Are you currently overseas, planning your move to the UK to pursue your dream nursing career? If so, you’ll need to complete the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). This is a competency test, which is part of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) registration process for nurses and midwives trained outside the EU/EEA, and test the practical skills of trainees in an objective way.
What does the OSCE exam involve?
As part of the OSCE exam, participants are expected to ‘act out’ scenarios that nurses are likely to experience when planning and delivering care to patients in the UK. The exam is made up of 16 short tasks, which are known as stations – each station lasts for five minutes. There’s also a five-minute rest station, so participants have a chance to catch their breath.
The stations are organised into four categories and designed to assess peoples’ different skills – these are:
· Clinical examination and practical skills
· Communication
· Data interpretation
· History taking
Preparing for the OSCE exam
In the preparation stages of the OSCE, there’s lots of different online resources to help you to practice and prepare. An essential part of the preparation will be looking through and understanding the NMC nursing exam blueprints. These will set out what the OSCE exam involves in terms of the topics and procedures that a newly registered nurse would need to know. Other preparation support includes mock exams and practice rooms.
Completing the OSCE exam is a vital step in being able to come to the UK and work as a nurse. There are other things that you’ll need to consider and prepare for – at Migrate, we support overseas healthcare workers at every step of the relocation process, and beyond. To find out what else you need to do to prepare for your new life here in the UK as a nurse, please do get in touch with the Migrate team and we can talk through the differing levels of support that we offer international healthcare professionals.
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