics, general practice.
I'm afraid i do live in London. I live in a place called Camberwell and if YOU really live there you could tell me exactly where it was.

I'm there studying nursing as a matter of fact at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and training at Guys and St Thomas' hospital.

I never grow tired of being right

I know where camberwell is............. I trained at Greenwich and used to live in catford and New Cross.. could never afford Greenwich! Guys is a good place to train.. do they still wear those silly hats with strings???

Karen

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I have worked in Accident and Emergency departments in the US and UK. I have never seen so much drunk and disorderly behavior as I have in the UK. The high standard of the nurses and doctors in the UK and the massive amounts of time off sure do go a long way to making up for dealing with career drunks who think they are entitled to free medication. The UK is like anywhere else, it has its good and bad points. The doctors and the nurses are extremely impressive and supportive of eachother. Even though the pay is less, I have found it a better work environment than what I had in the US due to the high level of professionalism of the staff. Maybe Im just in a super good place though. It cant be like that everywhere.

Anyway if you want to come to the UK go for it! I wouldnt trade my experience here for the world drunks or no drunks.

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I have worked in Accident and Emergency departments in the US and UK. I have never seen so much drunk and disorderly behavior as I have in the UK. The high standard of the nurses and doctors in the UK and the massive amounts of time off sure do go a long way to making up for dealing with career drunks who think they are entitled to free medication. The UK is like anywhere else, it has its good and bad points. The doctors and the nurses are extremely impressive and supportive of eachother. Even though the pay is less, I have found it a better work environment than what I had in the US due to the high level of professionalism of the staff. Maybe Im just in a super good place though. It cant be like that everywhere.

Anyway if you want to come to the UK go for it! I wouldnt trade my experience here for the world drunks or no drunks.

Massive amounts of time off!? We have some of the longest working hours in Europe!!!!!!! BUT yeah we do have a particular type of white middle class yob that enjoys drinking and fights but then again in a small country as wealthy as this i can understand the turn on, tune in, drop out mindset.

Personally i think it's a result of excess, in everything. sometimes it seems like we're only short of nurses, doctors and dentists.

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Massive amounts of time off!? We have some of the longest working hours in Europe!!!!!!! BUT yeah we do have a particular type of white middle class yob that enjoys drinking and fights but then again in a small country as wealthy as this i can understand the turn on, tune in, drop out mindset.

Personally i think it's a result of excess, in everything. sometimes it seems like we're only short of nurses, doctors and dentists.

Yes we do have some of the longest working hours in Europe, but having researched into nursing in Canada. our holidays are fantastic compared to there. Here we get about 35/36 days holidays, whereas in Canada, (and I assume the US), they only get about 15/20 days holidays a year. Quite a difference between 6-7 weeks here to 3-4 weeks in Canada eh???

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Specializes in midwifery, ophthalmics, general practice.
Yes we do have some of the longest working hours in Europe, but having researched into nursing in Canada. our holidays are fantastic compared to there. Here we get about 35/36 days holidays, whereas in Canada, (and I assume the US), they only get about 15/20 days holidays a year. Quite a difference between 6-7 weeks here to 3-4 weeks in Canada eh???

yep thats true........... Have friends who work for American companies and 4 wks annual leave is the norm. they get more holiday as long service incentives. I get 6 weeks plus bank holidays plus 3 days long service!! And I am not giving up my holidays for anyone!!!

Karen

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When I worked in the US a couple of years ago we you were not entitled to any annual leave for the first year on the job, after you were there a year you could get one week, then 2 weeks once you were there 5 years. That is the norm in a lot of places. There is no law from the government stating that you have to be entitled to leave. Your employer gives you leave if they feel like it usually. Maternity leaves were 6 weeks off and unpaid. I cant speak for every state, but that was the deal in mine. I have heard it was worse in texas but Ive never been there. A full time work week was 40-45 hours. I did that for a year and a half with no annual leave.

I think someone somewhere said americans get 4 weeks! :chuckle Where the heck is that??? My dad has a good job in a big well known company and has been there 30 years full time and he gets 4 weeks max! And he feels lucky.

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Yep. Although we moan alot about working conditions here in the UK, compared to some people we are really quite well off. I know my sister here in the UK works in the public service sector and only gets 4 weeks annual leave.

As nurses, I think it's a tradition we moan about the job and it's conditions, (I do it all the time!), and on occassions it is justified, but we aren't badly off in relation to working hours, annual leave, maternity leave etc.

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