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GOVT TO SET OUT CHANGES TO THE IMMIGRATION RULES FOR SKILLED WORKERS The majority of these changes will come into effect between 1 December 2020 and 1 January 2021. These changes provide the foundation for the UK’s Points-Based Immigration System, which will apply from 1 January 2021. This affects newly arriving EU, EEA and Swiss citizens (except Irish nationals). This legis...

£28m to Re-start International Nurses Recruitment! Following the period of inactivity during the pandemic, CNO announces funding of £28m is being made available to England for overseas recruitment of nurses. Half of the money is dedicated to supporting the arrival to the country of nurses who have already been appointed from abroad. The other half is to fund a “significant e...

UK GOVT LAUNCHES NEW HEALTH AND CARE VISA How does it help an International Nurse? You can apply for a Tier 2 (Health and Care) visa if: you have a job offer from the NHS, an organisation providing medical services to the NHS or an organisation providing adult social care you’re from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland your sponsor has told you that you ...

NEW UPDATE OF TEST OF COMPETENCE FOR INTERNATIONAL NURSES: OSCE AND CBT The NMC has been working through the period of 2019 and 2020, to develop a new Test of Competence that reflects the new standard for nurses and midwives. Although it was to go live in summer 2020, due to the Covid-19 scenario, it was postponed. It will enable the candidates and the employers to be prepar...

GREAT NEWS FOR INTERNATIONAL NURSES: CBT VALIDITY EXTENDED! IELTS/OET, CBT AND OSCE NMC LATEST UPDATE NMC is introducing a temporary measure to allow candidates to provide additional evidence to demonstrate that they have maintained their English language since the expiry of their English language test or their recent practice in a majority English speaking country. This tem...

New ‘Nurse Anthem’ released by International Nursing body The International Council of Nurses has released a new song that it hopes will become the “anthem for nurses everywhere”, featuring vocals from real nurses around the world. The song was written by ICN staff writer and editor Colin Parish, who trained as a nurse in the UK in the 1970s, and his nephew Daniel Parish. Nu...

GREAT NEWS FOR INTERNATIONAL NURSES! EXEMPTION FROM IMMIGRATION HEALTH SURCHARGE The promised exemption to the immigration health surcharge for overseas health and care staff is coming into force from 4th August 2020, the government has finally confirmed. The home secretary and health and social care secretary confirmed that health and care staff would “now be permanently ex...

NMC REGISTRATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL NURSES MARKS RECORD GROWTH The number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates on the NMC's permanent register has risen from 698,237 in April 2019 to 716,607 in March 2020, the majority of the numbers are overseas nurses. Registrations from international nurses and midwives from outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) increased by 11...

OSCE Test Centres Reopening for International Nurses: NMC Latest Update NMC has announced that the OSCE test centres will reopen from 20th July 2020, allowing the nursing and midwifery professionals trained outside the EEA to complete their test in a safe, socially distanced way. The candidates are now able to book their tests, in any of the three test centres in the UK. Can...

Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug for Coronavirus The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say. The drug is part of the world's biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus. It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on...