Sleeping Beauty

I am posting this on behalf of the S-I-L, who is now living over here in Australia.

She is a nurse (quite some years qualified - over 10), and they have successfully got their visa earlier this year.

She is trying to get her registration sorted out with the NSW board. They have told her that her marriage certificate is incorrect. This is the only marrigae certificate that my brother and his wife got when they married in church. It was good enough for the visa process, but the NSW nursing board have said it is not acceptable. They have also mentioned something about her transcripts. My S-I-L got in touch with the main governing body, who she sent the original ones to for her visa (sorry, I don't know all the names/organisations etc). The guy there told her that NSW are a pain to get registration with, they are the worst one, and mentioned getting registered with another state and then have it transferred, as they can't refuse your registration then. He said he would get the documents send to NSW board.

However, the issue of the marriage certificate has not been resolved. How can you produce an alternative marriage certificate, if this is the one that was given to them when they got married? Like I have stated, it was okay for the visa process, so why the problem with the NSW nursing board? Poor S-I-L has got a couple of job offers, but is having this problem

Has anybody else come across this problem, and if so, what did you do to overcome it?

Please excuse my ignorance on the correct nursing terminolgy/correct nursing organisations - I am just an ignorant non nursing person

TiddlyPom

This might get more attention on the nursing forum...

Sleeping Beauty

I did post one on there as well, I think all the nurses must have been on night shift

lapin_windstar

I have no direct experience and I'm not a nurse, lawyer or anything but a bloke down the pub so feel free to ignore these suggestions but:

1) would she get a different result if she just want back to a different jobsworth?

2) what do they actually need the wedding certificate for? My impression of Teach NSW's asking for it (where appropriate) was just to prove that the applicant used to be called Jane Doe and is now called Jane Smith, so it was OK to credit Jane Smith with all the diplomas/degrees/whatever earned by Jane Doe because they aren't two separate people. In other words, it was being used to prove the name change, not the fact of being married (because that's not a requirement of the job, obviously). Might she be able to prove she had both names e.g. by showing a new and old passport or something?

3) is the problem that they are looking for a state-issued document but the wedding certificate she had was just issued by the church? I know when I got married (this wasn't in England & Wales though) I had one document from the state and one from the religious congregation we went with.

Assuming she was married in England & Wales, she should be able to order a state-issued certificate from the GRO for seven quid plus postage: http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/ It shouldn't take too long to get here and may be easier/quicker than bickering with the nursing board even if one was in the right.

Sleeping Beauty

Thanks for your answer. I think the problem with the marriage certificate is now solved. Another UK trained nurse who works with a friend of mine had the same problem 3 years ago - she solved it by showing them her children's birth certificates, which shows maiden name and married name.

S-I-L has just called, and it now seems as though another problem has cropped up. Her transcripts don't show that she did Mental Health as part of the syllabus. She did, but hasn't got any paperwork to show. She can get registered, but as an EN (and is monitered at all times), unless she can show that MH was part of her course. After 13 years as a Nurse, and has been a Sister in the past, this isn't too appealing for her. They are even thinking of moving interstate, which wouldn't be ideal, as all our family are here in NSW.

It sounds such a simple problem, but they can't seem the see the answer. She is going to contact Salford Uni, to see if a certain person can send an e-mail to this Registrar lady and simply say 'yes, it was part of the course' at that time. The course was called 'Transcript 2000' i think?

Has anybody else had this problem? They are getting mightily peed off.

breezeboylan

I think you mean 'Project 2000'. I didn't do that one myself but work with lots of nurses over here who did and are practising with no problem at all. Sorry I cant help with her problem but it seems to me that the fact that so many project 2000 nurses are already here indicates that there has been a mistake somewhere
Tracie

Sleeping Beauty

Thanks for the reply - I think the problem is that it doesn't mention 'mental health' specifically on her 2 page transcript, and she can't find anything in her paperwork. It was covered under 'adult health', with lots of different subjects which were done during the course (my terminolgy and names maybe incorrect, this is from memory from my conversation with her).

NSW registration is the hardest to get registered.