Nursemicky

Yes, but only because it really didn't seem like an official seal to me...just a return address stamp.

Hi Andrei15, My employer didn't have an official stamp or seal and NMC still accepted it. My employers didn't actually follow the instructions exactly (it says to include a letter signed by them verifying that no stamp exists). They wrote in the little box "No stamp exists," initialed it, and then included a letter from human resources on letter headed paper that verified my dates of employment. I was worried that wouldn't be accepted, but it was. If your employer doesn't have a seal, I would be very specific with them about what you need the letter to say. Maybe even give them an example. It'll save you some worry if they do exactly what the form says to :) The "seal" that my GP used was a simple stamp with the office's name and address (looked like the kind used to stamp a return address on envelopes). I tried explaining what I meant by "official seal," but that was all they had. I made them sign by the stamp, and NMC accepted it like that. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much guys! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's felt like that, and I really appreciate your input on how you've dealt with it. It makes sense when you say it like that, though. Sometimes in order to keep my head clear and do my job to the best of my ability, I may have to forget the emotional side and stick with simply "caring" instead of "caring about."

I fall into the mentality of living for my days off and dreading my days on too :/ I remind myself that it's never as bad once I get there. I remind myself how lucky I am to have a job and imagine the pickle I'd be in if I were unemployed. I get excited about the people I get to work with. I Google motivational music and speeches :) I try to remember how happy and excited I was when I was first offered the job - when I saw it as an opportunity instead of a burden. Sometimes it can seem like the days I work are pretty much "lost days" and kind of don't count. This sounds super cheesy, but instead of separating it out like that into "on" days and "off" days, I try to view every day as just another day in a life I'm lucky to have. As I'm walking into work, I tell myself that there's a specific purpose for me to be at work that day. Even if it's super small and I don't even know what it is, it's always possible that I could do/say something that will have a serious positive impact on somebody! That thought cheers me up a bit as I'm walking through the front door and mentally saying goodbye to sunlight and freedom for the next 13 hours :)

Sorry this is so long! Maybe this is the kind of thing better left to the pages of a private journal, but I'm curious if anyone else has felt like this. Does anyone else know what I mean by dealing with nurse guilt? I don't mean making a mistake, then beating yourself up about it afterward. I mean just a general sense that I should be a better nurse and be more caring than I am. Like I'm not quite good enough to be considered a "good nurse." I've been a nurse on a busy progressive unit for 3 years, so I'm no veteran, but I'm also not fresh out of school. If I have a super hectic day where I'm running around nonstop just trying to stay afloat, at the end of the shift I feel guilty that I didn't make more of a connection with my patients and didn't take the time to make them feel special or like they were genuinely cared about. On the flip side, on those rare slow shifts where I actually do have time to chit-chat with my patients and make them feel that they were receiving top notch personal care, I still sometimes feel like I didn't do enough. I seem to have this idea that if I still had some time to put my feet up, then I didn't try hard enough and didn't give enough of myself. I think a lot of it stems from the feeling that I'm going through the motions of caring, but not truly "caring." At least not in the way I feel I should. For example, I recently had an end-stage cancer patient who developed a connection with me. Before I left my last shift of the week, he went on and on about how much he appreciated my caring nature and attention to his needs and for making him feel so special. That should make me happy. But instead I left feeling guilty because it hadn't meant near as much to me as it did to him. He was the sweetest guy, and I had obviously cared about him, felt for him and his struggle, and wished him all the best, but I also kind of felt like I was just doing my job. Being kind and polite, asking about his life, making sure his needs were attended to...going through the motions without feeling all the meaning behind it that he interpreted. And then there's the 'ol "I really want to care, but I just don't right now," feeling. My coworkers and I were having this discussion the other day. We're sitting around ragged, run-down, and with still half a shift to go. Somebody voiced what we all felt too guilty to say: "I want to care, but I don't. All I care about is doing what I have to do to get through this shift." Thankfully things aren't like this all the time, but let's face it: sometimes patients whine, demand, complain, insult...and just in general run you down and wear you out to the point where you see them as a job to do instead of a person to care for. And I feel terrible when I start thinking like this! I know in my head that I should be more empathetic and patient, but in reality all I see is a duty to push through, and a problem instead of a person. It sounds horrible, and I really don't like admitting to feeling that way. Has anyone else felt like this? And if you have, what has helped you push through and gain a better perspective?

Ashley 1286, In the grand scheme of things it really hasn't been too long. A couple weeks maybe. I'm just anxious to get the visa and everything squared away! I just wanted to know if anyone else has had any difficulties with this stage of the process :) I haven't taken the OSCE yet. I'm planning on doing that in January after I quit my job and move. I'm just waiting for them to post January test dates. And as far as turning in your application now, it couldn't hurt. I just scanned and emailed all my docs to them and then were fine with that. Faith 123, As long as it's on letter headed paper and signed, you should be fine. I'm pretty sure mine was only a sentence or two long.

For those of you working with Continental Travel Nurse (or anyone else for that matter), have you had any difficulties with them securing a job or getting a certificate of sponsorship? CTN hasn't let me know that they found a job for me yet, and I'm getting nervous!

evansje and [COLOR=#000000]ArizonaRN, So great to hear of more people with CTN! I would love to be in London for at least part of my time, but I also wouldn't mind experiencing some other parts of the country as well. I would think that if you're going with a channeler listed on the FBI's website then it's probably pretty official. Especially if they said it comes with a seal and everything. And in the end, you would hope that the NMC would be willing to work with you at least a LITTLE, since after all it's their fault that you don't have the original. Since you guys will be flying out there and completing the process before I will, you'll have to keep us updated on how everything goes with the visa, OSCE, and everything else :) Thanks for the input, and hope to meet you in the future!![/COLOR]

ArizoneaRNLC, Yes I do have my decision letter, and Northampton University sent me the link to pay for and register for the OSCE 5 days after I heard from the NMC. Then about 2 weeks after that they sent me login info for their "Internal Learning Platform" to help you prepare. So you can sign up for the test fairly soon after you get your DL, but they ask that you allow yourself at least 14 days of study time before you take it. I haven't scheduled it yet, though, because I was planning on coming in January and they only have test dates up through December. So you think all you need is an OSCE test date for them to apply for sponsorship? They made it sound like they needed to have the first job all lined up, and she said that wouldn't be possible until about a month before. I really hope it can be sooner than that, because I'd kind of like to have a work visa in my possession before quitting my job, buying a plane ticket, telling everyone I'm for sure moving overseas, ect. Haha. I guess we'll see though!

Hi ArizonaRNLC, I'm also a US nurse, and I've also been working on this process since October of last year. As for the police clearance, if you go to the FBI website they have information about their identity history summaries. I did mine the slow way and it took a little over 2 months to get it back. They also have some information about the "channeler option," along with a list of "FBI approved channelers" which is supposedly faster, but I was worried it wouldn't be considered as official. I really don't have any reason to think that other than I'm an obsessive worrier :) As for the visa processing time, I'm a little confused on that. I don't know which agency you're with, but I'm working with Continental Travel Nurse. From what they told me, I can't apply for a visa until they have a certificate of sponsorship. They can't apply for a certificate of sponsorship until they have a job secured for me (which probably won't be possible until it's pretty darn close to when I'm planning on coming). They said they can apply for sponsorship on the 5th of every month and usually find out no later than the 15th. If the sponsorship is approved then you can apply for a visa, receiving it back in about 3 weeks. So it sounds to me like the visa thing will be cutting it a little close. Sort of a last minute rush, hoping it all works out and comes through before your scheduled flight to the U.K. and OSCE test date! If you have any other insight or better understanding of it, that would be much appreciated :) Hope that made sense and helped a little! Best of luck to you!

Well that's the weird thing, johnnnius. I submitted the online application on 7/14. I know they had all my documents in their possession by 8/6, but at that time they still hadn't figured out the whole "technical error" thing, so there was one document that they had had since April that wasn't showing up as "received" even though they had it. When they figured that issue out they sent me an email saying that as of 8/18 all my documents had been received and my file was now ready for assessment. Then it was the very next day on 8/19 that I received my decision letter. Makes no sense. They had to have been "assessing" as they received stuff, or else they put me in the queue when I submitted the online portion. Because there's no way I was put in the queue and assessed within a day. If you were put in the queue on 7/10 you're still well within their 40-70 days, but still that's got to be frustrating that it's so inconsistent from person to person! Best of luck to you! I bet your DL is well on its way :)

UK Gal, that's so frustrating! It's unfortunate that the "technical glitch" happened to more people. I know I was annoying them, but I kept calling to see if they were any closer to fixing it and to see if they needed me to do anything else. I never actually talked to anybody who knew any details about the issue or could answer any of my questions. I was always felt like I was being brushed off when they told me to try calling again later. But nevertheless, I do kind of think that bugging them so much made the decision letter come through quicker. Don't give up and keep following up with them! I wasn't very inclined to believe that they were actually fixing the issue, but I guess they were (slooooowly), and everything turned out all right eventually.

Got my decision letter!!! It actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. That is, once they fixed their "technical error," which caused documents that had already showed up as "received" months ago to stop showing up on the portal. So if anyone else has had that issue, they did fix it eventually. I emailed them, called 3 different times, received an email telling me to stop calling, and after about 2 months the problem was resolved. It took about 3-4 weeks from the time I mailed a document for it to show up as received. I submitted the online application on 7/14 and received my decision letter on 8/19. I was pleasantly surprised since I was hunkering down for a 70 day wait :) Now I just need to schedule my OSCE. Good luck everyone, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your OSCE experiences!

So, they rejected your declaration of health form because it was completed by a NP? Only MD completed forms will be accepted? Nowhere on the requirements does it say that! In fact, it says your employee health department can complete it...which for me is a NP. How frustrating. Thanks for the heads-up though.

I have a question about the police certificate. I'm from the USA and I'm not really sure how in depth they want this background check. I could get a clearance letter from my city police department, I could go through the state level, or I could go through the FBI and be finger printed. Do they really need us to go that extensive and be finger printed and everything? What have other people been doing?