I'm looking for a little input here.
The last post showed that nursing in UK isn't really the same as nursing in the USA, although it's the same job. The training isn't.
So to clarify a couple of things....
In the UK we don't sit a board exam at the end of the course (like the NCLEX) before we are placed on the register.
We do have to renew our registration every year to continue being a registered nurse and able to work.
I can be in charge of as many as 12 patients (in this current placement) (with a nurse shadowing me) per shift. These are general surgical patients (or even the rehab patients from my last placement) and not those requiring high levels of care (2 patients to 1 nurse) or ITU care (1 patient to 1 nurse).
Our courses are specific to the area we will be employed in. Cellar Door will be a mental health nurse and is on the mental health branch training (you don't mind being an example do you?). I will (someday) be an adult / general nurse and am on the adult branch. There are also separate branches for paediatrics and learning disability nursing. Midwifery is a separate course altogether.
The majority of nurses in the country are employed by the NHS. Only 25 to 30% are employed by the private sector.
Anyone see any more differences?
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9 comments:
Not at all :o) This is something I'm quite interested in actually! I know when I read blogs from outside the UK it seems very different. USA seems to have a lot more exams :o)
Thanks! It seems like their unis require much more from them than mine seems to. What I really want to know is how many patients they would be expected to look after on the average shift.
We do have to sit the NCLEX, and our BSN (RN) course covers adult, pediatric, and mental health, though not in great depth. We're generalists when we graduate our RN course. If we take a MSN/Nurse Practitioner course, THEN we pick acute care, adult, family, pediatric, etc.
Your way might work better...
Oh...and in SCHOOL we care for 1-3 pts in clinical...but then are immediately expected to pick up a full patient load (3-12pts, depending on acuity) upon graduation.
That's a heck of a jump from 3 before graduation to 12! Organising 12 now is a lot of work for me and I have a little team with another nurse (or 2) to help.
Sorry we just call them Unis or Colleges.
That's fine...I studied in England for a semester and LOVED it.
WardBunny:
Yes, they don't quite get the staffing thing in the US. Units vary on shift and acuity as to how they're staffed.
I happen to work with heavy rehab patients, so my unit has 2 patient per nurse on days (assuming approximately 20 patients on the unit), 2-4 patients per nurse on evenings, and anywhere from 6-12 per nurse on nights.
Most nurses are employed in the private sector in the US, although, there are a number of nurses working for local, state and federal governments or agencies. The VA (Dep't of Veterans Affairs) is a federal employer and is the largest health system in the US.
Ok I know this isn't an example of American nursing but, I was talking to a couple of Fillipino nurses on my ward recently. They reckoned in the Phillipines nurses do not carry out the auxilliary's kind of duties - cleaning up patients etc.It is mainly clinical stuff.I seem to remember in past conversations them saying they are more qualified than UK nurses.
Now if we went that far we would be accused of being too-post-too-wash so it's a little no win. We have nurses doing minor surgery now.
It's interesting to see how that we are all supposed to be doing the same jobs but at the same time there are vast differences between training and responsibilities.
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