nursing in the UK

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so, this is my first time posting on this site. a little back ground info first. I've been a RN for about 10 years. I have an ADN and a BSN. I've worked in L&D, Cardiac ICU, step down and Home health and hospice. I was a travel nurse for a while in Cardiac. I'm from the US. Well, I met a man online and he lives in the UK. And things are starting to get serious enough between us that we are talking about one or the other moving to one country together. I think I would prefer to move there as I have no real roots here and I've always wanted to live in England. Well, I've done the research on getting my license transferred to the UK, and I'm fairly comfortable with that info as a whole. (I'm sure I'll have questions once I'm actually going through the process as it seems fairly long, not hard. just a lot of steps).

My questions right now are more along the lines of what could I expect as a nurse in the UK? How is pay generally there? The area is Yorkshire, I'm sure that matters. what kind of benefits do nurses earn in the UK? What kinds of patient ratios do you have? What kinds of shifts? Is home health and in home hospice something that is done there, or would I have to work in the hospital again? I'm doing home health now, and I honestly really love it more than I ever did the hospital.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the International Nursing forum

You will love Yorkshire, I lived and trained there from 1986 to 2007. Nurses do not get benefits like the US and Canada. You can pay privately towards private healthcare but isn't included with work. UK has District nurses which is homecare and hospice as well as hospitals, nursing homes and practice nurses. Depending on your employer will depend on what scale they put you on but check out the RCN payscale 2015 and nurses generally start at band 5 but your employer if they want to take previous experience into play can put you higher in the band 5 that the start

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wow, I looked at the pay scale that you recommended and that seems really low. I did a currency conversion and that's way way WAY lower than I make now. :/

as in that's half of what I make now. and I have excellent benefits where I'm at now.

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now I'm really honestly torn. I mean, it seemed like it would be the easier choice for me to move there because he actually cares about his family and has a relationship with them and I don't with mine. now I just honestly don't know. I did some google searching too, and I keep coming up with all this stuff about how nurses in the UK aren't respected. and the pay being so incredibly low is just staggering to me. I mean, I fell like I'm way underpaid now. but that pay scale is absolutely criminal for what nurses have to do. then to top it off, the profession isn't respected? I honestly don't know if I could handle that. I'd probably get arrested for losing my cool with someone.

I have lots of soul searching to do now. and it looks like I'm going to be freaking out about this alone, because (of course) its 1:15 am there for him. so he's in bed asleep. ugh!

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Don't forget living expenses differ and I managed to buy a house on UK wages when I first qualified back in the late 80's early 90's. Yorkshire isn't as bad as some places. Also remember that you will get more vacation time as well as sick time, and they are separate, and the UK nurses generally work a 37 1/2 hour week and you will get paid monthly

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The wages are not that bad if you think about it ,

Firstly in the nhs , they get 30% extra for nights and saturday and 60% for Sundays, also healthcare is free, nurses here get a lot of holidays and i don't feel disrespected at all in my job, i cant speak for other uk nurses tho, have you been over to england to visit ?

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Hi Nurseajd!

Boy after reading your post, i feel like i already know you. I am going through a similar experience where I really want to live in England as well. Have you made up your mind as to moving there to England to work as a nurse there while also being with your sweetheart? I really hope things do work out for you both. Continued blessings!

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