American educated RN leaving america

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Hello, I've been a nurse w/ a BSN in America for a couple years, I'm hoping to travel a bit and want to explore working as I go.  does anyone have experiences of working internationally? what obstacles are expected, where have you not been able to practice with a BSN from america.

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Specializes in Surgical/Trauma/Neuroscience/Cardiac ICU.

Hi. I came from Canada and my first international destination is the US due to higher hourly wage from the ones on my list. Next destination based from my nursing research can be Australia before UK. I just want to try different countries. 

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You will need a license and a work visa for any other country. These can be time consuming and expensive to get. Coming from a non EU country you will find it challenging to get a work visa for EU countries. 

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Specializes in Surgical RN.

Hi LP2017. You should be able to get your nursing license transferred over to Canada and Australia without too much difficulty (just lots of patience and paperwork!). They have similar educational requirements (university degree, NCLEX, etc.) and of course no language barrier. 
 

You’ve probably heard though that being a nurse in another country besides the US has its disadvantages. In Canada for example, the biggest hospitals still have paper charting! Nurses are generally paid less, sometimes with more responsibility. Things like bedside report and in person shift handover are not standardized practices of care. Equipment is older and more outdated. There can be five people squished into one room (sometimes 6). Traditional bedside nurses are obligated to work both days and nights, usually four twelve hour shifts in a row which can be pretty grueling.
 

I think international nursing can be a really cool experience, but important to realize how different it can be across countries. I wish I had known more going in! 

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I don't know where you got your ideas from but none of that is true about nursing in Canada. 

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Specializes in Oncology, ID, Hepatology, Occy Health.

Going to work in another country is the most rewarding experience I've ever had (came from the UK to France). Go for it.

Your first port of call for accurate info should always be the nursing regulatory body for the country you're going to, so for example the NMC for the UK, the ONI for France etc. A quick Google search usually brings up the appropriate body.

Please don't believe all these scare stories about other countries being in the dark ages and socialized medical systems being awful. Having worked in two state socialized systems, they work, even if there are of course problems as there are everywhere. There are great advantages to working in a system where the prime aim of the organisation is not financial profit.

When the World Health Organisation used to publish annual league tables for health outcomes two socialized systems repeatedly swapped first and second place: Sweden and France.  The US didn't used to fare so well.

You may be pleasantly surprised to find that we're not boiling up old rags for dressings. In France I work in a single room culture, I earn well above the national average wage and I work in a state of the art hospital with modern equipment. We are totally paper free. We practice research based nursing just as our doctor colleagues practice evidence based medicine. I work permanent night shifts by choice. Most French hospitals don't rotate you between day and night.

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On 10/9/2021 at 8:24 PM, Lucydog14 said:

I don't know where you got your ideas from but none of that is true about nursing in Canada. 

BC nurse here and it is very, very true where I am at. Granted it depends on the hospital but 2 days 2 nights are very standard and normal here. 

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I was responding to the person that claimed 5-6 patients per room, all paper charting and grueling schedules.

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