Moving to Australia upon graduation

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Hello everyone, I will be graduating nursing school and will be moving to Australia. I do have plans to take my NCLEX in my home state of Texas and once I pass and receive my license I want to start to make the move. I know I can apply for a skilled work visa and I also need to apply to AHPRA for registration in Australia but are there any suggestions on how to do it different, or even if i'm in the wrong order? Can I apply for the visa and registration at the same time? I also look on seek.com/au to see all the nursing jobs available. Any help guys would be greatly appreciated! Thanks all!!!

Bringonthenight, wouldn't she be able to maybe find out what her philippine degree transfers to from the AHPRA website. I'm pretty sure that is where I found out about mine... I'll look Sheeeeeen and see but I think you can. I'm not sure what search engine your using but you can search AHPRA and read up on it. It has a lot of info there.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

AHPRA is planning on registering students like the UK and Ireland do so that they are accountable for their actions and if there is any issues prior to qualification that they do not slip by unnoticed.

As a nurse that trained in Ireland adapting to the Australian health system was easy as it is the same model. The US model is very different and I was on a ward a few years ago with an American nurse who had just moved and she found the system completely different.

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Yes I'm so sure things are completely different only good thing is anatomy is anatomy is anatomy lol... I'm def gonna do like bringonthenight said and research the differences as much as I can. I still have a while so ill be able to get plent good info and suggestions... Plus ill be asking lots of questions and hoping I get great responses from u guys!

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi. I'm a newbie in here so please be nice to me. Lol. Anyways I saw this thread and I think it perfectly fits my query. I'm a fresh BSN graduate (4 year course) from the Philippines but I have no license yet. My family and I will be moving sometime later this year to Australia probably in Tasmania so I'm planning to pursue my nursing profession and get my license there. Does anyone here knows what possible programs should I take for me to be registered and get a license? Thanks! ☺
There is a bg thread in the nurse registration forum so suggest a good read as things are different if trained in the Philippines. You say you have no license yet but have you sat NLE as Australia as far as I am aware requires a license in the country where ou trained
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Specializes in NICU.

I'm not trying to be mean, but you want to move to a new country with its own extraordinarily different healthcare system with absolutely no RN experience? All while expecting them to accommodate for the fact that you need a decently long orientation to make you safe? I think you're being very naive...

I do have an idea if what I'm talking about; I have another foreign license (UK) and researched Australia too. Honestly I'm surprised more people haven't called you out on this. You need to get a years worth of experience before you'll be useful...otherwise you're just draining resources that are better used on their own nurses who deserve it more than you. Again, this is not trying to be mean. But it's trying to make you more grounded in reality.

Edited to thank you for your service to our nation and to tone down some of my disbelief. My Dad just retired after 32 years of service.

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All while expecting them to accommodate for the fact that you need a decently long orientation to make you safe?

We don't do extended orientations. A standard medical/surgical grad gets 1-2weeks of working with a preceptor then your on your own. It's what we call the sink or swim period, some pick it up quick, others often cry or have a few melt down moments!

I hear US get longer orientations?

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Specializes in NICU.

Yep...new grads in the USA are certainly not expected to be out on their own until at least 4-6 weeks (my orientation to NICU was 20 weeks). I don't know how it works in Australia, but I know in the UK the nurses there do ~3,000 clinical hours in school whereas the average US BSN does maybe ~800 hours. That's why I think it's pretty unsafe for a new grad to go to a brand new country with no experience and only a little orientation. It's hard enough to be a nurse in your own country during the first year.

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Yeah critical care new grads have longer orientations here as well, I couldn't imagine going into the NICU as a grad! That takes guts! Lol.

Maybe our orientations are shorter because a lot of the 3rd year nursing students get jobs on the wards they did their final practicum on.

I agree it would be a challenge to move here, find work etc etc but all we can do is offer advice :)

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Specializes in OR and Midwifery.

When I did my grad year (7years ago) I started in the OR. We had no OR clinicals what so ever during Uni. I had never stepped foot in theatre before. We were given 3 days orientation in each area (scrub/pacu/anaesthetics). It was defiantly sink or swim! I love theatre now & ended up doing a post grad dip.

Fast forward to now, things have not changed. I have just completed my post grad dip in midwifery. Orientation time, 1 day in each area. In my opinion midwifery was like learning a whole new degree in 12 months. Sure nursing and midwifery overlap a lot but we hit the floor running.

I would of loved 20weeks orientations :)

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I'm not trying to be mean, but you want to move to a new country with its own extraordinarily different healthcare system with absolutely no RN experience? All while expecting them to accommodate for the fact that you need a decently long orientation to make you safe? I think you're being very naive...

I do have an idea if what I'm talking about; I have another foreign license (UK) and researched Australia too. Honestly I'm surprised more people haven't called you out on this. You need to get a years worth of experience before you'll be useful...otherwise you're just draining resources that are better used on their own nurses who deserve it more than you. Again, this is not trying to be mean. But it's trying to make you more grounded in reality.

Edited to thank you for your service to our nation and to tone down some of my disbelief. My Dad just retired after 32 years of service.

Well babyRN u can't call me out on something I already discussed. I am fully aware I will need a years worth of experience and I intend to get that while working on my visa and other things I will need. My whole point in asking the question was to get helpful answers on what was expected there. Bringonthenight and others have offered that and I intend to use their advice. So I think ur a little late in conversation or didn't read everything in full. Sink or swim has been my life for the last 10 years. Military dont have time to go back and retrain. If your dad retired then u should know "can't, won't, or fail" is not part of a military persons vocabulary. Have a nice day

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Specializes in NICU.

vgriggs, considering that many members post months after the initial post, I hardly think that a couple of days after your initial posting makes me inadmissible to expressing my opinion.

You said that you wanted to work on getting the visa straight after you pass the NCLEX without any mention of working the US, so you can understand why it led me to believe that you were trying to move over as a new grad.

My advice is to act a little more humble: your first few posts sounded pretty arrogant and being the "blunt American" will not open you many doors and perpetuates stereotypes of Americans...there is a difference between being candid and rude and your posts didn't seem to express the former sentiment.

JMHO and NY $0.02 as Lindarn would say. Keep us posted on how things turn out. I do wish the best for you and your child.

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Actually I'm a very humble person. I also don't assume either. If I read the post and wasn't clear on something I'd ask a question. Perhaps maybe a question like " do you plan on gaining experience before you move?" That's a start to a situation instead of assuming. Next, all I did was ask a question and straight off the back I got negative feedback , as if I would fail and that it's impossible. The reason I used the term "Blunt American" was because I was told In a post wut I thought was rude was an Aussie being blunt. Anyone who knows me or asks questions about me will know I am far from arrogant and not confrontational at all. I feel I responded well to ur post as u called me an embarrassment to all Americans. Although I knew that silver dragon would only edit what I really wanted to say. So my advice to you is get, and since your already an experienced nurse this should be a given, get to know the person and their intentions as well as situations before you post a hurtful comment because in the end you only embarrass yourself .

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