Hi, welcome to our beautiful country in advance.
In fact you could probably get work anywhere in the country as we have the same nursing shortage as everyone else. Our pay is in fact pretty poor, I am a senior RN and am on $38,000, areas like Auckland have a high cost of living, so you might be having to tighten your belt somewhat if you're the sole earner, although I think the nurses in Auckland are on a higher rate of pay.
It depends alot on what your hubbies career is - do you have to be in Auckland?? I live in a reasonably small centre approx 60,000 pop, the cost of living is alot lower here so I think overall my standard of living is better than if I lived in a big city.
On the plus side nurses in NZ I think are finally ready to stand up and let govt. know that we deserve alot more for what we do, I often feel we are financially penalised for Nursing here. Industrial action is being planned. Alot of Nurses go to Australia etc to make more money. Then when you consider that our kiwi$ is worth alot less than USA$ it makes it even worse.
On the definite plus side, we have a small population 4million in fact which means clean air, wide open spaces etc etc, which is why I stay - having travelled overseas I really appreciate what we have here.
I hope I haven't put you off, after reading alot of posts here I think that pt ratios etc are better here, I moaned when I had six or god forbid seven pts, the norm is about 5 - I've read posts of people regularly having 7 or 8 pts and even going up to 10!!!
Anything else you want to know just ask, and if you want to check out our scenery watch Lord of the Rings - we're so proud!!
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Re: New Zealand nurses' standard of living
