S2 Ep 8 - The One With Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma - Licence To Practise - from Nigeria to UK - NMC OSCE
** Sit back and listen, it's time for Licence to Practise by IELTS Medical.
In S2 Ep 8, we get to know Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma, a registered nurse who moved here from Nigeria.
Learn more: https://www.oscenurses.com
Christina:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of season two of Licence to Practice from IELTS Medical. Today, we will be speaking with Ijeoma who is a UK registered nurses, but has taken a completely different route and gone down the education route; she works as a lecturer. So it's really nice to speak to somebody who has taken this completely different route and to explore the other options that are available if you decide to become a UK registered nurses. So let's give her a call and don't forget to subscribe so that you ever missed an episode. Hello.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Hello, good afternoon.
Christina:
Good afternoon, how are you today?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
I'm fine, thank you.
Christina:
Good.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
And you?
Christina:
Yes. Yeah, I'm very well, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and having a chat with me and sharing your experience. If you could just start by telling us a little bit about you and who you are.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Okay, thank you for getting to know more about me. My name is Ijeoma I'm a nurse back home in Nigeria. I have experience of over 11 years. Well, my background has always been nursing. Yes, I did the science courses during the elementary days and then in the university. I had my background in Nigeria at the School of Nursing Ikoyi, in Nigeria. Before I moved to the UK in 2015 when I decided to do my degree, so I started with my top-up degree at the University of Bedfordshire and moved on to do my masters and then presently doing my PhD.
Christina:
Oh wow! Wow! What are you doing your PhD in?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
My PhD is in frailty screening in elderly people, so I'm evaluating the healthcare professionals view on frailty screening. Looking at the population of the elderly people, it's quite high within the UK and so it was very important to see how we could capture them on time to prevent illnesses, disabilities, fractures. Considering the fact that NHS is spending so much on treating elderly people with hip fractures and the rest of them, so it was very important to look into how can I be able to add into the elderly community in such a way that will be able to identify the risk of them falling for example or having any form of illness. So yeah, that's what my study is really looking into.
Christina:
Wow, that's so interesting. That is so interesting. Well, good luck with it.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Thank you.
Christina:
So you moved to the UK in 2015 and did your top up degree.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yes.
Christina:
So you were already qualified as a nurse before you moved over?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yes, I had my, we call it a diploma, which I did three years back home in Nigeria. So I was already a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria. I worked at different organizations, so I worked with the legal states government, which is like our government hospital back home in Nigeria. I did work there for over three years, close to four years if I can remember. And prior to that time, I did work with private organizations as well within different facilities. So within the space of five years or six years, I was able to acquire a lot of experience from going at the private organization and government hospital as well, yeah.
Christina:
So how come you decided to do another degree before becoming registered as a nurse in the UK?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Okay, that's because whilst I was doing my registered nursing back home in Nigeria, I've always had the vision for me to be able to look forward to getting, I wouldn't say getting my degree but of course, promoting my career. I was that career advanced person that I really wanted to do it the very end. So I was looking forward to coming up with degrees, considered the fact that my lecturers then at the school of nursing, they were very particular about getting enough degrees. Not because of the degrees, but you're moving nursing from where it is to where it should be. There was a bit of redundancy in terms of the way nurses were looked at at the time. And that was partially because most nurses were not pushed, well, I will say they were not encouraged to actually go for their degrees. So after the RN, they just go for their specialization, say midwifery or psychiatric, and that would be it for them. But for me, I wanted to change the narrative, so I was looking forward to getting a bit of the degree so that I could advance in my career really.
Christina:
Yeah, okay. So that was a personal choice then?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah, it was my choice. Yeah, exactly.
Christina:
Well, it's a good job you did it because then you've done your masters and your PhD, so wow. You've been working hard.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Again, let me add that, sorry to cut in.
Christina:
That's okay.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Let me add that with the masters, that was intentional as well but the one that wasn't even intentional was the PhD. That wasn't planned. So in the course of doing my masters, I was fortunate to have a good supervisor, Professor David Hewson. And he able to tell me a lot of advantages I would have if I considered doing my PhD. And being my supervisor, of course he observed that I was coming up with good grades, I actually had a distinction in my dissertation within my masters.
Christina:
Congratulations.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
I was still focusing on elderly people for and so he felt moving you forward to doing a PhD would just being fantastic really. And that was how the PhD came about.
Christina:
And then you just ended up-
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
So I didn't really plan to do the PhD but yeah, I was able to get sponsorship with that as well, so that was really good.
Christina:
Yeah. Well, it sounds like important research, so I'm not surprised.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah.
Christina:
So you moved over, you're doing your top-up degree, did you do that alongside your NMC registration or had you already done that or did you do that afterwards?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Okay, so that's quite an interesting question because now I'll be reflecting on my journey in terms of getting my NMCP because that's quite a different journey entirely. Before I moved away from Nigeria, I did have an idea about the process of getting your NMCP. However, I was hoping that while I was doing my BSc, maybe it would come with it in terms of I will be getting the degree and the pin towards the end. But for some reason, I was informed that oh no, you do your degree, it's just for your degree. You need to go through a different route for acquiring your pin.
Christina:
Right.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
So, I started the process, but of course it was quite a challenging process in the sense that I needed to start preparing alongside with my degree programs.
Christina:
Wow, so you did do them at the same time then?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah, as I was studying for my degree programs, I was also studying for the NMCP and that's because of the English mandatory requirements, most especially the IELTS, it was quite difficult to pull through that to be honest, but eventually I did pull through. And for me, that was quite interesting. Again, one thing I would like to stress out for any international nurse that is looking forward to coming to the UK, I would actually really want to let them know that it could be quite challenging, most especially with the English requirements. I don't think with the nursing courses itself, that's like the CBT and the OSCE. I don't think it's something you wouldn't be able to go through, considering that you've gotten the background knowledge back home-
Christina:
Yeah, of course.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
From wherever you're coming from. But then I think the biggest challenge so far, and this is even based on the fact that I've been able to talk with students and I deal with students every day, is still the challenge of the English exams. So personally, I would like to advise them if you could start practicing early, it just helps you to get through that huddle much more easily than leaving it until the end. So when you're ready to come in, that makes it a bit harder.
Christina:
What did you do then to prepare? I know it's obviously quite different for you because you were doing a degree also, so you had quite a lot going on but what sort of things did you do-
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah.
Christina:
Yeah, what sort of things did you do then to help with the NMC registration exams?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Exams, okay. With the NMC registration exams, it was quite straightforward. I was able to get a lot of material from the NMC websites. I did a lot of practice questions. To be honest, I didn't register so much for a program like with any of the facilities in terms of the CBT, but then for the OSCE, I had to register with IELTS Medical. So while I was trying to do research and where can I get the best place to do my practice for the OSCE in terms of having to see those equipment, getting some practice myself and even with guidance from the tutors there. So it was very good to have used the IELTS Medical to go through that process. They made it much easier because we had this three day packed course, and then we had our trainers from 9:00 to 5:00. So it was really tedious but then it was quite interesting because after the practice, I was able to go for my exams and that was it. I passed it in one sitting.
Christina:
Oh, well done. Yeah.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah.
Christina:
So obviously you do something a little bit different now, you teach do you? You're a tutor rather than-
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Oh, yes.
Christina:
Yeah, do you practice as well? Do you work in practice as well or you don't do that at all? Do you just teach? What do you do?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
So prior to getting the lecturing job, I did practice. So I did practice with Rochester Nursing Home. I did that for a while, not too long because of course I already identified my passion with lecturing and tutoring so I had to build that up because whilst I was doing my PhD, I forgot to mention I was also tutoring by the side. I was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Bedfordshire. So I did that for about two to three years before COVID came in and I had to then look for a proper lecturing job, which at the moment, I'm lecturing at Coventry University. So yeah, it's been a very lovely journey because like everything else, it's always challenging but then I think the passion for me is what has brought me this far. And then I also have a lot of support systems in terms of my family so again, that really helps. So yeah, it's been a wonderful journey.
Christina:
Yeah, it sounds like it has, it sounds like it has. You've done really well and it's interesting to get this perspective on it actually because 90% of the time, the people that I talk to and we have on this podcast go straight into practice and stay practicing. And I think really nice as well to speak to somebody that's gone down a different route so that people listening know that there're other options, the option is there to do that as well. So thank you for-
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah, you're very correct about that because I also really want to enlighten people more on that, to be honest. I think with the nursing profession, the problem I would point out is the fact that people restrict themselves a lot. We shouldn't be limited by anything because again, thinking about it, the world has gone really global. There's a lot of advancement, a lot of technology and I would think that nurses should begin to look forward towards meeting up with other professionals in terms of what they could attain or their achievements as well. So encouraging more nurses to also think about other aspects, not just the clinical aspect to be honest. The educational aspect is very important because, of course, if we don't have enough educators, then we may not have a lot of nurses out there to be honest.
Christina:
Well yeah, exactly.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah, and there are other aspects like a research nurse. I had the option of actually being a research nurse as well. But then for me I felt, because I already had my passion in lecturing, so I would like to share more knowledge with nurses out there. So it's just something to look into. There's no restriction now and I also came across the informative health nursing. So that is a nurse that is within the IT setting, thinking of ways to improve care and delivery to patients through the nursing world, of course using the IT to do that. All of these things I believe we should start exploring, we shouldn't be limited to anything at all.
Christina:
Yeah, there's so many options, so many options-
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah, yeah
Christina:
And it's definitely, I think, nice to hear somebody that's done that, somebody that has gone down a completely different route. Well look, thank you so, so much for coming on. I've really enjoyed chatting to you. Yeah, it's been really interesting. Do you have any final words of advice for anybody that might be thinking of starting the process of becoming registered in the UK?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
The advice I have for them is first of all, make sure you get a good, will I say, a good tutoring center like IELTS Medical that will guide you through this process. Again, don't believe you know it or you know the process because I've happened to meet students that I think they know the process just to find out at the end that they don't. They fail and resit the exams, so I don't think that's a wise way to go about it. I believe if you want to start the process, do it in such a way that you feel much more prepared. Again, what IELTS Medical does is they make you prepared, they give you a lot of confidence for your exam so that you don't get there and become too anxious or nervous. So again, if you know the knowledge, knowledge is power and of course if you have that knowledge, you go into your exam room with a lot of confidence, that's one thing I know. So I would advise anybody that wants to come to the UK and register as a nurse, go through the process of studying, you have to focused, persistent, and of course go through the right channel.
Christina:
Great. Yeah, I think that is great advice, yeah. Well thank you so much for coming on again and good luck with the rest of your PhD. And I hope you have a great week.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Thank you very much. I do appreciate having this conversation with you. Bye.
Christina:
Thank you so much for listening. I really hope that you enjoyed our chat. I certainly did, I found it really interesting and I think it was really nice to get a whole other perspective from somebody that has gone down a completely different route. And also, it does show that there are a lot of different options when you become register did here in the UK. I hope you enjoyed it and we will see you next time. Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss any episodes. And, as always, to your success.
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