UK registered mental health Nurse wanting to work in the US, is it possible?

Thank you Silvergragon 102, I will check his transcript and let you know. The person that was dealing with him was also very short and angry with him when we called, the application was almost a year old and she even said it was not complete even though we had sent everything, eventually whilst on the phone to us she started seeing the documents she said he had not turned in but still will not let us have a word in either ways and kept saying ‘ I have dealt with a lot of UK Nurses and know how your program works so I'm going to send a final letter" the letter that was sent did not indicate anything about him having done any theory or clinical hours in Adult, Paed, Learning disability or community Nursing, she just focused on him just been registered as a Mental Health Nurse and therefore does not meet their requirements. She suggested he registered as an LPN or as Psychiatric Technician whatever that is or go back to School for a whole Nursing program. We were at least expecting to say what hours or what he's lacking in and suggests what we do to make this up, its very disheartening having gone through 3 years of Nursing training and he did a BSC program and not diploma/Associate as most UK Nurses do and which I did as well. I did General Nursing and Midwifery and had no problems. I really feel for him and trying to find ways to help him as we relocating to the US was my idea.

3 lessons here -

- any UK nurse who trained after 2000 is going to have problems, as that is when the UK training changed from generalist to specialist branches.

The first decade since then was a scramble for everyone to get overseas before the new training started, and those that missed the boat are just not going to get by with their UK history. OGP was everyone's savior then, but now they are finding it difficult as most nurses that apply to them are not eligible.

- California are very difficult to deal with, I ended up going into the Sacramento office on more than one occasion as they are so incompetent. I'm renewing right now, they have told me over and over that they don't have fingerprints on file for me. Actually they have four sets now, as I send a new print card every time they tell me they don't have it. I send it as "signed for" mail, and keep copies which I regularly mail to them to remind them, and I even show them proof that they cashed the check I sent with the prints, but no, they "have no record". I don't have time to go there right now as I'm working in another state, but they are just hopeless.

- whatever you do, do NOT let your UK registration lapse. You have a career there, and letting that licence go would mean a huge nightmare to reactivate it.

You can renew from overseas, its just a problem with the 'professional discussion' as you end up either going home to do it, or find someone to do it on skype or WhatsApp. But it can be done and its foolish not to.

Thank you so much for all your advice, we're now seeing that California board are really difficult to deal with, during our telephone conversation with the lady dealing with his case she said that his application was not complete and when we insisted all documents have been sent...... then all of a sudden she started seeing them. It was difficult getting a word in and I have seen a few people say their experiences with them have been bad. I encouraged my husband to register with them as I know they deal with a lot of international Nurses and I dealt with them as well but was lucky enough not to have problems and this was in 2007. I feel so so bad for my husband and just trying hard to get advice as to the way forward. We live in Indiana and they require CGFNS so we have registered with them, like you said he should try hard not to let his registration lapse so we will be contacting NMC to work with them. I really appreciate this website and all your kind responses.

2:32 pm by RNShirada

I gave up after years of the run around. Well yes, my application was eventually accepted ON CONDITION I take and pass the NCLEX within a certain time frame, so initially, I thought that was great, because I had read stories that many folks had to fulfill other impossible criteria before getting the green light to even take the exam. However, after extensive research, calling and meeting with several nursing faculty at local colleges and universities, and even signing up for an intensive NCLEX review classes specifically for foreign nurses, it became abundantly clear that I was in a catch-22 situation. A review was useless because I did not have the 3 years worth of education of US nurses to benefit from a review, (I would have to start from scratch). In short, I had permission to take the NCLEX, but no avenue to succeed in passing it without retraining. I even began to start the process taking some classes at the community college, but it was a case of my having to take years of the pre requisites of the pre requisites BEFORE I would even have been eligible to even begin nursing school which is super competitive to get into, (you need A's in every class) with maybe only 40 places, and I was older and never even wanted to be a general nurse so my motivation and interest wasn't there.

by RNShirada

#11 0

He can keep his UK registration going by returning home and working a month of agency every year. Or if he is still on the bank at an NHS hospital they will likely let him do a similar thing, I did that for a while when between jobs here in Illinois.

He can do the CE stuff anywhere, but just keep the clinical hours current.

And if anyone reading this lives in Sacramento, please let me know, I will pay you to go fight my battles with them! How many fingerprint cards does this dingbat BON really need?!

Thank you once again, I really appreciate all your advice, I will keep you all posted of our progress.