The best way to your nursing and midwifery career in the UK
- By Dora
Moving to live and work in a different country is life changing and challenging at the beginning. Around 170 000 out of 1.28 million NHS staff report a non-British nationality in England in June, 2020.
If you are a qualified nurse or midwife, and you are interested in living and working in the United Kingdom, the first step is to start your registration process with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The NMC regulates the nursing and midwifery profession in the UK, setting the standards which ensure high-quality patient care. There are different ways to apply for registration and it depends on which part of the register you want to join and where you trained. As soon as you start the registration online, on the NMC’s website, you need to prove your identity; upload an evidence of your qualification then give the contact details of your home-country regulator, and your education institution. You need to provide information about your health condition by uploading a declaration about your health from your medical practitioner. You need to support your application with a declaration about your character; a police clearance certificate and a DBS certificate. Your English-language can be demonstrated by an NMC-approved English test taken in the two years before the date you make your application, where you achieved the required score in each of the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Afterwards you need to pay an evaluation fee when you submit your eligibility and qualification application. Then, when you're ready to submit your full application, the NMC will ask you to pay a registration fee. The Qualification evaluation fee is £140 and the registration fee is £153. The NMC aims to assess your qualification within 14 days, and once they have confirmed your eligibility to apply for registration, they send a Permission to Test Letter and you’ll have two years to complete your registration.
If you were trained outside of the UK and Europe, the NMC will ask you to take the Test of Competence (ToC). The NMC uses the Test of Competence to assess the skills and knowledge of nurses and midwives applying to join the register from overseas. You will need to take a test that's specific to the part of the register you're applying to join, these are:
- Adult Nursing;
- Children’s Nursing;
- Mental Health Nursing;
- Learning Disability Nursing;
- Midwifery;
- Nursing Associate.
Each Test of Competence splits into two parts
- A multiple-choice Computer Based Test (CBT);
- A practical test known as Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
You can sit your CBT or OSCE in any order, but you must successfully complete both parts to continue with your application. The CBT exam costs £83, whilst the OSCE costs £794, and these costs could be higher if you need to resit tests.
To stay away from headache and extra fees it is worth finding a place to prepare for your exam, like IELTS Medical. IELTS Medical was founded in 2016 and their mission is to help overseas healthcare professionals register and practice in the UK by assisting them with the examinations that they need to pass in order to work. If you are already in the United Kingdom, IELTS Medical awaits you with a fully equipped Training Center at Central London, although you can take online NMC CBT courses from any corner of the world.
The NMC OSCE course is very intense, from 9 AM to 5 PM, and you can decide to attend a 3-, 4-, or 5-Day course; to learn in small groups or 1:1 with one of our NMC OSCE trained Educators. You receive a pre-course book before the course starts, and you will receive other learning materials during the course. In-anticipation-of your OSCE exam, you have access to the Learner's Portal where you can find beneficial videos of the OSCE scenarios, and more learning materials. At IELTS Medical from the first day of the NMC OSCE courses, we place a lot of importance on getting to know the people you'll be training with (your OSCE Family). Our Educators encourage you to keep in touch and to lean on each other when times get tough.
The NMC OSCE Course by IELTS Medical features:
Day 1 features basic anatomy physiology and background; APIE (Assessments, Care Planning, Implementation and Evaluation); Documentation; NEWS charts and Observation Charts; Common NMC practice Scenarios.
Day 2 is works on all NMC OSCE Skills including: ANTT; Basic life support; Peak flow; Removal of Foley Catheter; CSU Sample, IM and SC Injections, Insertion of fine-bore nasogastric tube; Intravenous flush, VIP assessment and Pressure area assessment.
Day 3 includes a full mock NMC OSCE Exam with individual feedback.
Day 4 & 5 is a chance for 1 : 1 or 1 : 2 Supervisor-led practice on any areas of improvement identified in the Day 3 NMC OSCE Mock Examination
The Training Centre is perfectly located between Paddington and Marylebone railway stations, and in 10-minutes walking distance you can find Edgware Road and Marble Arch London Underground stations. At these stations, the Bakerloo Line; the Central Line, the Hammersmith & City line, the Circle and District Line operate. If you live out of London or you would like to save the travel-time, IELTS Medical assists you to book accommodation around the Training Centre. Because of its great location, the Training Centre is surrounded with many venues to eat or take away and eat in the kitchen, where you can also find a fridge and a microwave. IELTS Medical supports the long day with unlimited coffee and tea, sounds good, right?
If you have any questions, or you would like to book an NMC OSCE course, do not hesitate to call IELTS Medical at 02036376722 (from the UK) or +442036376722 (from outside of the UK) or send an email to our friendly Nursing and Midwifery Team.
Start the journey, change your life. If you can dream it, you can do it! Call 02036376722.
