Uk for Uk?

World UK

Published

Hi all,

Sorry if this offends anyone, but over the last few months, all I've seen in the UK forum is how people are wanting to go to the US! I understand why you might want to do it... but I personally want to hear from people in the UK about UK nursing. Is it so bad that every person from the UK on this forum wants to go to the US?

Come on, prove me wrong!

Ach well,

I guess I'm alone here. I personally came here to read about the US perspective on nursing and also to see how it compared to the UK. I've not come across any UK nursing forums as comprehensive as this one, hence why I asked.

But hey, I love this forum, so maybe I'll just ignore the UK part and not get annoyed that every UK nurse I see seems to be running off to the US ;)

P.S. Not that I wouldn't contemplate it in different circumstances, just for experience!

No you are not alone. As I mentioned before, I too come here to read about US nursing and how it compares. Like fonenurse also mentioned, I have no interest in moving to America. I am not a nurse (I will be starting training in a few months) but am keen to learn about nurses experiences worldwide. The few boards I know of in the UK are very quiet and don't have many posters, hence I get much more info on allnurses. But then again, I suppose the USA is a little bit bigger than the UK :)

I don't come much to the UK part of the board precisely because it seems to be a place to find info about jobs in the US and I prefer other parts of the forum.

0 Votes

Phew, I'm not alone! I'm gradually trying to spread the word about allnurses around London, so hopefully we'll have more of us on board soon :)

0 Votes
Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Phew, I'm not alone! I'm gradually trying to spread the word about allnurses around London, so hopefully we'll have more of us on board soon :)

Just for the record I encouraged my staff on a ward in the UK back in Jan/feb time to use allnurses and they posted a few clinical enquiries that they wished to discuss one being around uniforms and nobody ever replied-so they stopped using it.

Maybe Clare you could write something in one of the Uk journals about using allnurses as a resource and that may encourage more UK nurses to respond and maybe start using it. It would be good even for me the ex pat to keep updated re current affairs in nursing in the UK.

Another good way of introducing allnurses is involve the students they move from ward to ward and could recommend allnurses to different wards.

Dunno maybe we could start another thread on what we could do to encourage UK nurses to utilise this resource??????

Or you could post a weekly discussion topic, which all us brits could respond to and discuss???

0 Votes
Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
But hey, I love this forum, so maybe I'll just ignore the UK part and not get annoyed that every UK nurse I see seems to be running off to the US ;)

Hey

Dont get angry with us we are just following our dream, I am a great believer that you only regret the things you dont do in life not the things you've done.

I am in my 40's I have given the NHS 17years of my life, and not one day do I regret but since I was 7 I have wanted to live in the US and I had to do it before it was too late. I will always be British and I love my country but I gotta do what I gotta do.

I do think you will find that the majority of us Uk nurses coming to US are older and have paid our dues to the UK, hey probably because the newly trained cant get here because they are not trained how the US want them to be.:chuckle

0 Votes
Hey

I do think you will find that the majority of us Uk nurses coming to US are older and have paid our dues to the UK, hey probably because the newly trained cant get here because they are not trained how the US want them to be.:chuckle

Are nurses that qualified before a certain year allowed to work in the US and those that qualified afterwards not ???

I don't want to get into a debate about old skool vs. modern training but it doesn't really make much sense. Do the nurses that qualified years ago have higher qualifications or something ? I thought that it would have been the opposite. That older nurses would have to update their training. Not a case of new nurses having to keep up with the ones that qualified 20 years ago.

I'm not being nasty here, it just doesn't seem logical and I'm just curious to know how it all works.

I was told that years ago it was much easier to go and work abroad, simply because the rules and requirements were a lot less strict than they are today, not because the nurses were much better than they are nowadays...Like it used to be a lot easier to travel abroad but nowadays you need all your jabs, visas, permits etc...

0 Votes
Are nurses that qualified before a certain year allowed to work in the US and those that qualified afterwards not ???

I don't want to get into a debate about old skool vs. modern training but it doesn't really make much sense. Do the nurses that qualified years ago have higher qualifications or something ? I thought that it would have been the opposite. That older nurses would have to update their training. Not a case of new nurses having to keep up with the ones that qualified 20 years ago.

I'm not being nasty here, it just doesn't seem logical and I'm just curious to know how it all works.

I was told that years ago it was much easier to go and work abroad, simply because the rules and requirements were a lot less strict than they are today, not because the nurses were much better than they are nowadays...Like it used to be a lot easier to travel abroad but nowadays you need all your jabs, visas, permits etc...

It's not about better or worse training, it's simply that the US and Canada require that nurses be trained as generalists. That means you must have a certain amount of medical-surgical, psych, peds and ob theory and clinical in school. The UK used to train its nurses this way, which is why older nurses have an easier time immigrating. Newer nurses are trained as specialists (adult nurse, midwife, etc) so they must make up the hours in the other clinical areas to be licensed in the US.

I'm a Canadian actually interested in UK nursing, but the clinical requirement turns me off (that and the pay).

0 Votes
Specializes in ICU,ANTICOAG,ACUTE STROKE,EDU,RESEARCH.

Hi everyone

Well I have worked in the NHS now for 23 years and feel that they have had more than their moneys worth!

Reasons why I want to go to the US are

1. I am completely disgusted with AFC and feel that once again nurses have been unfairly banded.How is it that we are the only profession in the NHS going at level 5 and even E grades got 5s?. I work as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Anticoagulant Care as part of a nurse led service managing 1700 patients.Previously anticoag was done badly by GPs. We are not protocol driven and have a great deal of autonomy (and stress like all other nurses) regarding clinical decisions. I was a G and have been given a 6.My score for mental effort was 2-that's the same as our pathology porter!

2.They keep moving the goal posts.Obviously I trained years ago.After you qualified you needed to do a teaching course-I did one.You needed to do an ENB course-I did one.You needed a counselling course-I did one.Now none of them give me any "points" because it was before nurse training moved into universities.I now have a degree in research-everyonesays"oh you need a mAsters!

3.I ahve worked part time for the last 10 years.In that time my monthly salary has increased by £100 despite moving from an E to a G.This is because there is so little difference across grades that if you stop doing unsocial hours your pay is no better or even poorer.I earn less as a G doing 3 1/2 dyas than I did doing 18 hours on nights as an E 9 years ago.

4.Nurses need to stand up and be counted.I voted against AFC,however I belive only about 50% of RCN members voted. It's no good just moaning about staffing levels -we are professionals and should not go on accepting thinga that compromise pt care.For any US nurses we do not have min staff ratios-Sometimes there will only be one RN for 30 patients on a ward.

So I am of to US where RNs are treated as professionals and paid for responsibility. the problem with the UK is that nursing will ALWAYS be controlled by medicine unless nurses take a stand.

0 Votes
Specializes in ICU,ANTICOAG,ACUTE STROKE,EDU,RESEARCH.

Now I've cooled down a bit after my rant, on htemore positive side I think the US holds more for me and my family in the future.As one person said they can't afford to buy a house here.This will apply to many people here.

In the US as long as you don't want to live in the expensive hot spots homes are so affordable. The other things that are less expensive include petrol, cars, eating out .Also I believe that our family and community values have for the most part gone. It is very much alive in the US and things are more family orientated. Oh , and everyone doesn't have to live on squashed in housing estates because land is not at a premium.

I wouls also like to say to Claire34 that I am an old nurse.However I ahve a wealth of experience and knowledge under my belt.I didn't spend a year of my training procrastinating the philosophical issues around the sick pt but I could run rings round many nurses.Don't assume that all old nurses need updating.Some of us take special care to find out about things that we are not familiar with and do occasionally pick up a book!

0 Votes
It's not about better or worse training, it's simply that the US and Canada require that nurses be trained as generalists. That means you must have a certain amount of medical-surgical, psych, peds and ob theory and clinical in school. The UK used to train its nurses this way, which is why older nurses have an easier time immigrating. Newer nurses are trained as specialists (adult nurse, midwife, etc) so they must make up the hours in the other clinical areas to be licensed in the US.

I'm a Canadian actually interested in UK nursing, but the clinical requirement turns me off (that and the pay).

Yeah, that is something that hacks me off. I've chosen to train in psych nursing. I'm interested in all branches really but seeing as the UK make you choose, I've chosen psych. It really annoys me that I'm going to be doing this for 3 years but if I want to go abroad I'm going to have to do an extra 18 months in adult nursing to dual qualify. Even though I'm not going to be doing adult nursing, just MH which is what I was originally trained for. I'd rather have a training that covered all branches and then later go on to specialise in one (like it used to be I suppose).

I'm still a bit concerned that I might not have made the right choice because I'm interested in Adult nursing also.

I suppose what gets me just as much is that you have to choose your branch before you start the training even though you do a common programme for the first year and don't start the branch training until the second. Wouldn't it make more sense to do the common foundation programme and then decide what branch you want to do at the end of it.

I know how everything changed with PK2000 and it became university based, but does anyone know why they changed it to specialised training and not general like it used to be ?

0 Votes

I wouls also like to say to Claire34 that I am an old nurse.However I ahve a wealth of experience and knowledge under my belt.I didn't spend a year of my training procrastinating the philosophical issues around the sick pt but I could run rings round many nurses.Don't assume that all old nurses need updating.Some of us take special care to find out about things that we are not familiar with and do occasionally pick up a book!

Oh dear, I think it's my post you are referring to. As soon as I wrote it I knew someone would take it the wrong way. Firstly when I said old, I meant old not in age but as opposed to new. And I was just trying to make a logical point in that something practised today is usually more advanced than it was 20 years ago. Not that new nurses are better, just that healthcare and education will obviously advance with time. I'd be extremely concerned if it didn't. And yes, I think that if a nurse that had qualified 20 years ago and had not practised since then would need updating...obviously. Nurses that have been practising for the past 20 years will have been constantly updating their skills on the job, as it is a requirement of nmc registration anyway....

That's all I meant, not that old nurses don't know as much as new nurses, just that the knowledge you would aquire in todays training would be very different from that taught 20 years ago.

However, I would like to add that your comment of students procrastinating philosophical issues is typical of many old skool nurses that think that that's all todays nurses are capable of doing...

0 Votes
Yeah, that is something that hacks me off. I've chosen to train in psych nursing. I'm interested in all branches really but seeing as the UK make you choose, I've chosen psych. It really annoys me that I'm going to be doing this for 3 years but if I want to go abroad I'm going to have to do an extra 18 months in adult nursing to dual qualify.

It's unfortunate and you'd also need to get peds and OB training as well. A lot of newer UK grads have posted about all the trouble they've had doing this.

I think it makes more sense to train nurses as generalists because then you have more choices available. I know I thought I wanted to do peds when I went into nursing and it turned out I like maternity/neonatal so much better. It's a shame that you all don't have the chance to choose AFTER seeing what the areas are like.

0 Votes

Just a warning to some nurses here: only California has mandated nurse to patient ratios (and I certainly can't afford a house here!), many nurses leave the profession because of a lack of respect and pay varies widely. There are plenty of nurses earning low wages in crappy jobs in the US too. Choose wisely if you decide to come here!

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment