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Nursing Jobs in the USA (cont.)
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the USA, page 1
English language test for Nurses:
The third part of the CGFNS certification program
consists of the English language test for those candidates that
come from non-English speaking countries or who do not have English
as a mother tongue. The standard of an applicant’s English
is measured by the applicant taking the TOEFL (Test of English
as a Foreign Language). The only exemption to the TOEFL requirement
is for those nurses whose nursing education was in one of the
following English speaking countries: US, England, Ireland, Australia,
New Zealand or Canada.
If you are applying for immigration into
the U.S. based on your occupation as a healthcare worker you will
need to comply with another formality known as the Visa Screen
– Visa Credentials assessment. This is to ensure that an
applicant meets the requirements of the U.S. government’s
minimum eligibility criteria to gain entry to the U.S. under an
occupational visa.
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This is now law in the U.S.
and is compulsory. This assessment is carried out by the ICHP
(International Commission on Healthcare Professionals), which
in itself is a division of CGFNS. There is a fee for this screening
which is payable by the applicant. To meet the standards required
by U.S. immigration, you must have:
- Completed secondary school education
- Graduated as a nurse and have a diploma or certificate from a recognized
school
- Completed both theoretical and practical training as a nurse.
You will need to have your education documents sent to the ICHP
directly from the school from which you graduated. Once your credentials
have been verified, you will receive a Visa Screen certificate which
will accompany your immigration papers. You should do all of this
after you have completed the CGFNS certification program.
You can contact the ICHP and request a Visa Screen application packet
from the CGFNS website, here.
In addition to the CGFNS certification, all nurses are required
to hold a valid licence issued by the state in which they intend
to work. To obtain this licence, a nurse must take the National
Council Licensure Examination (NLEX-RN). This exam is created by
the National Council
of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and attempts to create a
uniform level of competence for all employed and employable nurses.
This exam can only be taken in the U.S.A. and you need to decide
whether it is advantageous for you to travel to the U.S. beforehand
to undertake this exam, or wait until you arrive permanently and
take the examination then. Most of the factors concerning this decision
will rest with the reasons why you intend to move to the U.S. in
the first place. The NCLEX-RN examination differs from the CGFNS
examination in that it is not multi-choice, but more application
based in style. This means that you will be tested with real-world
examples about general health issues and your knowledge and application
of general nursing will be tested. The examination is adaptive (meaning
your answer for each question determines the difficulty and subject
of the next question that is asked) takes approx. 5 hours, consists
of a maximum of 265 questions, and is available to be taken all
year round. For more information about the exam, the fees, and other
related information, click www.ncsbn.org.
Given the fact that this exam is adaptive, and that you must pass
this exam to obtain a licence to work as a registered nurse in the
U.S., you must prepare for this exam completely before undertaking
it, particularly if you intend to travel to the U.S. under a visitors
visa to take the examination first.
We hope this information has been of some assistance to you. There
are some useful resources available on the Internet, and we have
collected some of those for your convenience here.
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