Nursing in Australia

[rnmone]

Hello my fellow international nurses,

I have been a nurse since 2010 with 3 years of experience graduated from the United States. I am trying to migrate to Australia because I think situation is much better there for nurses compared to United States? I am getting all my paperwork ready for AHPRA. I am wondering how hard it is to get registered in AHPRA considering my situation. Should I register in the main city like Sydney or in a smaller countryside? How long will this registering take? And which hospitals sponsor in Australia? I would really appreciate if anyone who has had this kind of condition/situation help me out! I would be really grateful!

Thanks :-)

[myfavouritescar]

I would research this very thoroughly. from what I understand US nurses are paid a lot more than Aussie nurses. Australia is a lovely place to live with a fantastic lifestyle but the cost of living is very high. As a nurse in Australia without the financial support of a partner will not necessarily see you struggle but may limit the ability to lead a lifestyle you want. Wages for registered nurses tend to start around $25/hr in NSW. Particularly if part of the reason you wish to move is to travel Australia and surrouning areas, this will be difficult to save for. Registration is not hard but can be time intensive and costly. I would start this process 1 year+ in advance of when you wish to move. Registration will allow you to work throughout all of Australia. I would start off in a bigger city as rural and remote hospitals are just that, those nurses have a lot less support and tend to be extremely self reliant. Being in a bigger city will also allow you to travel more easily and cheaply.

[navi89]

Hi I m a Australian BSN working in medical centre.

I am willing to move to US, as you have better life, cheaper cars, housing and other expenses.

What made you decide to move here? Getting registered with APHRA is not hard. It's pretty easy.

just a question- how is the scope of nursing in California.

Will i be able to get a job there if I have only experience in medical centre practice.

[ceridwyn]

Are you an Australian citizen, or overseas nurse with Australian nursing registration? You will find getting registration with AHPRA is indeed quite diffficult these days.

Is your nursing education clinical and theory concurrent, read all the threads and posts on this. How will you get work rights in the USA? Please do your research. Working in California is just a dream these days for overseas nurses.

[navi89]

I am Australian permanent resident and registered with APHRA and working as RN in medical centre.

My partner lives in California, thus he is asking me to move there.

He is working in IT profession, thus he couldn't move here.

i don't know what else could I do there

[GypsyRNsoul16]

ceridwyn, thanks for your insight. American RN specializing in critical care and neurology/neurosciences/stroke, 4 yrs LPN & 6 yrs RN, BSN. I am presently going through the application process with AHPRA, submitted all the needed documents in the first week of January 2014. The information of the site stated that they would email when material received, but did hear anything back until I called at 2 weeks later. Then 8 weeks later, nothing was ever sent to my email. Here it is March called as my vacation to Melbourne is in a week, I called again to check status and if there was anything needed and they said there was nothing that was needed they had all the information. Well returned from Oz 4 weeks later called again still under review. May comes around and still nothing....nothing not even the initial email saying they got my documents. Called once again mid May, only to be told that the process changed in February. I was about to lose my mind, seriously, OMG...why wasn't I informed of this all the other times I called (of course didn't lose it on the phone). Then was informed that there documents that where missing... Really, that might have been helpful 4 months sooner. Nonetheless, I had to have all my schools re-send transcripts, clinical hours, and accreditation information to the AHPRA directly with the deadline of 3 weeks, which was more than that but was not made aware at the time of start of deadline. Here it is Sept, the start of 9th month of this process. It's just been so frustrating, especially with the lack of communication. Regardless of the change in process, its been almost 8 months since it has occurred. It been under assessment for the past 8 week or more with no information other than that. I still call every 2-3 weeks to check in. Besides that I will need to apply for visa, hopeful that is comes though in the next few weeks.