Kenya Enrolled Community Health Nurses are now eligible to register and practice in the UK

Certificate Nurses who trained in Kenya are now eligible to apply for registration with Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) of the UK as Nurse Associates. This gives a lifetime opportunity for many certificate nurses especially those trained under the Beyond Zero Scholarship Program to register in the UK and further their career thereafter unlike in The US and Canada where they do not qualify to be registered in any state. They only need to have an NCK license and IELTS Certificate for them to start the registration process. There will be no need of CBT and OSCEs as in the case of Registered Nurses (Degree and Diploma nurses) unless NMC deems so after evaluating their training documents which I personally believe will not happen since KMTCs are offering sufficient training which is Internationally recognised

According to NMC “a nursing associate, being a new member of the nursing team in England, the role is designed to help bridge the gap between health and care assistants and registered nurses. The nursing associate is a stand-alone role that will also provide a progression route into graduate-level nursing. Nursing associates will work with people of all ages and in a variety of settings in health and social care. The role will contribute to the core work of nursing, freeing up registered nurses to focus on more complex clinical care.”

NMC has been slowly introducing the concept of Nursing Associates since 2017 when 2,000 student nursing associates started pilot programmes at 35 Health Education England test sites across England and in 2018 NMC became the legal regulator for nursing associates paving way for inclusion of Nursing associates in the NMC register and Health Education England (HEE) became the main trainer.

The first nursing associates joined NMC register when it opened on 28 January 2019 and it is when overseas trained certificate nurses were also allowed to join the NMC register, however, they will practice in England only as Wales and Scotland are still putting in place the required policies and structures.

The application process Nursing Associates is as simple as follows:-

1. Your must have the required qualification (Kenya enrolled Community Nursing Certificate and NCK license)

2. You must have the required IELTS scores in various Sections as follows;-

• Listening 7 .0

• Reading 7 .0

• Speaking 7 .0

• Writing 6.5

• Overall 7 .0

Other documents

• Declaration of Good Health

• Declaration of Good Character

After submitting your documents you’ll also need to:

• successfully complete both parts of the test of competence if your qualification isn’t comparable to a course approved in England

• confirm you’ve an appropriate indemnity arrangement in place (or you will do when you're working as a nursing associate)

• attend a face-to-face verification check once you’re in the UK.

• You'll need to pay the £153 registration fee. This fee will be refunded if:

1. you withdraw your application before NMC can complete your registration,

2. NMC close your application because you haven’t provided all the necessary information within six months

3. your application is unsuccessful because NMC determine that you don’t meet the registration requirements.

If you are interested in one month online IELTS training and guidance on NMC registration please Whatsapp us on +254716192248