Can I work in AU with an associates in Nursing

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Hello

I have lived in Australia before and loved it. I live in the USA now and I am trying to get accepted to nursing school. My plan is to get my associates degree in nursing from a community college here in 2 years then pass the NCLEX and become a RN here in Washington USA. After one year of working here in the USA I would like to try to move to Australia. Here is my BIG question. Will my 2 year nursing degree and one year of work experience be enough to land me a nursing Job in a major Australian city.

I know that I will be competing against lots of people that have more years of experience and who also have BSN degrees. Unfortunately I do not have the time or the money to get a BSN. I am entering the job market at the ripe old age of 40. What are my Job prospects with an associates degree?

:bow:

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I would recommend contacting the Nursing Council in the state you were wanting to work in. However the educational requirements of a RN trained in Australia is a 3 year bachelor degree.

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There's plenty of work in Australia, but you'll most likely be registered here as a LPN instead of an RN. except here they call them EN's

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Thread moved to the International Forum as it is specific to licensure and immigration issues and we ask that all questions concerning this be placed on this forum and not the sub-forums.

You are going to need to see if you can get a visa to work there as an EN, most countries require the four year degree as your training needs to be at least as long as what is required there for licensure as an RN.

Very different when trying to go in the role of the EN, versus the RN.

Licensure is not an issue but immigration is, same way that an EN from there cannot get a visa for the US.

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In australia its only a 3 year degree to become an RN. and it used to be a 2 year associate diploma to become an EN in WA, but it's now an 18month diploma in WA, and 12 months in just about every other state. just be careful if they do make you an EN because state to state scope of practice differences are HUGE, and even hospital to hospital. In all honesty they are only just starting to value EN's in australia because of the nursing shortage. before that people still had the mentality from the old hospital based training days that everyone trained to be an RN and if you dropped out or failed they made you an EN. So just watch out for that when you come over.

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Yes, it is three years in Australia but since we only have two years and four years for our programs, then the four year is the one that is needed to make the training at least equal with the RNs there.

Even though there may be a nursing shortage, getting a visa to work with the EN is an entirely different matter and that is the point that we are trying to make on this forum.

Immigration and licensure are two very different things in every country.

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sorry, obviously didn't make myself clear.

I'm only commenting on licencing in Australia cause its highly illegal to even make references to visas in this country. The words $20,000 fine and up to 20 years in jail comes to mind. (Had to do courses on immigration when I worked in International Student Services)

The only people who are allowed to discus what happens with visas in this country are legally registered immigration agents so its best to discus with them what happens. Everybody else who makes comment is not only breaking the law, but probably doesn't really know all the details because they change the laws roughly every 3months in regards to visas.

hope that clears things up

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I found this (below). Does this mean ANN from US is enough to work in Australia?

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs), with the exception of NSW, have assessed nursing

Full Assessment of a Registered Nurse or Midwife qualifications obtained in one of the following countries as being adequate for the purpose of registration as a nurse, and the ANMC makes the determination that such applicants are eligible for migration.

Applicant has completed an education program leading to registration/license/eligibility as a nurse in one of the following countries:

• United Kingdom

• Canada

• The Republic of South Africa

• The Republic of Ireland

• Singapore

• United States of America

• Hong Kong

• EU member states where the nursing education meets the EU directive 77/453

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I found this (below). Does this mean ANN from US is enough to work in Australia?

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs), with the exception of NSW, have assessed nursing

Full Assessment of a Registered Nurse or Midwife qualifications obtained in one of the following countries as being adequate for the purpose of registration as a nurse, and the ANMC makes the determination that such applicants are eligible for migration.

Applicant has completed an education program leading to registration/license/eligibility as a nurse in one of the following countries:

* United Kingdom

* Canada

* The Republic of South Africa

* The Republic of Ireland

* Singapore

* United States of America

* Hong Kong

* EU member states where the nursing education meets the EU directive 77/453

It also needs to be minimum of three years to be considered as you would need to have at least the same hours that they have there. Have not seen one nurse be able to get licensed there with the ADN degree from the US. Just not going to happen.

And licensure is needed before one can even do anything about a visa for working there. Same way in the US, an employer cannot offer a job without the nurse having passed either the CGFNS exam or the NCLEX exam.

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sorry, obviously didn't make myself clear.

I'm only commenting on licencing in Australia cause its highly illegal to even make references to visas in this country. The words $20,000 fine and up to 20 years in jail comes to mind. (Had to do courses on immigration when I worked in International Student Services)

The only people who are allowed to discus what happens with visas in this country are legally registered immigration agents so its best to discus with them what happens. Everybody else who makes comment is not only breaking the law, but probably doesn't really know all the details because they change the laws roughly every 3months in regards to visas.

hope that clears things up

We are discussing being able to work in Australia and that requires a license before anything can be done, just like most other countries. And since we are not there, we have nothing to do with the immigration procedures there that would apply to someone that is in that country.

But the issue remains that a two year RN degree from the US does not meet the requirements of being at least equal to the time spent in training at the minimum for the RN there. Same rule applies to the UK as well and every other country if their training is more than the two years for licensure.

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