peace corps?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello--I'm considering the Peace Corps, and am afraid of letting my RN license lapse and having to take the NCLEX all over again when I get back. How can I find out how long it takes of being unemployed before that happens? Thanks!

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Specializes in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes.

Contact the BON you have your license through. I know in my state you can be unemployed for several years and not lose your license as long as you just renew it on time every year.

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Does the peace corp offer the opportunity to use a nursing degree directly (as in, as a nurse)? I find this very interesting. My husband and I kicked around the idea of the peace corp when we were younger, but then we had babies...now those babies are growing up, and the idea has emerged again as something to do after they leave the house.

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A friend of mine is in the Peace Corps in an African country. She's completing a health education project and helps a lot with HIV testing drives and educating people in her village about healthy habits. She's actually sort of helped with some clinic-type stuff because there's not much of a staff there (she's not a nurse or anything). I'm not sure if there are positions for actual nursing, but there are definitely health-related positions, and I'm sure they could use your insight as a nurse.

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Have you about Doctors Without Borders, it is a humanitarian mission and you get to practice as a nurse.

or

Perhaps as others have mentioned the Peace Corps might have nursing positions and you can remain active.

just :twocents:

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

My sister was in the Peace Corps in Gabon several years ago. My husband and I want to do something like the Peace Corps when the kids are older. Yes, there are assignments for nurses, both RN and advanced practice. And if you and your spouse are both marketable and qualify, you can get an assignment together.

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Specializes in emergency.

I was in the Peace Corps before I started nursing school. You definitely have to be self-motivated and energized to work. The term "assignment" doesn't really mean that you have a job. You have to get out there, meet people, make connections and find the ways your community can use you to further their own development. If you want to just be assigned to a nursing position abroad, I wouldn't do Peace Corps! Good luck--my PC service changed my life and that's where my husband and I met. Wonderful people and amazing experience.

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Specializes in med-surg, step-down, ICU/CCU, ED.
Have you about Doctors Without Borders, it is a humanitarian mission and you get to practice as a nurse.

or

Perhaps as others have mentioned the Peace Corps might have nursing positions and you can remain active.

just :twocents:

I did a brief stint with Doctors without Borders as well as a 2 year assignment with Peace Corps. You do not practice as a bedside nurse in either case. With DWB you are more of a supervisor to the local nursing staff for the assigned project. Rarely do you actually do actual bedside stuff. With PC, you work in/with the community, developing projects, campaigns and such. Like the above poster stated, you definitely need to be self motivated to do PC because a lot of time people will tell you "yeah let's collaborate on your project idea" but then you could end up spinning your wheels for weeks, or even months. A fair amount of RN health educators end up early terminating before their service is up because of this. This isn't the case everywhere, not by a long shot, but it's a reality you have to face.

That being said I would highly recommend PC, especially if you plan on working in international health. But if you want to actually practice as a nurse, PC does hire RNs to help care for their volunteers overseas. Those gigs can be kinda hard to come by though.

Good luck. 2 years goes by fast so don't let the time constraint scare you. :)

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Specializes in oncology.

I served as a small business development PC volunteer in Morocco about 10 years ago. I wasn't a nurse at the time, but definitely would *not* recommend it if you're trying to volunteer and keep up nursing skills. Volunteers in our health sector did very basic health/sanitation projects, like "hand washing 101", latrine building, etc. Even if you tried incorporating your nursing skills in a secondary project w/Peace Corp's permission - and it's all extremely bureaucratic- I doubt you'd have sufficient opportunities to keep your skills up to the caliber you'd expect.

I second previous posters' suggestions to consider MSF/DWB instead or a variety of other medical mission experiences out there. In nursing school, I fulfilled my community heath requirement for 2 weeks in Dominican Republic setting up mobile rural health clinics. You can apply to Partners for Rural Health in the Dominican Republic here (Welcome). They go twice a year in January and August and take nursing students from University of Southern Maine (where I did my accelerated BSN) as well as RNs, NPs, MDs, and others interested in pitching in.

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I would personally be happy doing some basic health educations (handwashing 101 or building latrines). I just wondered if they offered actual nursing positions, or if they just took your general nursing education and experience into consideration when they placed you. I can't work for DWB/MSF because I would want to do this with my husband, and he is a high school teacher.

Sorry to hijack, thanks for all the info. Thanks to the OP for posting this.

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