Nursing in the Third World

I strongly agree with the post above -- spend at least a year in a more structured setting, solidifying your skills and knowledge base. This will not only make you far more valuable in a "Third World" setting with limited resources, but also provide you with some solid verifiable work history should you later return to the US.

I am curious -- as an experienced Peace Corps volunteer, do you believe that nursing in "places where its needed most" may not be places where there is "a small expat community" and where English is the main language at work?

I can clarify a bit. After graduation I plan on working at least 2 years in a structured setting in the U.S to build my skill set and find my place in nursing a bit more. I'm thinking long term, I didn't make that clear. To settle the second question, having a small community of expats, whether it be a few non profit or business employees can be very helpful both in terms of maintaining your sanity and helping pool resources. It is also pretty rare for there not to be one in any kind of population center, by saying that I was clarifying that I am not looking to live in a super isolated setting, I've done that and it makes for a very difficult and lonely life. It commendable and rewarding in short term assignments but i want to settle in somewhere for a while. The english thing is practical, and many places use english, french or spanish as their official language because their population themselves speak a number of languages. Its true of business and to my knowledge true of medicine as well. Mostly I'm just hoping to hear other people's stories, I know international nursing is a thing, I've met some of them, I just want to hear how people got there.

Just a quick FYI..."third world" is not considered to be PC. Instead use "developing country" as a term. Good luck with the Peace Cprps!

I find "third-world" to be demeaning. My husband is from a developing nation, Kenya, not some other world, as if he is an alien or something.

Anyway, I wish you luck in your nursing journey. Dream big and go far! :)

You would need to be licensed in whatever country you are practicing in. Even developing countries have legal requirements for clinical practice. Language fluency will most likely be required also. I work for a faith-based health care system. We provide volunteers for a variety of episodic crisis response teams. We pay travel & salary for those folks, but that is certainly not the norm. We do have facilities in less-developed areas of Mexico & Chile also, but these are staffed with citizens of those countries.

To my knowledge, most of the 'charitable' health care endeavors are staffed with volunteers who must also pay their own travel expenses. I do know two highly expert OR nurses & a CRNA who worked with specialty initiatives @ eye surgery & maxio-facial repair. They did receive salaries, but it was very minimal & their contracts were limited - 1 year, I think. I think the biggest problem will be wanting a 'paid' position working with a disadvantaged population.... difficult to find something that includes both.

Have you looked at the World Health Organization WHO | Programmes and projects , Salvation Army The Salvation Army International - International Health Services & Catholic Health Association International Outreach Overview - CHA? I know that there are a many of health care initiatives listed on those sites.