ian-mstm

It was in a previous thread! No worries!

Ian

Silverdragon102

The CGFNS exam is only required by a handful of states and is required regardless on where you come from but a requirement from the state. Most accept CES report if endorsing. NCLEX is required by all states if planning on working as a RN or LPN. Remember NCLEX is for new grads so treat studying as if you have just graduated. Saunders I found helped me the most as well as learningext.com from NCSBN. I think the hardest thing once passed NCLEX and met all state requirements is finding a employer willing to wait the 6+ years for you to arrive. Seen a few posts on allnurses where the petition backed out and said no jobs when the persons PD became current so lost their place and struggled to find another employer

Linda44

As you said- I have never managed to find anything that documents what the min' requirements (theory and practice) for each area are.
I do know that I met the rquirements. but I trained the old way and had over 3,500 hrs of practice and theory each.
On the training transcript form the CGFNS requires you to send to your nursing school in order for you to get CES and Visa screen (you need both before you will be allowed to apply to a BON and receive eligibility to sit NCLEX) they ask the school to break it down into hours per subject or area.
I have just contacted the university that took over training nurse when the hospital training schools closed again (visa screen certificate is only valid for 5 years , and then if you still don't have green card you have to re-do it-which includes verification of basic nurse education and ALL nursing licenses YOU HAVE EVER HELD- ie my UK license even though it's lapsed as well as USA license).
The form specicfically asks about pharmacology and I did very little (compared to US nurse training) formal pharmacolgy, although we did have to do a medicine assessment as 1st years which involved doing a "drug round" with an assessor and they would observe and ask questions about the drugs). I met the requirements.

I know that soomene from the US recently posted on allnurses that they had been approved for a UK RN license with only 800 hours of clinical practice in their US training. I think UK RNs do 1500 hours now, so clearly what they are prepared to acccept from someone who is already a qualified RN abroad is not neccesarily the same as for a new grad.
The same may apply to the US,which is why it would be worth starting off the process of CES ,and then they will tell you EXACTLY what you're lacking and how many hours you need to do and in which areas.
Your application will just sit in the system and then you can update once you've done the extra hours.
This would also be useful if you decided you wanted to get a BSN in order to perhaps make the visa situation easier (as I said in the DM).

I'm not sure what area of nursing you practice in in the UK -but my advice would be to try and get into ICU/CCU/A&E or oncology (chemo unit maybe) as these are classed as specialist areas and experience in those areas will help.

If you can, enroll in a part time Bachelors nursing course in the UK and do the teaching and assesors course (whatever it is now!) and if they do ICU/CCU modules ,do them too.

The US nurse training is based far more on the medical model ie they cover a whole lot more on normal blood values ,arterial blood gases, chest auscultation etc (can you believe reduced cardiac output is a nursing diagnosis but low blood pressure isn't ?!) and not so much on the bread and butter nursing care, so if you can get as much experience as you can in a higher dependency area all the better.

It won't cost anything (except hard work -I know!) and you may be able to get credits for them towards a BSN in the US.

ADVICE-make sure you get a transcript with your mark and breakdown of content/hours for any unit you do and guard it with your life.
It's not always easy to get them afterwards.


Regarding the pharmacology and NCLEX- I decided that as pharmacological and parenteral therapies only made up 13-19% of the physiological integrity questions (which are around 50% of the test) and I had a fair amount of knowledge from practice I wouldn't spend very much time studying that. I think I only had 3 pharmacology questions out of 75.

https://www.ncsbn.org/RN_Test_Plan_2007_Web.pdf

I didn't actually do a review- but I did do 1000s and 1000s of NCLEX questions from 3 books I bought and a CD and any I could find anywhere on the web. All provided the rationale for the answers.

UKNURSE2US

Hi,

I am currently going through the same thing. I only trained as a nurse here in the UK in 2005 - 2008, so I just did the adult portion.

I am moving to the States this October with my husband who is in the Airforce.

I have tried to find out how to gain my nursing credentials but have not had much luck. Before I fully understood the process I actually paid for the CGFNS part, which was a mistake because my credentials aren't what they want!!

Kkacan, have you had any luck with contacting colleges? I contacted a few a while back, but I did not find it all that helpful, they did not seem to understand what I was asking.

It is just so disheartening, I have already trained for 3 years to get my degree. So I have told myself that I will spend a year once we get to the States trying to sort it out. After all, US RN's only have to do 4 years! I don't see why I should have to do more than that!!

Anyway, rant over.

If anyone could help me in any way, I would be enternally greatful

Thanks in advance

UKNURSE2US

Also, just to say. Do not start the CGFNS process unless you are confident that you meet their requirements, as it expires after a year and you have to pay again if you could not complete it in that time!

They offer you no advice on how to achieve what you are missing

ian-mstm

In the US, you become a nurse once you get an RN license. You can do that in 2 years... but you usually get hired quicker and get paid more if you have a BSN. My wife (who has a doctorate in nursing) says that studies have shown that surgical outcomes are better (read = patients don't die as often) when attended by BSNs rather than RNs.

Ian