[BumblebeeRN]

I am very interested in international travel nursing to australia.

I've seen a few sites offering jobs for travel nursing there.

but I am just wondering how the system is there.

what is the pay?
cost of living?
are hospital's pretty good to the employees?
how do I transfer my FL, USA license to there?
is it really nice there?
do they have day care for children? (I have a 2 year old daughter)

[suzanne4]

Thread moved to the International Forum since it requires information concerning immigration and licensure. We ask that anything having to do with these issues be placed on this forum as many of the local nurses there do not know the requirements for the foreign nurse to work there.

You will be working for the agency that places you there in most situations, and not as an employee of the facility, but as a contract worker. Same as travel assignments in the US in that respect.

Not sure what type of training that you have had here, but you are going to need to have completed at least the BSN to be able to work there as the training must be at least the same or more than what they are required to have. Their program is minimum of three years.

Licensure is dependent on the state that you wish to work in there, just like the US and they each have separate licensing boards. You will not be transferring your license to there, you will continue to hold what ever licenses that you have in the US, and will be issued a license there to practice if you meet their requirements.

There are several links as to the contact numbers for each of the individual BONs there, you are just going to need to use the search engine to get started.

Best of luck to you.

[BumblebeeRN]

thanks so much for the great information. I always wanted to be a travel nurse. and I think by the time my daughter gets older, I would say about 6 or 7, I will be ready to do that.
I would love to live in another country (as an adult) for once. and Australia sounds just magnificent!

[suzanne4]

Travel nursing are just temporary contracts, usually only for six months or a year there. If you are wishing to move there entirely or for more than the length of the contract, you may wish to check out how to do things differently for there. With a different type of visa for a start.

Best of luck to you.

[ghillbert]

You sound like you need to do a LOT more research before you consider moving overseas.

The pay depends entirely upon your experience level, where you work, when you work etc just like it does in the US.

Australia is a big place - the cost of living depends entirely upon where you want to live.

How good hospitals are to employees depends on where you work - you can't really generalize. Do you think US hospitals are good to employees? As a rule, making money is the priority of private hospitals, and saving money is the priority of public hospitals.

You cannot transfer a US license to Australia. In fact, I'm not really aware of any countries that let you transfer a nursing license from another country. You need to meet the requirements of the state nursing board for the state in which you want to work.

Is it really nice? Again, it's a massive country about the size of the US - you can't really generalize. There are nice parts, and not so nice parts.

Do they have day care? Are you serious?!!

[missbirdie]

I am also a nurse in the US, interested in working in Sydney or Melbourne for about 6 months. Can you recommend any agencies that are particularly responsive, have contracts with good hospitals, treat travelers well, pay well, etc. also, what kinds of incentives are generally offered? i.e. how likely are they to pay for flight/housing? thanks, m

[missbirdie]

patty,
though you might find this useful regarding payscale and cost of living in australia
http://www.nursingagency.com.au/overseas/pay.html

[Djuna]

I just thought I should mention that agency is not giving up to date information. The exchange rate for USD is .95c, so AUD$1 cost USD.95c.

The latest food index prices puts Australian at the top, our food is very expensive.

The average hourly rate for a Year 8 thereafter RN is around $35, I believe the ACT pays the highest wages, so their $51 was in the old days when agency staff were paid agency rates. Now almost all agency staff are paid hospital rates. There are a few exceptions if you want to work in very remote areas however.

One of the problems with getting your information from these agencies or really any website is a lack of accuracy. Make sure you really do your research when trying to move to another country to live/work.