civilian nurse newbee questions

[koki]

Hi:

I am a RN with little more than a year experience working in a cardio/thoracic step down in an large teaching hospital in NYC.

I have worked abroad in the past as a English teacher in japan and I have the bug to travel again.

was wondering if you could answer a few of my questions:

1. as a civilian applying for a position as a RN with the federal government (army, etc) aboard, do I stand a good chance of being hired? I've read contrasting views as far as how easy it is for a civilian RN to be hired and sent abroad.

2. I have a fiancee RN who wishes to travel along. does the government take the relationship into consideration, or only marriages? I kinda feel stupid asking this question last question, but there you have it.

I would really like to travel aboard again while I'm still young, but worry that the relationship compounds the likelihood of the both of us getting a civilian position at the same hospital/base/etc.

Thanks for the help.

[athena55, BSN, RN]

Hello Koki!

Yes, there are opportunities for civilian nurses to work within the Army Nurse Corps. Check out this web site for more information: http://armynursecorps.amedd.army.mil

When I was at Landstuhl I met a civilian nurse I worked with (while I was a civilian) from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC....

I wish I could answer your second question. I know that if you were AD then your honey certainly could move in with you. Would be great if your BAH was enough with some left over!

Let us know what you find out...

athena

[just_cause, BSN, RN]

Are you speaking of applying for a position to work as a federal employee to support the Army as a nurse - or to be an active duty Army nurse?

Are you looking at usajobs or goarmy.com ?

[koki]

Thanks for responding.

To clarify I am interested in working as a civilian at a military base/ military hospital abroad as a RN. I am not really interested in enlisting and becoming an active duty nurse. I am not interested in joining the military..

I have looked at usajobs and a few other websites and have scoured these forums trying to locate someone who was hired as a civilian nurse at a military hospital abroad as a civilian, but have not located any success stories. I have only found discussions of how difficult it is to be hired as a civilian abroad especially when you do not have a spouse in the military.

Sorry for the confusion:/ I really didn't think anyone was going to reply.

So thanks for your interest in my questions.

I appreciate it.

[just_cause, BSN, RN]

Generally I have not seen companies (to include fed) to pay for moving a girlfriend.. I see no reason why you couldn't pay for the ticket and live with him/her. Fed gov agencies hire civilians - not just within the fed gov..otherwise they have no new applicants... as far as you being competitive that is based on your exp, jobs you apply to and how well you do the fed govs format of KSAs for your resume.

As far as 'going' overseas.. there are plenty of jobs overseas - and you generally apply for the specific job / location or you apply to a job and select the locations you are willing to relocate to.

Generally the timeline is rather slow so most suggest doing all of this while you go through the application process.

My personal opinion is that you and fiance would have a hard time both applying and getting accepted at the same location at the same time... to be slight. *depends on density and demand... I'd say you move to whereever the first person gets a job and then that second person try to get a job there as well upon arrival - either way that will be a difficult thing to have happen unless you know someone.