Hi everyone!

I get asked a lot about applying to be a Nurse in the UK. This post is for Kiwi Nurses thinking about moving to England, but can be used as a resource by anyone.

There isn’t much information online about the ENTIRE nursing process and what to prepare yourself for. I’ve put together this post as a step-by-step guide on applying to be a Nurse in England, and helpful tips I wish I had known before. I will be talking about applying to be a Nurse and sitting the first exam. I’ll do a separate post about sending off your documents & preparing for the second exam (OSCE).

If you are set on moving to the UK and working as a Nurse here, then this guide should be super helpful for you!

STEP 1: ORGANISE YOUR UK VISA

Without a visa, you won’t be able to work as a Nurse in the UK so this is essential. There are a few different visas that are available to kiwis, but I’m on a tier 5 visa (aka working holiday) which gives me two years to live and work in the UK. You need to be an NZ/Aus citizen (or from another one of the selected countries), under 31 years old, and prove that you have enough savings to support yourself until you get a job here (around $4,000 NZD). Apply a few months before you plan on leaving NZ and don’t book your flights until your visa is accepted. Apply for your working holiday visa here: Tier 5 Visa

You can also apply for a student visa, partner/spouse visa if you are with a UK citizen, or an ancestry visa if your parents are English: UK Visa information

STEP 2: APPLY AS AN OVERSEAS NURSE 

I would recommend doing this around the same time you apply for your visa. You can apply to be an adult Nurse in the UK straight after your degree; no post-graduation work experience is required anymore. The NMC have also abolished the English exam if you can prove that you studied or worked in English. 

It is free to register as a Nurse, enter your details on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) website

You will then get an email confirming your application.

STEP 3: APPLY FOR YOUR FIRST EXAM (CBT)

A second email will be sent with a username and password for the NMC examination website, Pearson Vue. Click on the link below, it will take you straight to the NMC page. You will be able to schedule the first examination on this website: PEARSON VUE – NMC

The CBT costs £90 (approx. $180 NZD). You are able to sit the CBT in your home country so PLEASE don’t wait until you arrive in England to sit this exam. You will waste a lot of time studying when you could be onto the next step of your application. This is probably my biggest regret! I could have been a UK Nurse months ago if I had enough time to prepare before I left NZ.

Start organising your documents as well – you will need to send these off after you pass the CBT. You will need:

• Certified copies of your passport, birth certificate, & degree certificate

• Recent police checks of every country you have lived in for over 3 months

Advice for sitting the CBT

The computer based test consists of 120 multiple choice questions. You get four hours to complete the exam. I would recommend studying for around 4 weeks beforehand, spending at least a few hours each day studying the last two weeks. No calculators are permitted in the exam so practise long multiplication and division just in case you get a difficult drug calculation. Take your time during the exam, and triple check your answers before you submit. The best advice I was given was “think like a grandma” when doing the CBT. When they ask you for the “most appropriate” or “most correct” answer, always go with the SAFEST option. Read the questions a few times before answering because they can be confusing. 

I found doing the mock exams most helpful. It gives you an idea of how the CBT will be structured and what sort of questions will be asked. A LOT of these questions were in the actual CBT.

I am currently collating a CBT mock exam of all questions that were asked – this will be available in the next few weeks.

When revising for the exam, use UK websites ONLY. Discard any NZ/AUS websites, they will give you the wrong information.

• Read the NMC CBT guide and familiarise yourself with the structure of the exam.

• Learn all of the UK Nursing policies and standards

• Familiarise yourself with the process of safeguarding vulnerable people, and how to recognise abuse especially in the elderly

• Revise all the common acute and chronic conditions (hypovolemic shock, postpartum haemorrhage, head trauma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory diseases etc…)

• Scoring tools and systems used in the UK (NEWS, AVPU, GCS, Waterlow scale)

• Blood transfusion (the different blood types, BT reactions and how to treat them)

• Pressure ulcers (scoring, prevention and treatment) and wound care basics

• Consent, end of life care and advanced directives

• Mental health, especially suicidal ideation and confidentiality

• Patient isolation, infection control (hand hygiene), aseptic procedures

• Drug calculations (without a calculator – simple and complex calculations)

You get the idea. Basically study all of the common adult conditions, safeguarding, UK policies, abuse, revise physiology, practice your drug calcs, and start thinking like a UK nurse. NZ Nursing is quite different so never assume you’ll know everything – you won’t. The CBT is all about SAFETY, and proving that you will act appropriately in difficult situations. 

That’s enough information for now, your heads are probably going to explode!

I’ll post about the second half of the Nursing process in my next blog post. If you have any questions please leave a comment or send me an email.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck & study hard!

Liv x