C. Southern

I am helping a company to kick start their hospice and they really want to create a hospice in which their nurses are taken care of well above market grade. They want their nurses and other staff to be retained because they are treated the best. That being said I wanted to ask a few questions to seasoned hospice nurses. What is most important in a hospice employer? How do you prefer to be paid? By the visit/admission or by the hour? How do you like your day to be structured? Do you like to have the same patients every visit and follow that patient through their journey or do you like to work different cases as needed? What support is incremental to the success of nurses and aides in hospice? Any tips for making life easier for our future nurses? Thank you! I am really looking forward to my fellow nurses input!

There is more to life than money and status. Some of us moved for other reasons besides the pay as well. To each his own I guess. It is cool to experience nursing outside the boarders of the US

Hi everyone! I took my OSCE on Monday and got my pass results on Thursday! So happy. Now I am just going to finish up some of the registration paper work and submit my application. Thanks for all your help and tips! I found Youtube to be the most helpful to be honest...in conjuction with the materials they give you once you book a test and the Royal Marsden. It was nerve wracking and I for sure thought I failed it...but the ladies were super nice at Oxford Brookes and made me feel as welcomed and comfortable as possible. Hope this helps! Cayaana

Yes, I believe there might be a few fellow nurses on this thread who have that and have been invited to test!

Hi, You will be able to apply to register with the NMC with and ADN license. I did and I am about to take my OSCE in 2 weeks so it should be fine. Whether you have a BSN or ADN you will still have to go through the same process to register here in the UK including the 2 part test.

Hi, I have my OSCE in Oxford in less than 2 weeks. I have just been studying the prep materials they give us on Moodle as well as supplementary information from the Royal Marsden and other online sources like Asthma UK, BNF, etc. I am starting to get a bit worried because it seems deceivingly easy. It just seems very much based on hitting all the marks on their grading criteria. Would you say it is possible to over prep? I have been doing an 1-2 hours about 4 times a week for the last two weeks and I have 2 weeks to go yet. Any clarification would be wonderful! Thank you, Cayaana

Hi Alaina, Thanks for all your tips, these are MUCH appreciated. I am also doing this off my own back as well, and it can be a bit overwhelming with the wealth (or lack thereof) information out there. I think the script idea is wonderful I will definitely give that a try. I am taking mine at Oxford, and they have provided a ton of information to study with. What did you wear to your appointment, as far as a uniform? Any other tips? I have 3 weeks to go? Thanks!

Hello Everyone! Just a small update. I take my OSCE in 3 weeks in Oxford, a little nervous about it but from what I can tell, it looks very easy and self explanatory. A nurse here told me to not over think it, as in the States we are expected to do and know a lot more than the nurses here, critical thinking wise... I have also been offered a job at the HMP Birmingham (which is the Prison) but they have offered to pay my registration fees and have offered me the job before I even qualify. It is a post called Band 4 Transition Practitioner, in which, effectively they hire a person prior to qualifying with the NMC and you are just under the supervision of one of their RNs in the mean time. I would suggest looking at NHS jobs and searching terms like Newly Qualified Nurses, Transition Practitioner, or Pre-Registration Nurses if you arent choosing to go with an agency (I chose not to). I live here in the UK already and work within the NHS so this is how I figured this part out. Generally, while you may not be newly qualified (like me I have 6 years experience including in an ICU) but to the NHS you ARE new and will start at the lowest banding. I also don't agree with the whole idea of banding, I think it is a bit crass and people gauge their self-work at work based on their band, but this is how it is within the NHS. Any tips or suggestions from those who have taken the OSCE would be greatly appreciated!

Hello Fellow Nurses! I am happy to report that I passed my CBT this past Friday! I got my result the next morning (Saturday), which I found by logging into Pearson Vue's NMC account. I now have all the leg work of trying to get a police check from the Us during this time, as well as a bunch of other things. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now with the paperwork. Can any of the nurses who have successfully completed this process give any guidance on how to get all the paperwork done? I also don't understand why, if I trained in America, and I was born and raised in the US, I have to prove my English skills. Anyone know what this is about? As far as the CBT went, for those that are wondering, I found it to be really really easy, especially in comparison to the NCLEX, which I took 6 years ago now. I definitely stressed too much over this. The math questions were super easy as well. They were like "You need to give 15 mg of this medication. You have 5 mg tablets. How many tablets will you give?" I did study though. I used, as suggested in an earlier post, the Royal Marsden Manual to Clinical Nursing and I just basically did some light reading after doing the chapter quizzes on what I didn't know. What I would suggest, and what I did find a little difficult on the NMC's test was you need to understand and know about their screening tools like the NEWs, ACVPU, and MUST. The Royal Marsden Manual talks about all of these. There were a fair few questions on interpreting those screening tools. But mainly, most of it was about nursing professionalism and basic patient safety. It also wasn't like the NCLEX where they try and trick you on the answers to the questions and what they are really asking. The answers to me where quite obvious if you use your common sense. I finished in an hour, but I had gotten some advice, which I would definitely suggest, to take the time to go back through the entire test and just double check your answers. I believe this helped me in the end to pass. Now on to the phase to finally register here.... Any advice from those who have done it?

I am glad it helped clear up things a bit. No, I have not yet. I am due to take my CBT in June.

Hi All, Not sure if this will help, but here is goes. I have an ADN, which meant 2 years of nursing school with 1 year of pre requisites. I have asked the same question the the NMC, and go the same kind of vague answer. But I went ahead and applied because I had my college degree, my nursing license and have practiced and registered in the States, which is what they require ultimately. I applied and received my authorisation to test. So despite the fact I didn’t have 3 years of nursing school, I can still apply. But I have to take the CBT, since our standard 2 year nursing programme doesn’t match up equivalently to their standard 3 year nursing programme here in the UK. I would imagine it would be the same for the accelerated BSN, as long as you have been able to register in your home country. Hope this helps!

@jordanecc311 Thank you for sharing this! I am from Denton, TX, but now living in the UK. I have yet to registered with the NMC though. I got married and have lived here for 2 years now. I am looking to register though, as I have been working in the NHS for 6 months and I am ready for new opportunities. Would you mind sharing the name of your agency? I wonder if they would be interested in me, a even though I am already living here. Thanks for the tips about the CBT. I have mine booked for end of June and I am nervous. My background in nursing is in Med/Surge and ICU.

@kaitfinder Thank you for all this information! I, too, live in the UK. I have been here for 2 years now with my husband. I have found it an enormous struggle to figure out the NMC I.e. Brexit and all the changes that have been made to their process for international nurses. That combined with other things, I had not started my registration process until recently. I take my test in June. I am a bit dismayed that I wasn’t as quick to understand and complete the process as you have been. There was not as much clarity for sure, but I really thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us! I have been working in the NHS in Birmingham for 6 months now as an Infection Prevention and Control Assistant. My background is in the ICU and Med/Surge nursing though and I am so eager to get back to this kind of nursing. The UK’s system, while similar in principle to the USA, had a large learning curve. I appreciate both for the good that they bring separately to their communities. I am really nervous about taking the CBT, but from all I have heard, and read, even on your own posts, I know it shouldn’t be too difficult. I need to brush up on my labs and med calculations though. Would you recommend anything for diagnostic values? The OSCE, weirdly, doesn’t seem to worry me too much. How was it compared to like skills test or check offs that you experience in nursing school? Again, I REALLY appreciate your insight on this matter. I wish I could be in your shoes! How are you liking the UK? The summers here, when it is sunny, are the best! -Cayaana