Originally Posted by jaylynn67 Hi -it seems like most of these messages are about moving to the US. What about relocating to Europe? My husband and I would like to in the future. What type of licensing, certification do nurses have in somewhere like Sweden, or Spain? I wonder how the working conditions, etc, compare to the US? Does anyone know how I would go about doing this?
There is a shortage for nurses in Sweden and there are some agencies which try to hire nurses. You always have to learn the language. I got an offer for Norway and although everybody seems to speak English anyway , they told me that I would have to learn their mothertongue.
What Suzsanne said is right, the US license is not international. Nurses from one of the EU countries can get the paperwork done easier as we can work in whole Europe and there is only some paperwork but that is the advantage of the European Union. Of course you always have to learn the language but some are gifted and some agencies pay for that.
Scandinavia is nice, but can be hard during wintertime . A lot of people get depressed during that dark time there . You pay much more taxes etc. as in the US but you have much more social security and health ins.. That is similiar in the other EU countries.
Nursing can be very different depending on the hospital, country and field . Also living is different, it is another culture!
Perhaps you can find some kind of exchange program? That would be a great opportunity to see what nursing is like in Europe. I think that it would be very difficult to get everything done without an agency as long as you are not from the EU.
nutella
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