newly qualified staff nurse

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Specializes in several placements as student.

Hello everyone, Well i have just completed my degree course in adult nursing here in the UK. I am pending my registration here, i think it should be Feb/March by time i get it but i have been looking for jobs here for about a year or so now just to see how its been looking and its gone from worse to worse.

When i started nursing i had always considered moving abroad and seeing some of the world and gaining experience abroad. So now i have booked my flight to come to Australia in March as it was a really good deal, I have been granted my working holiday visa also. I am going with a friend as her brother stays in Perth so we are going to live with him for a couple of months until we get settled in.

Obviously i have no nursing experience apart from what i have learned as a student. I have applied for agency work but they have told me agencies dont take on nurses without 1 years experience and had advised me to undertake the graduate program. I was planning on applying for the July intake as i will miss Jan and March intake due to not having registration yet. I have applied for jobs advertised by hospitals but it appears everywhere is looking for experience although i have been told there are hospitals who take on newly qualified nurses. I still havent undertake my English test yet but i plan on doing this before i go or when i get there after i have earned some money working in a bar or where ever required to get money until i find a nursing job.

Sorry for the life story, just wondered if there has been anyone else in this position and if anyone can give me any information on anything in general that they think will help me would be much appreciated.

Thankyou Pamela

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

apply for the mid year intake of a graduate nurse program. It is a year long suppotive program with 6 months med and 6 months surgical placement. Good luck!

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Specializes in several placements as student.
apply for the mid year intake of a graduate nurse program. It is a year long suppotive program with 6 months med and 6 months surgical placement. Good luck!

Yea i looked at that, that was why i really wanted to do it to get alot of experience in different types of nursing...Would i still need to undertake the english test for the graduate program if doing this program?? How do you apply as i tried for one hospital but due to the applications being closed i didnt know how to do it??

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

email international recruitment at the hospitals that you are intrested in working in. I would advise public hospitals but that is a personal choice!

In Victoria public hospitals have a 1:4 ratio for the morning and afternoon shifts. While most dont have HCA's in the same sense as the UK. 4 pt is very nice to start with!

And not sure about the English test. I got my rego in 4 months before that became a requirement!

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Here's the heads up:

Graduate programs for July this year had to be applied for in July of last year. It is very, very difficult to get a placement as a person who is not a permanent resident of WA at the moment, heaps of my fellow students missed out on placements because they did not have permanent residency status.

It's a really awful situation for graduates here at the moment. There's been huge cuts to the grad programs, some of the private hospitals aren't even running one this year. If you did a course in Western Australia and are a permanent resident/citizen it's been reasonable to get employed but if you aren't, you pretty much got shafted.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but better you know the situation before you get here. Some of the hospitals will take you with no grad program but the major ones generally do not. Perhaps now would be the time to swap your visa to one that is just for a holiday, if you are serious about nursing here as a working holiday you only get one chance and I'm guessing it would be better used later on.

I don't know that you have to do an English test being from the UK? I know the nurses board has exempt countries and that is one of them.

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Specializes in several placements as student.
Here's the heads up:

Graduate programs for July this year had to be applied for in July of last year. It is very, very difficult to get a placement as a person who is not a permanent resident of WA at the moment, heaps of my fellow students missed out on placements because they did not have permanent residency status.

It's a really awful situation for graduates here at the moment. There's been huge cuts to the grad programs, some of the private hospitals aren't even running one this year. If you did a course in Western Australia and are a permanent resident/citizen it's been reasonable to get employed but if you aren't, you pretty much got shafted.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but better you know the situation before you get here. Some of the hospitals will take you with no grad program but the major ones generally do not. Perhaps now would be the time to swap your visa to one that is just for a holiday, if you are serious about nursing here as a working holiday you only get one chance and I'm guessing it would be better used later on.

I don't know that you have to do an English test being from the UK? I know the nurses board has exempt countries and that is one of them.

Oh god now i am really gutted. I didnt realise the grad programs had to be applied for a yr in advance....

like they say with good news comes bad news and this definately is bad news.

So is there nothings i can do about getting work as a nurse in Australia then???

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Specializes in several placements as student.
email international recruitment at the hospitals that you are intrested in working in. I would advise public hospitals but that is a personal choice!

In Victoria public hospitals have a 1:4 ratio for the morning and afternoon shifts. While most dont have HCA's in the same sense as the UK. 4 pt is very nice to start with!

And not sure about the English test. I got my rego in 4 months before that became a requirement!

4 patients would be great. On my last placements i was given a room which consisted of 8 patients, it was great.

I am now searching internet for public hospitals in WA as thats where i will be staying at first until i earn enough to move n rent own place with friend.

Do you know which hospitals take on newly qualified nurses as this seems to be he biggest problem I am facing??

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Oh god now i am really gutted. I didnt realise the grad programs had to be applied for a yr in advance....

like they say with good news comes bad news and this definately is bad news.

So is there nothings i can do about getting work as a nurse in Australia then???

Well, you also apply for the graduate programs for January in July as well so not always a year in advance, but for July it is a different story. You can still apply for January and see if things pan out.

I'm only talking about one particular state being bad at this time for new graduates, I'm not sure about the others but seeing as that Perth is where you are starting out I thought I should say something. It may not all be bad!

I sincerely hope you can find a job here, I just don't want you to go to all that trouble to get here and not have something secured and think it's easy going. It's the same story practically everywhere in the world from what I can gather!

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Specializes in several placements as student.
Well, you also apply for the graduate programs for January in July as well so not always a year in advance, but for July it is a different story. You can still apply for January and see if things pan out.

I'm only talking about one particular state being bad at this time for new graduates, I'm not sure about the others but seeing as that Perth is where you are starting out I thought I should say something. It may not all be bad!

I sincerely hope you can find a job here, I just don't want you to go to all that trouble to get here and not have something secured and think it's easy going. It's the same story practically everywhere in the world from what I can gather!

Yea i am just trying to find as many jobs available as possible to get applyin asap but it seems very hard to find any on the internet...

Yip everywhere in the world is the same, very bad here in Scotland one of the reasons i wanted to go to where there were more nursing jobs but now i just dnt know if it seems worth while.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.
4 patients would be great. On my last placements i was given a room which consisted of 8 patients, it was great.

I am now searching internet for public hospitals in WA as thats where i will be staying at first until i earn enough to move n rent own place with friend.

Do you know which hospitals take on newly qualified nurses as this seems to be he biggest problem I am facing??

I don't have a clue whats going on in WA but I have heard stories of people finding it more difficult to get nursing jobs in WA......not sure of the reasoning behind that. If you cant find a job there you could always stay at a hostel for a few weeks in whatever city you end up in, rates would be lower in July being low season. It is what I had to do when I moved to melbourne from the countryside!

Good luck. The international recruiter at my hospital only worked 2 days a week so I didn't hear from her for a week. Also look at the websites for hospitals carefully. It may have somwone who deals with graduate nurses inquires as well.

Don't give up hope quite yet.

melting in Melbourne

Karenmaire

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If you want to come, come.

My God this place wherever you are, do still need Registered nurses, Its just a front. Even if you go to aged care, which is absolutely crying out for Registered nurses no matter what your experience..after all you can say you specialised in this at uni, if you are adult trained. Once here and bringing in money and networking and you can see for yourself you will be in like flynn as they say.

Try emailing the grad co-ordinators at all the big hospitals like Royal Perth, Fremantle, Charles Gardiner etc. about mid year intake for grads, alot of them find out the interest before having one, there are also big private hospitals. After all a new grad is the cheapest RN nurse they can employ. If you have heard a negative story form someone do not take this as gospel. Find it out foryourself.

One thing I have finally realised over here, and I was born here, that heaven helps only those that goes out seeks and finds out for yourself. Do not bother with employment agencies.

Aussie employers like, when looking for staff, for new employees to just be there, not too much work for themselves see, so if you contact direct and follow them through, bother, bother, bother them until you get yes or no you will get a different story.

If you sit back and wait for someone else to find out for you will get negative feedback all the time. Come on over,

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Specializes in several placements as student.
If you want to come, come.

My God this place wherever you are, do still need Registered nurses, Its just a front. Even if you go to aged care, which is absolutely crying out for Registered nurses no matter what your experience..after all you can say you specialised in this at uni, if you are adult trained. Once here and bringing in money and networking and you can see for yourself you will be in like flynn as they say.

Try emailing the grad co-ordinators at all the big hospitals like Royal Perth, Fremantle, Charles Gardiner etc. about mid year intake for grads, alot of them find out the interest before having one, there are also big private hospitals. After all a new grad is the cheapest RN nurse they can employ. If you have heard a negative story form someone do not take this as gospel. Find it out foryourself.

One thing I have finally realised over here, and I was born here, that heaven helps only those that goes out seeks and finds out for yourself. Do not bother with employment agencies.

Aussie employers like, when looking for staff, for new employees to just be there, not too much work for themselves see, so if you contact direct and follow them through, bother, bother, bother them until you get yes or no you will get a different story.

If you sit back and wait for someone else to find out for you will get negative feedback all the time. Come on over,

Thankyou very much for your advice....the thing i am finding most difficult is the fact that i dont gain registration as a nurse in UK until March/April so the hospitals i have enquired to say they cant consider me until i have registration within Australia....Does anyone have any useful websites at all that may be of any help??

Thanks in advance

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