Season 2 Episode 8 - The One With Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma
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** Sit back and listen, it's time for Licence to Practise by IELTS Medical.
Link: Season 2 Episode 8 - The One With Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma
In S2 Ep 8, we get to know Ijeoma, a nurse lecturer who moved here from Nigeria. Ijeoma tells how IELTS Medical helped her to become a registered nurse in the UK and her story about how she chose to be a nurse lecturer while doing her PhD.
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 nurse. But she 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 nurse. So let's give her a call. And don't forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode. Hello, Hello, again. Good afternoon. How are you today?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Fine. Thank you. Good.
Christina:
Yes. Yeah, I'm very well, thank you. And thank you so much for coming on the podcast and having a chat with me and sharing your experience. And if you could just start by telling us a little bit about you and how or who you are.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Okay, thank you for getting to know more about me, my name Ijeoma, I'm a nurse back home in Nigeria and even. I have experience of good 11 years. Well, my background has always been nursing. Yes. I did do science courses during my elementary days. And then in university. I had my background in Nigeria, at the School of Nursing Bquery in Nigeria, and then before I moved to the UK in 2015 when I decided to do my degree. So I started with my top degree at the University of Bedfordshire and moved on to do my Masters, and then presently do my PhD. Oh, wow.
Christina:
Wow. What are you doing a PhD in?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
My PhD is in fertility screening in elderly people. So I'm evaluating the health care professionals view on frailty screening, looking at the population of the elderly people is quite high within the UK. And so it was very important to see how we could capture them on time to prevent illnesses, onesies, civilities 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 to the elderly community in such a way that we'll 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. And so you said you moved, so you moved to the UK in 2015. And did your top-up degree. So you were already qualified as a nurse before you moved over?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yes, I have my, so we call that diploma. So, 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 organisations, so I worked with the Lagos State Government. So which is like a government hospital, back home in Nigeria, I did work there for over three years. Close to four years, I can remember and prior to that time, I did work with private organisations as well within different facilities, so within the space of five years or six years, I was able to, you know, acquire a lot of experience on goods with private organisation and government hospitals 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 you know, my Registered Nursing back home in Nigeria, I've always had the vision for me, you know, to be able to look forward to coming up getting out. Don't say getting my degree will cause promoting my career. You know, I was that advanced person I wanted to just always... I'm giving Yeah. And I really wanted to be to the very end... So I was looking forward to coming up with degrees. Consider the fact that my lecturers day at the School of Nursing gives a very particular about getting enough degrees. Not like because of the degrees what you move in nursing from where it is to where it should be. Yeah. There was a bit of redundancy in terms of the way nurses were looked at, at the time. And that was partly because most nurses were not pushed, well, they were not encouraged to actually go for their degrees. So after the area, they just go for their specialisation, say Midwifery, or psychiatry, and you know that that would be for them. But for me, I wanted to change the narrative. So I was looking forward to getting a bit of a degree so that I could advance in my career really?
Christina:
Yeah, yeah. Okay. So that was a personal choice, then. It wasn't Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a good job. You did it because... then you do masters. I knew PhD. So wow, you've been working. You've been working hard.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Sorry to cut you with the masters. You know, that was intentional as well. But then the one that wasn't even intentional was the PhD. That wasn't planned. Right. So in the course of doing my master's, I was fortunate to have a good supervisor, Professor David Hewson, and he was able to tell me a lot of advantages I would have if I consider, you know, doing my PhD and being my supervisor, of course, he observed that I was, you know, coming up with good grades. I actually had a distinction in my dissertation within my master's, I was still focusing on elderly people. And so he felt going ahead, you know, moving you forward to doing a PhD would just be fantastic. And that was how..
Christina:
And then you just ended it really? Yeah, yeah.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
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. Yeah.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Central London OSCE or London hospital OSCE. You decide. Our central London purpose-built NMC OSCE course and practice rooms include all of the equipment you need to practice for your NMC OSCE exam. You get the same expert seen by your side, the same expertly prepared materials. And now a dedicated space though just for our international and return some practice nurses Learn more at www.oscenurses.com.
Christina:
So you moved over? You do and you did top-up degree? Did you do that alongside your NMC registration? Or would you have already done that? Or did you do that afterwards?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Okay, so that's quite an interesting question because I'll be reflecting on my journey in getting my NMC because that's quite a different journey entirely. You know, before I moved away from Nigeria, I did have an idea about how the process of getting your NMC however, I was hoping that while doing my BSc, maybe it would come with it in terms of I will be getting the degree and depends. For some reason. I was informed that Oh, no, you can't you do your degree is just for your degree, you need to go through the different routes for acquiring your pin. So I started the process. Well, of course, it was quite a challenging process, in the sense that I needed to start preparing alongside with my degree programmes, you know.
Christina:
At the same time there Yeah, yeah.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
For my degree programmes, I was also studying for the NMC and others because of the English mandatory requirements that's most especially the IELTS. It was quite difficult to go through that shoe to be honest. But eventually, I did. And yeah, for me, that was quite interesting. Again, one thing I would like to stress out, you know, for any international nurse is looking forward to coming to the UK out actually really wants 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 does like the CBT OSCE, I don't think it's something you wouldn't be able to go to, considering that you have gotten the baton knowledge back home? Yeah, of course, wherever you're coming from. But then I think the biggest challenge so far, you know, and this is even based on the fact that I've been able to talk with students, I deal with students every day is still the challenge of the English exam. So personally, I like to advise them, if you could start practising early just helps you to get through that hustle, much more easier than leaving it to the end. Yeah, you know, when you're ready to come in, so that makes it a bit harder.
Christina:
What did you do than 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? 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, that was quick, you know, it was quite straightforward, you know, I was able to get a lot of materials from the NMC websites. So, I did a lot of practice questions. To be honest, I didn't register so much for its programme, like with any of the facilities in terms of the CBT, but then for the off-key, I registered with IELTS Medical. So once I was trying to do research, I get the best place to do my practice for the team in terms of having to see that equipment, getting to practice myself, and even with guidance from tutors there. So it was, it was very good to see to have used the IELTS Medical. To go through that process. They made it much easier because we have this three days packed course. And then we had our trainers from nine to five. So it was really tedious. But then it was, it was quite interesting. Because I mean, after the practice, I was able to go for my exams. That was I passed it at one sitting.
Christina:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so obviously, you do something a little bit different. Now you teach to your tutor, rather than.. do you practice as well? Do you work? In practice as well? Or you don't do that at all? Do you just do teach? What do you do?
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
And at the moment, I don't so prior to getting the lecturing job, I did practice. Okay, so I did practice with Butchester Nursing Home. I did 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. You know, I was a graduate teaching assistants at the University of Bedfordshire, so I did that for about two to three years. Before COVID came in, and so I had, like, you know, yeah, then look for a 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 is always challenging, but then I think the passion for me is what has brought me this far. You know, and then I also have a lot of support systems in terms of my family. Yeah. So again, that really helps. So yeah, so it's, it's, it's been wonderful.
Christina:
Yeah, it sounds like it has it sounds like it has you see 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 talked to, and we have on this podcast, go straight into practice, and stay, stay practising. And it's just, I think, really nice as well to speak to somebody that's, that's gone down a different route so that people listening know that there are other options, you know, the option is there to do that as well. So thank you. Yeah.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
That is, also really want to enlighten people more on that, you know, to be honest. 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 in 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 the achievements as well. So encouraging more nurses to also think about other aspects, not just the clinical aspects, to be honest, yeah, education aspect is very important, because of course, if we don't have enough educators, then we might not have a lot of nurses out there to be honest.
Christina:
Well, yeah.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
Yeah, so looking at the aspects, and there are other aspects like the research nurse, you know, I guess, I had the option of actually being a research nurse as well. But then for me, I felt because I already had my passion electorates, I would like to share my knowledge, witnesses out there. So it's just something to look into. I mean, there's no restriction now. And I also came across informativeness, in informative health, nursing. So that is enough, that is within the IT setting, thinking of ways to improve care and delivery to patients. But, of course, using it to do that of the students, I believe we should start exploring, you know, we shouldn't be limited to anything at all.
Christina:
Yeah, there's so many options, so many options. And it's definitely, I think, yeah, nice to hear somebody that's done that somebody that has gone down a completely different route. And well, look, thank you so, so much for coming on. I really enjoyed chatting to I've, yeah, it's been really interesting. Do you have any final words of advice for anybody that's might be thinking of starting the process of becoming registered in the UK.
Nurse Lecturer Ijeoma:
And the advice I have for them is, first of all, make sure you get a good when I say a good tutor, I mean centre, like the islands medical, that will guide you through this process. Again, don't don't believe you know, it, or you know, the process. Because I happen to meet students, I think they know the process, just to find out that the end of the bills, they kind of still, and we sit the exam. 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 prepare, give you a lot of confidence for your exam, so that you don't get there and, you know, become too anxious or nervous. So again, if you know the 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 winners, I mean, go through the process of study. You have to be focused, persistent. And of course, he the right channel.
Christina:
Great. Yeah, I think that is great advice. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on again. And yeah, 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.
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 hold of the 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 registered 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.
