What is it like to live and work in the UK as a nurse?

Although I have met lots of Filipino nurses who live and work in the UK, my fiance is contemplating working here, and has asked me for information and that's why I have posted this thread.

I am also a nurse by background although not practicing currently, and in the past I was married to a Filipina who was a nurse who died.

I would like to know honestly if nurses are satisfied with working here in the UK, and compared with those who may in the past have been working in the Middle East, how do you feel about working and living here?

Nurses working here is definitely much happier than working in the Middle East. I am not a nurse but I know many Filipino/Filipina friends on Facebook who are working in the Middle East, they only put up to work there because it's easier for them to get a job there than here coming directly from the Philippines. The salary for nurses in Middle East are from £450 (Private hospitals) to £1,100 (Public hospitals). Free accommodation, flight, Blue medical and dental insurance (Lowest membership) and they have 2 days off in a month and has to have chaperon to ensure they don't run away from their employer.
Here in the UK, they pay their own accommodation etc. But they are earning more than basic salary £7.20 they are paid from £10 or more an hour and free to go anywhere they like during their day off.

But of course for British National or British passport holder working in the Middle East is another matter whatever job you go to, there's special treatment and package for Westerners. From Flights, accommodation, gold membership medical and dental insurance, utility bills, children's school allowance up to 3 children if lucky sometimes transportation is provided too.

I concur. A friend who stayed with us at Christmas started working in a London hospital in November with a starting salary of £26k a year, his girlfriend didn't attain the IELTS 7 score required but is having another go. Seems there are still plenty of nursing vacancies here at the moment.

Hi. My partner is working a scrub nurse in a big hospital there in the UK. The pay is good and there are lots of opprotunities for overtime. She's happy in her work so I guess working as nurse in the UK is good.

Definitely better than ph. A few of my cousins are nurses and they are being paid 8k pesos per month (or a little over £130) in a private hospital without any benefits and are not treated well since they can easily be replaced.

So its not a wonder majority of them opt to work outside the ph since any other set up is better.

(I am trying to contain my anger)

Yes, Filipinas here are free people, not paid slaves living in a stone-age 'culture'.

My Filipina ex-wife studied for a nursing degree here in the UK, and my sister (a qualified nurse/Midwife/Health Visitor herself of course), taught the B.Nurs degree course at one of our better universities for 10 years.

I'm sure all Filipinos are better off in so many ways, working in the UK healthcare system, troubled as it is at present.

I guess that those nurses from the Philippines who have traveled abroad to work, would not want to tell the truth about their conditions here, and may prefer to live by face - having myself worked in the NHS the stress of work is demanding, and there are also bullies at work, and it is a well-known fact that there is racism in the NHS. So we are so thankful to have hardworking Filipino nurses here, and they do run Charing Cross Hospital. Personally I've heard nothing but good things, but my friend cites the first comments I have made here.

Not wishing to doubt what your friends are experiencing, but can I ask where in the Middle East they are working?
Whilst some of what they say about being chaperoned on their days off might be true in some middle east countries, it is not the case in UAE. When comparing salaries, it is necessary to take into account the cost of living, e.g what is the rent in UK? All expenses like accommodation, transport etc. is paid here, plus there is no income tax. It also helps that the sun always shines....

As far as i know it happens for nurses in saudi as well as kuwait (not as strict as saudi). Based on how freely you can move about in the middle east, as female in general, the most probable order:
A- uae (dubai then the rest of the emirate would follow)
B - qatar (mainly doha then other cities would follow
C - bahrain/kuwait and oman equal standing. There are times when these countries would try to be 'westernized' but they still have very background rules (ie i wasnt allowed to visit my companies' local operation in kuwait or bahrain because i wasnt married and im younger than 50 yrs old and female. The gcc states that if you are a manager in the 6 countries, you should be able to jump without any visa for business purposes)
D - saudi arabia (jeddeh is more liberated than other cities)

Well David I am preparing her for the UK and I guess like many Filipino nurses she is frustrated at the red tape which can mean a nurse taking after ILETS a year to 18 months.

In Saudi she worked 17-18 days a month, 48 hours a week for php 100,000 to 120,000 as a Critical Care Nurse.

She suggests in the UK that the taxes are high, and people get in to debt easily.

She was charged 15% of salary for board and lodging, but paid no tax.

Thanks Maley - For Filipinos it's much more easier to go to the Middle Eastern countries than the UK. However we have decided that she has to get ILETS 7, and this is proving to be a lot of study.

Recently 200 Filipino nurses were recruited by Wolverhampton Hospital but so far only four of them have passed ILETS 7.

It's not just the ILETS they have to pass the OSCE in the UK, and the pass rate was 51%, but the Nursing and Midwifery Council have told me that it has improved to 60%.

I will add that I used to run a nursing home in Finchley in 1998 and hired a Filipino nurse and she was very good. I have great respect for Filipino nurses and consider that generally they are second to none, and they are very thorough, but there some that are not good, but the majority are.

We cannot label people and equality and diversity is important.

I consider that there are gains for nurses from the Philippines to work in the UK, settle here, become British residents and ultimately obtain British Citizenship. Moreover they can bring their partner here, there children as long as they are under 18.

To come to the UK you need ILETS 7 in each subject (6.5 for Ireland, 6 for Malta). To work as a social worker in Australia 5.5

Nurses have to pass in the Philippines or UK the CBC and in the UK OSCE.

Nurse must have ILETS 7 to register their qualification with NMC.

Every single hospital requires nurses, but I am not in recruitment.

Wow such as low passing rate.

I spoke to an IELTS instructor in dubai (was planning to migrate to australia a few years before i met my fiance) and he said most pinoys should be getting a score of about 6 to 6.5 just because of the culture (english/american movies, school etc).
The main problem is that pinoy get esily distracted (ie during the exam, they would be distracted speaking to someone inside the room and miss out on the critical instructions). During the test, they would not be paying attention on the listening part consequently failing it.

The problem that Filipino Nurses face is the cost of the IELTS exam and finding time to study. The cost of the Review is expensive and the ILETS has to be the UKBA one as required by Visa office at the British Consulate.

There are some very good resources through the British Council that are free to access. Also there is a course on Futurelearn that is free (FUTURELEARN provides University Courses from British Universities that are free in a lot of subjects (this is a tip!).

I agree. this is on top of the fact that they are poorly paid just a never-ending-cylce.

Yep some interesting courses, I also subscribed.

http://british-filipino.com/index.php?threads/free-online-courses.13743/#post-135639

I did a course the other day there on Internet of all things and enjoyed it - I have been using a Mac since 1993, internet since 1996. But it confused me the internet of all things.

There is also a free course on ILETS there.

Maley there are some good books that you can read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle on the ILETS - I have to say as a native speaker even I would struggle, but practice makes perfect.

Yep seen the IoT course. IoT will, I believe, invade our lives in every form. We will have devices for monitoring anything and everything.

http://www.libelium.com/resources/top_50_iot_sensor_applications_ranking/

I was pre-commercial internet using 1200 baud packet radio (ax25 & tcp-ip) around 1988.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio#/search

Ok on the IELTS

Asawa is studying Life in the UK as we speak. She's learned more about British history this evening than. I ever knew. History never did interest me.