Male, US-trained RN looking for AU & NZ new graduate nurse programs

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

There is a whole big "sticky" thread at the top of this forum with ALL kinds of information about nurses and nursing in Australia. I would visit the CRANA website before you considered rural nursing - in fact I really, really do NOT recommend remote area rural nursing in Australia for anyone but experienced nurses. (When we say remote we MEAN remote:)

The link for the immigration department is also on that thread and you will need to apply early to get through the maze.

Please look through the entire thread - I posted as I found the links so it is a bit chaotic.

This link has some of the information you are looking for in relation to rural vs metropolitan.

http://www.abc.net.au/health/healthmap/default.htm

http://www.qgd.qld.gov.au/health/hlt-toc.html

Possibly the best thing to do is to tell us what you are looking for - travel around the state vs wide variety of experience vs chance to go scuba diving in one of the best spots in the world etc This way we have an idea of where to point you in relation to hospitals and cities.

[Pedusc]

Thanks qwineth for the suggestions and links. I am looking into starting the immigration process in the next few days. I am also sending out my registration application today. All I want to do is see the big city Aus and small town Aus, work and enjoy life to the fullest-from soccer to surfing. I would like to start wherever I can first and go from there. I know the big cities are good to start, but there might be stiff competition with new graduates who would prefer the city. One can start in a not-too-vibrant city and move on from there. Don't you think?

Regards,

Pedus.

There is a whole big "sticky" thread at the top of this forum with ALL kinds of information about nurses and nursing in Australia. I would visit the CRANA website before you considered rural nursing - in fact I really, really do NOT recommend remote area rural nursing in Australia for anyone but experienced nurses. (When we say remote we MEAN remote:)

The link for the immigration department is also on that thread and you will need to apply early to get through the maze.

Please look through the entire thread - I posted as I found the links so it is a bit chaotic.

This link has some of the information you are looking for in relation to rural vs metropolitan.

http://www.abc.net.au/health/healthmap/default.htm

http://www.qgd.qld.gov.au/health/hlt-toc.html

Possibly the best thing to do is to tell us what you are looking for - travel around the state vs wide variety of experience vs chance to go scuba diving in one of the best spots in the world etc This way we have an idea of where to point you in relation to hospitals and cities.

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

If you want surf anything north of about Bundaberg you can rule out UNLESS you want to wait for the next cylone:D The reason for that of course is the Great Barrier Reef. Mind you the Scuba diving is FABULOUS and even the ordinary snorkelling is brilliant so long as you remember to put sun screen on the back of your legs (ouch!!).

Okay for surfing porbably best is Northern New South Wales but unless you work at Tweed the hospitals are fairly small. There is a big hospital at the Gold Coast and it is very very active.

Basically you will not have a problem if you apply in and around mid-year as most of our graduates come out of university in December. Mid year you can walk into a job. Do NOT as your first position take a job in any hospital less than 30 beds. There is unlikely to be 24 hour medical cover and the on-call would likely be the local GP. The ones that are good are very very good but the ones that are bad.........

Queensland - Most of our public hospitals - Princess Alexandra, Mater, Royal Brisbane. Prince Charles will or should be looking for staff around mid-year. Both the Mater and the Royal are multi-hospitals in that they have more than one hospital co-located on site. i.e. The RBH has the Royal Children's Hospital and the Royal Womens Hospital on the one site but they are really three separate hospitals when it comes to applications for positions.

All state hospitals in QLD have graduate nurse programs but the RBH will take you directly on into ICU to do the transistion to ICU program which is 1/2 a grad cert in ICU. However I cannot recommend going directly into ICU as I believe that there are better training routes available.

Second in size to the Brisbane hospitals listed above are both Townsville (north QLD) and Toowoomba (west of Brisbane) and of course the Gold Coast.

Don't bypass some of the smaller hospitals such as Gladstone,Rockhampton and Mackay.

Before you come and especially if you want to work in the regional hospitals like Mackay please read up on our venomous critters. I used to work at a regional hospital and one of our favourite tricks was to show new overseas staff our "collection" of creatures that had attacked patients past. This included a huge stonefish, a monster sea-snake several venomous snakes and a dinner plate sized bird eating spider. They were all brave souls - no one ran off but they were all REAL careful about our wildlife:D

[Pedusc]

Thanks for your insight.

If you want surf anything north of about Bundaberg you can rule out UNLESS you want to wait for the next cylone:D The reason for that of course is the Great Barrier Reef. Mind you the Scuba diving is FABULOUS and even the ordinary snorkelling is brilliant so long as you remember to put sun screen on the back of your legs (ouch!!).

Okay for surfing porbably best is Northern New South Wales but unless you work at Tweed the hospitals are fairly small. There is a big hospital at the Gold Coast and it is very very active.

Basically you will not have a problem if you apply in and around mid-year as most of our graduates come out of university in December. Mid year you can walk into a job. Do NOT as your first position take a job in any hospital less than 30 beds. There is unlikely to be 24 hour medical cover and the on-call would likely be the local GP. The ones that are good are very very good but the ones that are bad.........

Queensland - Most of our public hospitals - Princess Alexandra, Mater, Royal Brisbane. Prince Charles will or should be looking for staff around mid-year. Both the Mater and the Royal are multi-hospitals in that they have more than one hospital co-located on site. i.e. The RBH has the Royal Children's Hospital and the Royal Womens Hospital on the one site but they are really three separate hospitals when it comes to applications for positions.

All state hospitals in QLD have graduate nurse programs but the RBH will take you directly on into ICU to do the transistion to ICU program which is 1/2 a grad cert in ICU. However I cannot recommend going directly into ICU as I believe that there are better training routes available.

Second in size to the Brisbane hospitals listed above are both Townsville (north QLD) and Toowoomba (west of Brisbane) and of course the Gold Coast.

Don't bypass some of the smaller hospitals such as Gladstone,Rockhampton and Mackay.

Before you come and especially if you want to work in the regional hospitals like Mackay please read up on our venomous critters. I used to work at a regional hospital and one of our favourite tricks was to show new overseas staff our "collection" of creatures that had attacked patients past. This included a huge stonefish, a monster sea-snake several venomous snakes and a dinner plate sized bird eating spider. They were all brave souls - no one ran off but they were all REAL careful about our wildlife:D