Moving to New York to be a nurse. Some guidance if possible

king909

Hi,

I'm just beginning my final year of nursing training and like many newly qualified nurses I'm looking for the quickest exit route out of the country.

I have always enjoyed American culture and have been there on many occasions on holiday.

I know there are exams that you need to do in order to get a job though. If I'm correct there is one exam you must do in order to gain a visa that covers English and nursing knowledge and a second that is required to gain a licence to practice that is state specific.

As I mentioned above I want to move to New York. Not specifically manhattan but somewhere in the surrounding areas.

I was wondering if anyone had moved from Ireland to NY and what these exams were like? What topics are covered? How difficult etc?

Secondly I was wondering if finding a job in a hospital is easy? Would I need experience of 6months to a year before I will be able to find a job? What are the working conditions like? And what kind of salary is offered on average?

If anyone could answer any of these questions I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

silja

Not a nurse, so no personal experience, but I have a couple of friends from the Philippines who got here that way. There is a long waitinglist for nursing visas, if that is how you plan to get over. Definitely keep applying for the diversity visa lottery, and get a rare specialisation may help getting a job too.

You will need the NCLEX exam: https://www.ncsbn.org/nclex.htm then possibly state specific stuff.

Jarrod

Hey OP, I'm a nurse who may possibly be in your position in the near future (my GF is from the States and we plan to go back there eventually). I haven't looked into it in too much detail yet but from what I've heard from others, the NCLEX is quite different to nursing exams here, you can get books specifically designed to help study it, so that might be worth looking into. I'm not sure if I can link to another site on here but Monster Nursing Link has a forum where people in similar situations to yours have sought advice so you might consider looking into that.

The first exam you mentioned (I think) is part of the CGFNS, which verifies your Nursing registration here. AFAIK, you have to get your academic transcript and nursing registration sent to the States, they verify them, then you can do the first exam, which means you will be certified to take the NCLEX. I don't think you'd have to take an English exam as it's your first language.

With regards getting a job, I'd recommend you gain some experience first. Firstly, it'll increase your chances and secondly, it'll be expensive to get set up in the States so you'll need to have some money saved. I think the CGFNS and NCLEX processes can be pretty expensive. A friend of a friend who works in the National Institute of Health in DC recently told me that new graduates in DC are finding it quite hard to find work (obviously it's a small area so not sure what it's like nationwide).

The last thing I'd say to you is to be sure of what State you want to take the NCLEX in and then get on their Nursing Board website and see what you need to take the exam. Also, I know some State exams are transferable to other States and some aren't so if you're not sure exactly where you want to go then look for one that's transferable to as many States as possible, someone told me once that NY Registration is the most transferable but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

I briefly looked into this a couple of years ago so some of the info may be out of date but I found that Monster website quite helpful at the time, so I'd recommend you have a look at it. I hope some of this was helpful, I may be in your position shortly so let me know how you get on.

king909

Jarrod wrote: »

Hey OP, I'm a nurse who may possibly be in your position in the near future (my GF is from the States and we plan to go back there eventually). I haven't looked into it in too much detail yet but from what I've heard from others, the NCLEX is quite different to nursing exams here, you can get books specifically designed to help study it, so that might be worth looking into. I'm not sure if I can link to another site on here but Monster Nursing Link has a forum where people in similar situations to yours have sought advice so you might consider looking into that.

The first exam you mentioned (I think) is part of the CGFNS, which verifies your Nursing registration here. AFAIK, you have to get your academic transcript and nursing registration sent to the States, they verify them, then you can do the first exam, which means you will be certified to take the NCLEX. I don't think you'd have to take an English exam as it's your first language.

With regards getting a job, I'd recommend you gain some experience first. Firstly, it'll increase your chances and secondly, it'll be expensive to get set up in the States so you'll need to have some money saved. I think the CGFNS and NCLEX processes can be pretty expensive. A friend of a friend who works in the National Institute of Health in DC recently told me that new graduates in DC are finding it quite hard to find work (obviously it's a small area so not sure what it's like nationwide).

The last thing I'd say to you is to be sure of what State you want to take the NCLEX in and then get on their Nursing Board website and see what you need to take the exam. Also, I know some State exams are transferable to other States and some aren't so if you're not sure exactly where you want to go then look for one that's transferable to as many States as possible, someone told me once that NY Registration is the most transferable but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

I briefly looked into this a couple of years ago so some of the info may be out of date but I found that Monster website quite helpful at the time, so I'd recommend you have a look at it. I hope some of this was helpful, I may be in your position shortly so let me know how you get on.

Thanks a million. That helps a lot. I will definitely keep you updated