Newly qualified UK registered nurse with no experience wants work in Melbourne

[Hopefulx]

Hi I am sorry if there has been a post like this previously, I am new to this site and cannot find posts that match my queries.

Myself and my family have been granted permanent residency in Australia, I however will not register as a Childrens nurse until 2014. I applied to University in Melbourne to complete my training there, they wanted me to complete 3 years - this is not a viable option for me or my family. I have been advised that hospitals require 12 months experience before they would employ me.

I would do voluntary work in hospitals in Melbourne if I thought this would help me find work.

Please can someone advise me on any options that might be suitable - I don't want to complete 12 months experience in UK, this is as my son wants to follow his dad to Australia asap and neither him nor me will want to have to be apart for this length of time.

Thanks for your support

[Diddlybop]

Hi, I would strongly advise you stay and get further experience, even if you did the 3 year course here it won't guarantee you a job in Melbourne. Last month 1100 students missed out in Melbourne for graduate positions and the hospitals won't employ these nurses without a graduate year or a year of hospital based experience. On top of that nursing agencies require 6 months to 1 year of experience as well as bank nursing. As for nursing homes, they are slowly bringing in more and more division 2 nurses and personal care workers as it is cheaper labour than division 1 nurses. Also I'm not sure of the requirements for registration with AHPRA, but you may find you need to have some sort of experience first. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but with so much competition going on in Victoria (and all of the other states for that matter) I would hate to see you arrive and not be able to land a job

[ceridwyn]

There is no work for nurses with experience either with the freeze on recruitment and closing of hospital beds.