Anyone Lived Overseas for extended period of Time?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am a Registered Nurse with an Emergency Nursing and Public Health background. Recently I had a baby and shortly thereafter left my family, friends and a job that I loved to move to overseas for my husband's career. Now I am a full time stay-at-home mom and am writing graduate thesis. I never planned on completely leaving the field of nursing to be at home full-time but there are no professional opportunities here for nurses with US licenses. Though I cherish the wonderful time with my daughter, I miss having the best of both worlds as I did with my PRN work and I also miss feeling professionally engaged and growing as a nurse.

I have been in contact with my board of nursing and understand what I need to do to maintain an active license and am not certain I will be able to get enough clinical hours. The only place where I can legally practice here under my license is within the US embassy and there are currently no positions available. I am in the process of starting my own business and am awaiting approval to do so.

I would appreciate any advice, shared experiences or referrals to resources that might be helpful for a US nurse living overseas for an extended period of time.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Welcome

A lot will depend on country and whether you are allowed to work

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There is a work agreement for family members of diplomats but I am not legally able to practice under my MD state license. Not to mention the language barrier. I am learning the language but am by no means fluent enough to work in a local hospital. Plus I am not interested in getting a license in another country because we move to new countries every 2 to 3 years

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Maslen, is there any circumstance under which you could do pro bono work at a local health center? Could you be permitted to that thusly keeping your clinical hours up to date?

Just throwing stuff out.

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Thank you for the suggestion. I could try to volunteer but believe that would only count towards a volunteer license, not an active license, and I want to keep my active license.

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Are there any opportunities at the embassy or consulate if you're attached to one? Any nearby American military bases?

Good luck.

Tom

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Are there any opportunities at the embassy or consulate if you're attached to one? Any nearby American military bases?

Good luck.

Tom

Embassy, she said there are no opeings.

Military bases are a shot!

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Could you get yourself licensed with a different state?!

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Good point, Suesquatch! Not all states require clinical hours to maintain an active license. Some states will allow you keep an inactive license indefinitely as long as you continue to pay registration fees and then you just need to do whatever necessary to make it active again to practice, which is a lot easier than dealing with a lapsed license.

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I don't have any professional advice for you, but I completely understand your feelings.

I quit my job and moved overseas with my husband and two small children for his career, too. And I had those same feelings of missing my professional self and feeling like I lost some of my independence.

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Specializes in ICU, EMS.

As has already been stated, a lot will depend on what country you are currently residing in. If you have no luck with military bases, I would suggest you consider private medical evacuation companies. There are several and they do like to hire experienced medical professionals from the US who are residing overseas. You should realize that these positions can take you away for several days at a time on short notice which can be a problem if you have children.

CC

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In regard to being able to apply and build on your nursing skills... perhaps there's a foreign community center you could offer some of your skills at or teach health classes. Maybe you could volunteer to accompany other foreigners during hospitalizations and/or surgeries so you could help explain things and suggest questions to ask. That also would bring you into contact with local medical personnel who might have other ideas for ways to utilize your skills and experience. Maybe look up the local chapter of international nursing organizations such as Sigma Theta Tau to build a network with local professional nurses.

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