Ignorant questions by me

Here is my view on it.

Many Americans who want to work overseas only choose English speaking countries. This narrows it down to UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada realistically.

I am not sure about Canada but the rest of the countries have higher requirements for the amount of hours of didactic study i.e. formal class time and clinical placement hours than most American schools provide. Similarly, the ADN is not recognised by these country's registration bodies.

Getting registration is one thing, getting work is another. There is no such thing as L&D nurses (not speaking for Canada) , these countries have midwives who have either done a 2 yr post grad in midwifery or a full undergraduate degree in it.

None of these countries have the massive orientation periods I see referenced on AN. I give a week for new starters and that is being generous.

Nursing is basically the same but with many more nurses and less support staff nurses don't have the ability to delegate things to support staff and therefore have to wash patients, feed them etc.

The 4 counties I am familiar with (UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) all have publicly funded health systems where most of the work is. This means that the government has a level of oversight which includes that positions go to dueley qualified local candidates and only then can an international candidate who needs a visa be appointed. To employ an international candidate recently I had to have the position advertised for 28 day externally on my hospital recruitment page and on 2 recruitment sites. I had to complete a 10 page form on why no local candidate could fill it. Then I had to fill in an affidavit that I was telling the truth!

* note "local" references someone with the relevant visas already.

On 1/3/2020 at 12:57 PM, direw0lf said:

I know this is ignorant but that’s why I’m asking so I learn!

it seems like it’s easier to go from a nurse in another country to a working nurse in the US than it is to be a US nurse who wants to work in another country. Is that a correct assumption? It only seems that way when I read that many nurses overseas are trained in specialty areas, making US nurses under qualified despite many years of experience?

I really know little on the topic but got curious! You know...sometimes I daydream about living abroad (not seriously). It seems hard for a US nurse to do that.

I wouldn’t say it’s easy to become a nurse in the US if you were already a nurse in foreign countries either. You still need to take the NCLEX, and have the hours (didactic and clinical) to qualify to sit for the NCLEX. Not to mention, sometimes the US don’t accept the training hours completed in foreign countries, and disregard your years of experience as a foreign nurse. Also, trying to obtain a work visa or immigration visa in the US is another can of worms; such a lengthy process! I used to work with a nurse aide who spent all her life as a nurse in Iran but she still can’t get her nursing license in the US.