studying nursing if US citizen married to british citizen?

redhead31293 · Jul 1, 2013

Sorry I don't have an answer for you, but I'm in the same situation.

I'll be moving to the UK next year to be with my fiancé, and I want to go to school for nursing.

I'm finding that I will have to pay international school fees. It's either that or wait another 3 years to start school...

I will have to weigh my options and see how much it'll cost for the international fees...

babyNP., APRN · Jul 2, 2013

Yeah, international fees are pretty big. Keep in mind that you may run into trouble getting a US RN license because UK degrees are specialty focused and US degrees are generalized, so you'll probably be missing clinical hours in several areas.

redhead31293 · Jul 3, 2013

I actually just found out myself that since nursing school is covered by the NHS in the UK, international students are not generally accepted into nursing programs. I emailed a university and they confirmed that I could not be accepted because I am an international student...

To be accepted I have to wait until I've lived in the UK for 3 years.

tbjockny · Jul 11, 2013

BabyRN, thank you for the info! I wouldn't want to come back to the states to work which is why I was curious if anyone had done it.

Redhead, i just did some research and there are a select few universities that allow non-eu students into their programs. Its about 4000 a semester in pounds, the one I looked into

ptork66 · Jul 13, 2013

I actually just found out myself that since nursing school is covered by the NHS in the UK, international students are not generally accepted into nursing programs. I emailed a university and they confirmed that I could not be accepted because I am an international student...
To be accepted I have to wait until I've lived in the UK for 3 years.

To be eligible for the NHS bursary, you have to have been in the UK for 3 years AND you have to be free from immigration restrictions - which means you need to have either ILR (indefinite leave to remain) or citizenship.

Smilty · Jul 14, 2013

I would say that if you ever want to come back to the US you should train here. I am UK trained and getting my license here has been a nightmare. Plus, you could do the ASN here in just 2 years, whereas in the UK it will take 3.

I went to school with a few foreign students and they were not eligible for the NHS funding and their fees were much more than standard tuition fees.

I suppose you have to weigh up what is best for you. Nursing school is hard work wherever you choose to do it. There is no NCLEX in the UK at least :)

Good luck

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 14, 2013

I would say that if you ever want to come back to the US you should train here. I am UK trained and getting my license here has been a nightmare. Plus, you could do the ASN here in just 2 years, whereas in the UK it will take 3.
I went to school with a few foreign students and they were not eligible for the NHS funding and their fees were much more than standard tuition fees.
I suppose you have to weigh up what is best for you. Nursing school is hard work wherever you choose to do it. There is no NCLEX in the UK at least :)
Good luck

My understand is from this year nurse training in the uk is BSN. There is still NCLEX if moving back to the US and work

Smilty · Jul 14, 2013

My understand is from this year nurse training in the uk is BSN. There is still NCLEX if moving back to the US and work

Yeah I worded that wrong. Obviously is required if you want to ever nurse in the US. I was more meaning that the UK does not have an NCLEX style board exam.

tbjockny · Jul 22, 2013

I didn't know that tidbit; UK doesn't require a test like NCLEX? I guess they make up for it with so many clinical hours though. I would prefer to go on for my BSN; and from what I've noticed as far as researching jobs most are requiring or prefer a BSN grad. Thanks for the responses everyone.

Smilty, what branch of nursing did you take up in the UK? Would anyone who took a general nurse course in the UK have such a hard time with licensing in the US?

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 22, 2013

Training in the UK is General Adult, General Paeds, Mental Health and Midwifery. Definitely the first three doesn't always meet US requirements with clinical and theory hours in the required subjects. Midwifery is a course of it's own.

UK training is continual assessment and they have the 3 strike rule which means at any time if you fail an assessment or exam 3 times you are out

Smilty · Jul 23, 2013

I did my BSN in Adult Nursing. The common foundation year (first year) included some Peds/OB/Psych theory hours, so when I came over here I just had to take clinical classes - one semester.