Tag: UKVI

The UKRN process (part 2 of 3)

If you are a Philippine-registered nurse and would like to work in the UK, there are steps that you need to take in order for you to get your NMC PIN and gain UK registration. First is to get the appropriate work experience, and second is to pass an English proficiency exam. I wrote about my experiences in taking the IELTS for UKVI on a previous post, which you can read here.

Alright, so you’ve taken the IELTS/OET, and met the score requirements. What comes next? Well, if you don’t have an agency yet, this would be the perfect time to ‘shop’ for one. Check out all of the perks that they offer, and then choose the best one for you. Prior to taking the IELTS for UKVI, I was already in contact with two agencies—one was recruiting for a hospital in Portsmouth, which is in the far southern coast of England, and the other one was hiring for Central London. After a careful consideration of my options, I went for the latter. Agencies usually take into account not only the length, but also the type of work experiences of the applicants. At the time, they were hiring nurses with backgrounds in emergency, intensive care, operating room, and medical-surgical nursing. This requirement changes from time to time, though, seeing as how UK hospitals hire international nurses based on where they’re currently lacking in staff.

For obvious reasons, agencies prefer qualified applicants who have either already taken the mandatory English tests, or booked to take it soon. If you didn’t meet the minimum ratings on the first try, don’t fret; you’re not the only one. As I’ve mentioned on part 1 of “The UKRN process,” many have failed before, but you can always try again. I’ve heard that the record number of tries in the IELTS exam for my agency was 14. Yep, FOURTEEN. So if you could just imagine if that person quit trying after the thirteenth try…

…back to the matter at hand—right after I was able to access my IELTS results online, I contacted my chosen agency to let them know of my scores. Afterwards, I went through my current employer’s hiring process—the drug calculation test, initial (panel) interview, then another panel interview which is more of a return demonstration of common nursing practices (I will explain about this further in part 3)—before they gave me the best news ever: I was hired.

Securing an employer is a very important step in the process—your employer will sponsor your Tier 2 Work Visa, guide you with the forthcoming exams that you need to take, as well as help you with your initial adjustment to life in the UK. So, after I was guaranteed an employer, I created an online account with the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) under International Registration, where my agency paid for my application under adult (general) nursing (£140) and then I chose my schedule for taking the CBT (£90). By the way, here in the UK, nursing has four different fields of practice: Adult (general), children’s, learning disabilities, and mental health nursing. In order for you to work with a certain group of patients, you need to have the correct registration (i.e., you’re not allowed to work in a paediatric ward if you’re not licensed under children’s nursing, etc.). You can be registered under more than one field, but that would also mean that you have more than one registration to renew, pay, and revalidate for—sooooo, too costly and complicated (I found out about this because after I got my PIN, I e-mailed the NMC to inquire how I can also get a mental health nursing registration :D).

THE CBT

The Computer-Based Test (CBT) is the NMC’s first test of competence. The second one is the OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination)—but more about that later. The CBT consists of 120 multiple choice questions, and you have up to four hours to answer them all. The complete guide can be found here.

In order to get a decision letter (most employers require this before they can grant sponsorship to come to the UK) from the NMC, you need to pass the CBT first. To be honest, four hours is waaaay more than enough time for you to answer all 120 questions—most of the people I know who have taken it, me included, barely had to use half of the allotted time. It sounds easy enough, but I would highly suggest that you do not take it lightly (I didn’t) because you can only take the CBT up to three times; after which, your application will automatically be rendered as void.

After procrastinating a little and choosing a satisfactorily lengthy review period for my CBT, I had it scheduled in December—just before Christmas. For the CBT, my preparation consisted of three things: reading NMC materials, reading tips from blogs, and panicking (LOL). I made sure that I read the Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures (the entire book, and I’m not even kidding), the NMC Code, NICE guidelines (all of these may be found online), as well as practice questions sent by my agency. I’ve read that other people found the exam pretty easy, and that there were no complicated pathophysiology and lab results questions, yada yada… but I had this weird feeling about it, so I didn’t take their advice. Having taken the CBT, my advice is that you shouldn’t believe them either.

Now, due to rules that I agreed to prior to sitting the CBT, I’m afraid I cannot give anything specific in terms of questions that came up during my exam; however, I believe that it is perfectly safe for me to tell you this: Read and re-read THE CODE. Know it by heart. I really can’t put any more emphasis to this—there are ‘critical’ questions during the CBT, and these are the questions that you NEED to answer correctly, or else you’d automatically fail. It will not indicate which questions are critical, so it’s kinda like the ‘Minesweeper,’ if you’re familiar with that game. Questions related to patient and public safety, as well as The Code are said to be a part of this set. In order to pass the CBT, you need to answer the critical questions correctly, and get at least 60% of all the answers right.

As I’ve mentioned before, I read the Royal Marsden Manual, since it’s the basis of nursing procedures in the UK. What I didn’t realize is that it would’ve been of more help to me during the OSCE, not the CBT. But still, it did help a lot since many of the questions I encountered were about nursing practice. There were a lot of questions similar to those NCLEX practice questions that they threw our way during our review for the local board exams as well, so having good recall would certainly help. I did get a pathophysiology question, a rather complicated one, and I can’t forget about it because it was about a case that we presented during college LOL so lucky me! I also reviewed about lab normal values even though some people said it wasn’t gonna come up.. well, my hunches were correct, because it did for me.

Within 48 hours after the exam, the NMC will be sending you an email to inform you whether you passed or failed. I took the CBT at a Pearson VUE center in Makati, and having read that others got their results right away, I literally ran back to the hotel after finishing and anxiously checked my email every five minutes or so. Sure enough, within the next hour after I took the exam, I received an email congratulating me for passing the first test of competence. Yay!

Needless to say, what followed was one of the most memorable Christmases ever—I’ve made my family proud, and I was proud, though a bit ambivalent. What I didn’t realize was that it was probably the last Christmas I’d be spending in the Philippines. UK hospitals don’t usually allow paid annual leaves to be scheduled during the holiday season, adding to the fact that plane ticket prices are sky high during then, so going home for Christmas and New Year celebrations would be an impossible feat. If you get homesick easily (can’t blame you, really), then that’s something you should seriously consider as well. Then again, it’s fairly easy to bring your family to the UK once you’re settled, so if you’re still bent on that UKRN dream, then go forth and don’t let my laments stop you. After all, your life is a ship, and you’re the captain. Ganbatte kudasai!

The UKRN process (part 1 of 3)

One of the reasons why I was so bent on starting a blog is that aside from wanting an excuse to write again, I also wanted to help other nurses in the Philippines who are looking into getting their UKRN registration. I know that there are so many others who have posted their own walkthroughs and I’m one of those who have found their guides to be extremely helpful. There are so many countries looking to hire international nurses, and the United Kingdom is one of them. The steps that I took were all pretty straightforward–I will go through each of them in as much detail as I can (obviously without breaking any rules whatsoever).

Now, bluntly, the UK’s requirements for internationally-registered nurses are quite extensive, and depending on how dedicated you are to your goal (and how much free time you have in your hands), this may lengthen the process. The very first step, though, is gaining work experience. The UK requires at least one year of paid work as a staff nurse, meaning, your work experience should be post-local registration. Also, it has to be recent (within the last six months). During my application, we were classified by the agency under the department where we worked–sometimes, employers can be very specific with the applicants’ work experience/s. My file was included in the “A&E” folder (A&E or Accidents & Emergencies is how they call the ER Department in UK hospitals), but don’t be fooled–it’s not always the same department where you worked that you will be put in when you get here.

When you already have the first requirement under your wing, the next step is to take your English proficiency test. For years, the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam had served as the pitfall of many. Fairly recently, though, the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) started accepting OET (Occupational English Test) scores as well. Nevertheless, I went the old-fashioned way and took the IELTS exam, so I’m not really sure how to go about taking the OET. The IELTS has four tests: Speaking, Reading, Listening, and Writing, and you will be tested for each one of them. Now, this is the fairly confusing bit–the IELTS test also has two types: General Training and Academic, and both of them can either be for UKVI or not. To simplify, if you’re a nurse applying for registration, you’d need to take the Academic IELTS test, since it’s a pre-requisite for professional registration with the NMC. You can either take the “regular” Academic IELTS or the Academic IELTS for UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) exam. Both are accepted by the NMC, but the difference is that even if you’re able to get through with the former, you would still need to take the latter for immigration purposes (UK Immigration only needs an overall band 4).

With this in mind, I decided that I wanted to ‘hit two birds with one stone’ and take the Academic IELTS for UKVI. Why do people choose one from the other, you ask? What I’ve gathered from my sources is that the regular IELTS is somewhat less strict than the UKVI counterpart, therefore it’d be ‘safer’ to take if only for NMC registration purposes. Also, there are a lot more sites where you can take the regular IELTS, unlike IELTS for UKVI (which you can only take either in Manila or in Cebu City). And it does make sense, too. If you’re not sure as to how you’d fare with the exam, it may be wiser to take the safest route and just pay for two.

In regard to signing up with a review center (or centre), it’s really up to you, but I guess it would help, especially if you desire a more thorough approach in getting you prepared for the exam. I, on the other hand, thought it was too expensive (which it is!) and opted for the free IELTS guide provided by the British Council when you set an exam date with them. Oh, and I re-read the entire Harry Potter series, but mainly for inspiration (LOL). I also did this trick that I got from another site, wherein on the day prior to your speaking test, everything you do has to be in English. On a regular day, most of our brains are wired to think in Filipino, and then we do the translating in our heads before coming up with an English response–this process takes a while and gives more room for errors. But if you hear, read, and speak nothing but English on the day before your speaking test, it would be easier for you to think of more natural responses to your invigilator’s questions.

The speaking test. I had an English gentleman as my invigilator for my speaking test. I took it a day before everything else, so needless to say, I was a bit tense. I’ve never taken this type of exam before–well, maybe we had exams like this in college, but back then, it was okay to joke around and poke fun at the others, and it wasn’t going to cost you thousands of pesos. Seriously, I had nothing but nasty thoughts running the entire time. How much was this test for again? What’s my mother gonna say? It’s not going to kill me if I fail, but.. Talk about the Hawthorne effect! They said we should sound normal like as if it were an everyday conversation, but I’m pretty sure I had a poker face on the entire time. During the first part, I was asked random, real life-based questions. The middle bit had me picking one among several topic cards (sort of like in beauty pageants or in extemporaneous speaking contests), for which I was given a few minutes to think about what I was gonna say before speaking. Afterwards, I was asked more detailed questions about everything I talked about. Looking back, they were actually pretty easy questions. However, knowing that you’re being judged on what you’re saying and how you speak can really have detrimental effects on your confidence, so you really have to relax OR ELSE.

All the written tests. After the first day, I couldn’t help but feel a bit pessimistic about the possible outcome of my exam. But then I kept reminding myself that there were three other tests, and that there’s no way for me to know how I did anyway, so I tried not to think about it. So, on the day of the three written exams, I noticed that there were a lot more people than during the speaking part. We nearly filled up the corridors, but the hall at the Crowne Plaza Galleria where British Council held the exams was enormous, so there was a lot of room. It kind of reminded me of the O.W.L. exams at Hogwarts. The listening test was quite simple–We listened to statements, and questions followed. You have to really pay attention, though, because they only play the passages twice, and sometimes, the choices can be awfully similar. The reading test was as direct as the listening test, but not easier. First off, the passages were looooong. I’m talking about clippings from editorials, that sort of thing. And second, there’s this naughty little presence called time pressure. The technique I used was skimming through the questions first, just to get the gist of what I was supposed to look for, and then reading the paragraphs.

Now, for the last part: the writing test. This one is still somewhat ambiguous to me, because the sample writings I’ve read were nowhere close to how simple they made it sound on the list of what they’re looking for. My preparation for the IELTS exam was for one month, but I only practiced for my writing test on the day before. It’s not because I was overly confident or anything like that, it’s just that I figured that if I stressed myself out with the differences between what I thought they’re looking for and what others had written up, I’d just end up more confused. So I just went with the general idea that: (1) the first sentence should ALWAYS answer the question, (2) the next few sentences should support your stand and give as much detail as you can without going overboard and including things that have nothing to do with the topic, which I have a tendency to do btw, (3) the last sentence should reinforce the first and give a strong ending, and lastly, (4) you have to meet the word count!

Okay, so you’re finished with your tests. The waiting game then comes next. You can view the results online 13 days after the last day of the exams, and they will also mail the Test Report Form to you. If you’re not satisfied with the results, you can contest it by applying for an enquiry, which you have to pay for. But even then, there’s no guarantee that your scores will change. There are loads of useful information online that should help immensely, and some of them are things that should be a given already, such as being at the testing center ahead of time, bringing all of the necessary documents, especially the ID you used for registering, etc. I remember on the last day of my exams, there was a lady who left her passport at home, and she lived a couple of hours away. What happened after, I can only hazard a guess.

Although there isn’t really a dress code for the exams, you should look presentable. A business casual attire should be fine during the speaking test, and anything decent should be alright for the written exams. You don’t have to bring your own pencils and erasers to the venue–they will be provided for you. That’s it for me, I guess. I hope that knowing what’s about to come will help you with your battle. Always remember, though, that it’s okay to fail, as long as you try again. It’s never the end until you say so.