BethannSiv

Disclaimer: IN the UK, only people who are certified in giving immigration advice can legally give that adivce... I'm not certified (but may be certifiable! LOL) but... if you come in on a visit visa, then try to change your visa status, they can and often do give you a hard time. I would say tho to come in on a visit visa, look for schools, and then contact the Immigration Advisory Service, a free charity that gives excellent immigration advice :) Bethann

Reminds me of some of the old EMS chestnuts...- If you are at an MVA (RTA) at 3am, and none of your patients is drunk, keep looking, someone is missing. - When given the choice between the Blue & white taxi (police car) and the red & white taxi (ambulance), a drunk injured person will always choose the blue and the uninjured always choose the red. - The closer a call comes to 3am, the more likely that it could wait until 10am when the Doctors Office opens. - Children are very creative when it comes to combinations of orifices and foreign bodies. - The more tools and gadgets a person has to have in their pockets, the less competent they likely are to use any of them. - ALways heed the following 2 patient complaints without question: 1) The baby is coming now 2) I think I am going to be sick. - The higher the floor a person lives on, the more likely they are to drag themselves up to their flat before calling an ambulance for a complaint for which they will need to be carried down stairs. - Patients who say "I have no idea how THAT happened" always do. - Always use tape to secure someone to a backboard- if they are faking or playing up, make sure the tape goes across their eyebrows. At least then you will be able to spot them more easily next time they call and make sure another crew gets them. - Always ask people with acute respiratory distress and/or COPD to put out their cigarette before giving them oxygen. Bethann

If you have lived outside the EU/ Britain for more than three years, you are no longer eligible for a bursary ... even if you lived in a commonwealth country. ------- from http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk Bursary Eligibility for Overseas Applicants In order to qualify for bursary support, those applying for NHS funded courses will have to: 1. Have been ordinarily resident in the UK, Channel Islands or the Isle of Man throughout the three years preceding the first day of the first academic year of the course, other than for the purpose of receiving full-time education. 2. Have settled status in the UK within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 on the first day of the first academic year of the course. 3. Be ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the courses. --------- Go to this web page for more information and for contact details for the agencies that handle bursaries and funding http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/nhs-knowledge_base/data/225.html If you want to get a diploma, you could get NHS funded education (although without a bursary), but if you want a degree any financial assistance would be means tested, and there are restrictions on access to funding for degrees for overseas applicants. And the reason you were advised to avoid London is because the cost of living is extortionately high. Bethann

You would need to go through the evil Committee for Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools people... before you could simply go over there as an LPN, and believe it or not, an LPN has a diverse education and is not simply a nurse not good enough to be an RN... and its not a stepping stone qualification to an RN necessarily. Your knowledge from the UK of US medications, treatments and even terminology would put you at a real disadvantage in being an LPN. Nursing in the US is much more medical model... and based in a different model of nursing as well. Gone: roper logan and tierney...Enter: nurse diagnosis and Gordon;s funcational health patterns. Of course, getting an LPN is a one year course, maybe you could consider getting into an LPN course and getting CLEP credit for some of what you have already done? Then at least you could get a stduent visa Hope this doesnt sound too argumentative or derogatory- it certainly isnt meant to! I just remember being told over and over that LPN meant "Lets Play Nurse" and RN meant "Real Nurse"... and knowing how true that **wasn't**. Bethann

I was an LPN when I moved here... First, how long have you been in the US? If you have been outside the UK / Eurozone for more than three years, you might not be eligible for nurse education bursary here. (There is a residency requirement for the bursary now). You would need to take a Diploma course (3 years), but you may be able to APEL (Accreditation for prior experiential learning) some things. You would need comprehensive transcripts and to prepare a portfolio. Not as ominous as it sounds! If nothing else, you have a good scope of practice, because your training was general (pediatrics, maternal and child health, mental health,etc) and here nurses are trained in "branches", adult nursing, child health, mental health, and learning disability. And midwifery, which is separate from nursing. When you finish your RN, you would have a very stable foundation and move up perhaps a bit more quickly than others. If you wanted to apply, you could go thru UCAS (www.ucas.ac.uk) for more information. If you are a British Citizen, you would not have any restrictions on your employment as a student, however non-EU/ non-Brits have a 20 hour/ week working restriction if they are on a student visa. Good luck Bethann

Raman, I would be happy to converse with you :) I am a community nurse in England. Bethann