Internationally educated nurses: writing your NHS Band 5 supporting information

Updated · By the Tick the Spec team

If you trained as a nurse outside the UK, your supporting information has two jobs. It must prove the person specification like any other application, and it must make your registration position and experience easy for a UK panel to understand. Say clearly where you are in the NMC process, translate your experience into UK terms (ward type, patient numbers, responsibilities), and give specific clinical examples that show safe practice, communication and teamwork. Many NHS employers recruit internationally educated nurses before they hold full NMC registration, often in a pre-registration post until they pass the OSCE, so read the advert to see exactly what it requires.

Know the registration steps before you write

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) assesses nurses trained outside the UK. In outline, after confirming your eligibility the NMC may ask you to complete its Test of Competence, which has two parts: a computer-based test (CBT) and a practical exam, the OSCE, taken at a UK test centre. You also need to meet the NMC's English language requirements. Requirements and fees change, so check the NMC website for the current rules rather than relying on agency summaries.

If the job needs visa sponsorship, check that the advert says sponsorship is available. Visa rules are on gov.uk.

Translate your experience

A UK panel may not know how hospitals in your country are organised. A sentence of context makes your evidence scorable.

Instead ofTry
"Staff nurse, Medical Ward 3, 2019–2025""Staff nurse on a 32-bed adult general medicine ward in a 600-bed teaching hospital, caring for 6–8 patients per shift"
"In-charge nurse""Nurse in charge of the shift, leading 4 nurses and 2 nursing aides"
"Did all procedures""IV cannulation, IV medicines, catheterisation, wound care, blood glucose monitoring"

Only list skills you are competent in and could describe at interview. Some may need UK sign-off before you practise them.

Step by step

  1. Open with your registration status: for example, "I passed the NMC CBT in March and hold an NMC decision letter; I am preparing for the OSCE."
  2. Summarise experience in UK terms: specialty, setting, patient load, years.
  3. Address each essential criterion with one clinical example.
  4. Show knowledge of UK practice: the NMC Code, safeguarding, consent and the Mental Capacity Act, NEWS2 or equivalent early warning scores, documentation standards. Say how you have learned about them.
  5. Show communication, including with patients from different cultures and backgrounds.
  6. Show adaptability: moving countries, learning new systems, any UK work so far (for example as a healthcare assistant).

Worked example (fictional)

Invented for illustration; the nurse and details are fictional.

Applicant: Joseph trained in the Philippines, with five years' experience on a surgical ward. He has passed the CBT and is applying for a post advertised for internationally educated nurses.

Registration. I am a registered nurse in the Philippines. I passed the NMC CBT this year and meet the NMC English language requirement. I understand I will join the trust in a pre-registration role and sit the OSCE with the trust's support.

Experience of acute adult nursing. For five years I worked on a 40-bed general surgical ward in a large city hospital, caring for six to eight patients per shift before and after operations such as bowel resection and hip replacement. For the last two years I was regularly nurse in charge on night shifts, leading three nurses and two nursing aides.

Recognising deterioration. During a night shift, a patient two days after abdominal surgery became pale with a rising heart rate and falling blood pressure. I checked the wound and drain, saw increased blood loss, called the surgical resident immediately and prepared for fluids and bloods as instructed. The patient returned to theatre that night. Since preparing for the UK, I have studied NEWS2 and the SBAR handover tool and can see how they fit what I did.

Communication and person-centred care. Many of our patients spoke regional languages other than mine. I used family members and the hospital's interpreters appropriately and simple pictures for pain scores, always checking understanding before procedures.

Commitment to learning. I have completed online modules on the NMC Code and safeguarding adults, and I am keen to complete the trust's OSCE preparation programme.

Common mistakes

  • Unclear registration status. Panels need to know where you are in the process.
  • A list of procedures with no clinical example.
  • Using local abbreviations or job titles without explanation.
  • Applying for posts that require full NMC registration when you do not yet have it. Look for adverts open to internationally educated nurses.
  • Copying a template shared in recruitment groups. Panels see the same wording many times.
  • Paying anyone who promises a guaranteed NHS job. NHS employers do not charge candidates recruitment fees; the NHS Employers code of practice for international recruitment sets standards on this.

Pay

Once registered, staff nurses in England are paid on Band 5 (£32,073 to £39,043 from 1 April 2026). Pre-registration roles are usually paid at a lower band. The advert will say which.

Tick the Spec's shortlisting sheet can help you see which person specification lines your overseas experience already supports and where a UK panel needs more detail.

Read next: Band 5 staff nurse supporting information example · NHS Jobs essential and desirable criteria boxes: what to write

Sources

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