Published Mar 8, 2008
lilmisslee84
13 Posts
Hiya,
Can anyone assist me please?? I am soon to qualify as a nurse this sept and am looking to move to america in a couple of years. In the uk we train as a specific specialty, ie i trained to be an adult nurse and I understand i need to know a lot about the other specialties - midwifery, paediatrics and mental health. We had "virtual placements" in the others that were 2weeks long and consisted of just workbooks about the basic stuff. I am looking into doing paeds nursing next year (that will be a 2yr course) adn doing a distance learning course in mental health (but its a general course, not specific to nursing)
Can you tell me what specifically the NCLEX exam looks at and what kinda questions they ask? Is the NCLEX made incredibly easy book useful??
Leanne
Silverdragon102, BSN
1 Article; 39,477 Posts
Moved to the International forum
Welcome
There is no such thing as UK NCLEX or even US NCLEX what you are actually applying for is licensure to be a RN in the UK of which NCLEX is part of that process. UK trained nurses with current training may be short in certain areas and to meet US licensure requirements the hours need to be made up with theory and practical done at the same time and through an approved nursing program. The best thing to do once completed training is apply for CES with CGFNS and if short they will tell you with what and how much. Also be aware currently there is a retrogression and have been since 2006 with no idea at the moment how long it will last so will not be looking at a quick process. A thread to read is the sticky called Primer to working in the US
worrier
83 Posts
Hi leanne!
I am also a nurse in UK and if you're interested in taking NCLEX you have to start this early. I think nurse training in UK is different from US. I recommend Saunders Book (through Amazon.co.uk). It's a summary of every system into 1 book. This will give you a general overview of adult and pediatric nursing. Hope this helps.
i am also aspiring to move to US...
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
Your cousework must contain actual theory and clinical time that is done the same semester to be accepted in both the US as well as Canada. Completing clinical time in a lab only is not acceptable for licensure here.
Not sure why you are going to do a course of that length for peds, it is not needed like that to work in the US. And again, you must have actual clinical and theory time to have the coursework count here.
Please take the time to do some reading here on this forum, much has been written already on this as well as what to do to make up the needed hours. Please be aware that you must have the credits done before you will be able to get permission to sit for the NCLEX exam, it is not something that you can do while waiting for visas to open up. You cannot start the immigration process without having the licensing exam completed.
Please let us know if you have any more questions after you have read more on this forum. And since you are still in school, you may be able to get the required hours done as electives before you finish.
Wish i could ge the clinical done whilst still @ school but our training is a bit weird, im in uni for a couple of months then placements for a couple with exams and essays in between so I have no time left to get the clinical practice in the other areas. We have to pick our chosen area of adult, paeds, mental health or midwifery @ the application processthen our studies are focused on that specific area for the 3yrs except the "virtual placements2 we had in 2st year which were of no use. Im looking into paeds nursing as I'd like to work as paeds nurse in future, the uni i wanna go to will have me taught in Great ormond st hospital which is a well renowned hospital and has specialties in rare disorders.
Do you know how long would be sufficient to spend on the other areas in order to qualify for entry into usa?(ie if i worked a month on an labour suite unit, etc)? Cos i wont be moving for 2yrs so I can look into volunteering on mental health & midwifery settings to get the required clinical experience, otherwise the midwofery is another 18months long course and i'm not particularly interested in it to be honest.
Thanks for your help and advice :redpinkhe
Hiya,Wish i could ge the clinical done whilst still @ school but our training is a bit weird, im in uni for a couple of months then placements for a couple with exams and essays in between so I have no time left to get the clinical practice in the other areas. We have to pick our chosen area of adult, paeds, mental health or midwifery @ the application processthen our studies are focused on that specific area for the 3yrs except the "virtual placements2 we had in 2st year which were of no use. Im looking into paeds nursing as I'd like to work as paeds nurse in future, the uni i wanna go to will have me taught in Great ormond st hospital which is a well renowned hospital and has specialties in rare disorders. Do you know how long would be sufficient to spend on the other areas in order to qualify for entry into usa?(ie if i worked a month on an labour suite unit, etc)? Cos i wont be moving for 2yrs so I can look into volunteering on mental health & midwifery settings to get the required clinical experience, otherwise the midwofery is another 18months long course and i'm not particularly interested in it to be honest.Thanks for your help and advice :redpinkhe
Each BON will have their own requirements on hours but just gaining experience will not be enough as it needs to be both theory and practical by a recognised nursing school/course. You maybe able to go to the US and just make up hours required and there will be a fee and other requirements to do it. There was also talk of a couple of universities in the UK offering catch up courses and now recognising there is money to be made offering these courses. Try a search in the UK forum or look in the thread 'Must read UK nursing topics
Working on a unit does not give you credit that they will accept for licensure purposes in the US. Also taking the two year course that you are looking at will not help you in getting to the US any quicker.
Any peds positions in the US will provide their own training, and the peds hospitals all have excellent educators. Doing the course there will still not give you any experience as a peds nurse, training like that is not counted as experience.
Volunteering is also not acceptable as training, it has to be listed on a transcript from an approved school of nursing to meet the requirements.
All that is needed is one course in each that should take a couple of months to complete, you are looking at complete programs and those are not needed.
As mentioned above, there is already much written on what you would need to do to make up the hours for the US, it does not entail more than a couple of classes, not years.