any advice welcome
 

Hi myself and my family ( husband and 2 kids 8 & 6) are seriously considering relocating to the US. I would really appreciate any advice that anyone has.

I do also have a couple of questions that I would be grateful if anyone could answer.

I am a nurse practitioner in A&E in the UK I am a degree trained nurse and I have completed extra study to gain my nurse practitioner post I have also completed the nurse prescriber course would any of this count towards a job in the US? I know that I would need to sit NCLEX prior to gaining employment. I would love to hear from any UK nurses that have gone through this process, how they found it and how long did the entire process take.

Also I would like any information on schools as I said my kids are 8 & 6 at present and they are the most important factor in the whole process. How do US schools compare to schools in UK, and is the US lifestyle better for children?

any other advice that anyone has would be gratefully received

Thanks

Re: any advice welcome
 

This would be the place to start:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Pulask...ork_in_the_USA

Best to read through and see if you will qualify for any of the visas. Then you can come back and ask for more information.

Good luck!

Re: any advice welcome
 

thank you I will have a look :)

Re: any advice welcome
 

Nursing is no longer an easy route to the US. There have been many threads by nurses asking the same question. If you use the search engine to search the forums you should be able to locate them. Also take a look through the Nursing Forum.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=72

Re: any advice welcome
 

starting point would be meeting state RN requirements which for a UK trained nurse can be hard depending on when you trained and whether our Nurse Transcripts show clinical and theory hours in Paeds, Mental Health, Obstetrics and Adult. Also be aware some states will not accept application without a US SSN.

You also need to decide which route you plan on taking Work or immigrant visa. Immigrant visa currently under retrogression and will take a few years waiting once luck to find employer willing to wait which may be hard due to many US nurses struggling to find work

Re: any advice welcome
 

It's all about the visa, which sounds very unlikely in your case.

So far as schools and education goes, that is a very mixed bag. There are the same inner city school issues as in the UK, in most if not all major cities, and a lot of smaller ones. The better suburban ones can be very overcrowded. Politics with "bussing", redistricting, and interference in staffing. It may vary by state, but several states I know about have their teachers employed directly by the county, so they can be reassigned between schools at whim! :unsure:

Quality of life? If you earn enough, the lifestyle can be very nice, but if you're just scraping by, or worse, then life can be miserable. Hypothetically, if you had a nursing job, and your husband had a job with similar income, then you could have a pretty nice life, especially if you stay away from the high cost/ high tax areas of New England, California, and New York-Philadelphia-DC.

Re: any advice welcome
 

You don't say what the OH does, depending on what he does might or might not get you a chance of getting a visa to the US.

You, based on nursing alone, won't realistically have a chance. Once you get a visa and can legally work here, ability to work as a nurse will depend on the state and will range from pretty easy to very difficult, cheap/expensive. All depends on how you qualified and what the state requires to get certified, but it should all be doable. Once you're here with a visa.

Re: any advice welcome
 

thank you everyone for all your advice you have confirmed what I thought getting a visa as a nurse in the US is very difficult.
My husband works in planning in our local council so his job would not allow us to gain a visa either :(

Re: any advice welcome
 

Well you can look to getting further study such as a masters and get into the teaching side of things. That might offer a more realistic opportunity. It certainly won't be a quick or easy path either, but probably at least manageable given time.