Studying nursing in UK or USA has become a subject of discussion nowadays. Here, are some of the major differences that one would experience in British Nursing and American Nursing.
Study nursing in UK:
To be a nurse in UK, the system is similar to that of a 4-year career in any other country, therefore, if you want to go to work there, you will not have to take any tests since everything will be validated.
In the United Kingdom there are different types of nurses:
- Registered Nurse (RN): is a nurse who has graduated through nursing school UK and passed a national licensing exam. Its function is: Caring for the sick and injured in hospitals, health centers and doctors’ offices.
- Nurse Practitioners: They carry out the most advanced practice, frequently perform functions similar to that of physicians.
- Clinical Nurse Specialist: Requires masters in nursing UK along with deep experience in the field to work. Its functions are: Advanced nurse consultations and diagnoses, prescription and interpretation of tests, prescription of medications, management of chronic diseases (monitoring, control, therapeutic education and counseling), referral of patients to other specialists and discharge management of patients.
- Clinical Nurse: Requires master’s degree in nursing UK. Its functions are: receiving patients with undiagnosed problems and evaluating their health care needs, screening for risk factors and precursor signs of disease, making differential diagnoses, developing a nursing care plan with patients, with an emphasis on preventive measures (primary prevention), prescribe the necessary studies and provide care treatment, provide counseling and therapeutic education and have the authority to enter, discharge and direct patients to other levels of the health system.
- Nurse Consultant: Requires PhD from top nursing colleges in UK. Their functions are: carry out their professional practice as experts, have a role linked to the quality of leadership and to give advice, give initial and continuous training and improvement of health services and are involved in research and evaluation.
- Modern matrons: Requires postgraduate from top universities for nursing UK. Its functions are: to ensure the highest standards of clinical care through the leadership of front-line nurses and other professionals, to ensure that administrative and support services are designed to meet the highest standards of care, including excellence in asepsis in hospitals, the prevention of diseases in the hospital environment and being reference professionals to whom patients and families can turn for help.
- Community Matrons: They are experienced nurses (postgraduate studies) who treat chronic patients who have complex needs and who suffer recurring hospital admissions. They act as case management nurses and are able to take care of these patients in the acute phase to avoid hospitalizations.
Study nursing in USA:
To work as a qualified nurse in the US, you must have a nursing license for the state where you want to work and a visa that allows you to work there. All candidates must have a masters in nursing USA and hold years of experience to be elected.
Your top two requirements for accessing a job as a nurse in the US are:
- Pass the CGFNS exam (The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools) in this country. The exam is comprised of a Credential Review, a nursing knowledge test, and an English language proficiency test. The exam is done three times a year in London and all applications are processed at CGFNS headquarters in the USA.
- Pass the NCLEX-RN exam in a desired US state. It is the most important if you want to work in the US and a minimum score of 70% is required to pass the exam. You cannot practice as a nurse if you do not have this exam approved. If you want to take this exam, you have to travel to the state where you want to work, take the exam and then leave the US.
Hence, it is easier to access a job in the United Kingdom, since being European the process is much easier, not like in the United States, which has a different educational system that does not validate with the European, therefore it can cause more time and money than in UK.