Reasons to work in Australia

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Good morning everyone! I've been a pediatric RN in the US for 2 years now, and have recently been playing with the idea of being a nurse in Australia for a couple of years. I was hoping to get any advice that anybody has to offer. Specifically, I've heard a lot about the differences in US versus Australian healthcare world...any thoughts? Pros? Cons? Also, could anyone offer up suggestions for larger all-pediatric facilities to look into? Where does everyone work now if you are in pediatrics? How do you feel US nurses are received by staff? I would appreciate any advice!! Thank you very much.

Specializes in Making the Pt laugh..

From the posts supplied so far it is easy to see why we Aussies are considered very parochial in our views. People living in Sydney or Melbourne will tell you that they live in the best part of Australia and everywhere else is not up to scratch. The reason they say that is because they don't know any better. LOL

There is such a diversity in Australia that anyone can be happy somewhere. I personnally could not live in the "Southern" areas that the other posters love so much. South Australia has been described as having a similar climate to California and Sydney has been described as similar to Seatle. I have seen country areas in Victoria that are absolutly beautiful if you can handle the cold. I live a couple of hours drive from Kakadu where people visit from all over the world, but I dont rate it because there are better places even closer.

We have climates from Tropical through to Desert through to Forests. The people are just as varied depending on where you go. Everywhere has its good and bad points, you just need to find them. Even though where I live has been described as "God's own country", it is not perfect, but darn close.

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Hi

If you are interested in New South Wales, check out the NSWHealth website. On there, you should be able to find out all you need to know about the money side of things. The assistants are called AINs (Assistants in Nursing) and they do all the basic nursing but are not permitted to do meds or complex tasks. We also have PSAs (Patient Services Assistants) who do ward cleaning and patient transfers, but no nursing jobs.

There are two premium paediatric hospitals in the Sydney metropolitan area, Westmead Childrens, which is in the suburb of Westmead next to Parramatta, about 40 minutes from the Sydney CBD. The other is the Royal Childrens Hospital in eastern Sydney.

Currently, nurse/patient ratios in the public hospital system are 1:4. Private hospitals are 1:5-8, which I personally think is too many to do the job properly. I have a friend who works at a private hospital and never gets away on time ... she usually has to stay up to 1 1/2 hours past her finishing time in order to get everything done, especially the paperwork.

As for the expense, it's not as bad is it's made out. Fruit and vegies are well priced and there is a huge variety available. Benefits of living in a multicultural society. We eat a huge amount of fresh fruit and vegies every week and it costs around $60 for a family of five. In Australian dollars, the average take away cappucino is around $3. In London it's more than twice that! Two litres of generic brand milk is $2. 500g packets of generic brand dry pasta are around 60 cents. Butter is around $1.25 for 250g and bread starts at $1 a loaf.

The big theatre chains charge $12-15 for a movie, whilst the little (equally as good) independents charge around $8, and $5 on "cheap Tuesdays". Petrol is currently around $1.10 a litre.

US Nurses are always welcome. I'm told your training at university level as every bit as stringent as ours, so you should have no problems finding work here. Hope this information helps and good luck to you.

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Pie face, what an absolutely perfect response!

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wow! im a newly registered nurse here in the Philippines and as much as i wanted to respond to your querry but i cant give anything what i dont have. Because for now im currently really looking for job opportunities abroad. I just hope someday i can go back to this forum and have an appropriate response to you. Take care.:specs::specs:

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