Koalablue

According to this link, Nightingale, being upset about the conditions soldiers were subjected to used her contacts to publicise it. So....by showing the world what the army was up (i.e. publicising it), despite it being negative publicity for the military, she was able to use it to safeguard the sick and wounded and force through better care for them. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REnightingale.htm

Well, I may be making some progress on getting some child and maternal health stiff done at uni. I am doing 3 subjects this semester: Emergency Nursing, Primary Health Care and Complex Care. It seems Complex Care is a `consolidation' subject on our previous med/surg subjects. What this means I'm not sure really :chuckle Anyhow, seems we can choose an area of nursing we'd like to explore outside of just med/surg (if the uni agrees) for the five weeks (200 hours) of placement for Complex Care. I spoke to the coordinator and said how I want some time with both kids and maternity nursing. Looks like she might go for it. There are only ten hours of tutorials associated with the subject, and of course they have nothing to do with kids or maternity. But I figured I could always take a summer distance ed course in child and maternal health (much easier to find one of those if I'm not also trying to find clinicals attached to the subject too). Maybe this way I can meet the hours required by the US? Knowing my luck, the US somewhere somehow requires the clinicals to be attached directly to the child/maternal subject. I'm gonna do it anyway this way, as it loses me nothing regardless, and I'd like the experience with kids etc....so if I do have to do some more study in the US/here at home next year then at least I will have some prior knowledge.

Hi Lopid, I have one more semester to go. I should be finished by October this year. I've looked into Charles Sturt but their maternal/paeds course doesn't involve any clinical hours so is no use really unfortunately! I am heading at this stage to California, so expect a long wait on paperwork, although my fiance is applying for new jobs in other states so I don't know now where I might end up! Maybe I'll just work at McDonalds? LOL I initially started my training through the hospital too (way back in '89). Wish I'd finished it now!

Yes, you're right - the fiance visa and US study is an option my guy and I are considering. I think Australians just have a problem with the cost of studying in the US, even just for a semester. Especially seeing as I just plain don't have the money for it anyway LOL. Still if thats the way to go then I'll just have to do it! Unless I come up with the cut price answer here at home first :chuckle

Gwenith, I *could* go to Canada...but the fiance waiting in America might get a little cheesed off with me lol.

Thank-you..much appreciated! Any info or advice would be gratefully received :-)

I'm personally going to avoid agencies altogether. I am yet to hear really positive feedback about any of them, and I'd rather remain independent anyway. Not that I am going anywhere just yet regardless :chuckle

Yes I could. And it's always an option, but it would be at least 18 months from now before I could afford it (and thats being optimistic!). I'd rather find a faster (and much less expensive) alternative here at home. Airfares, tuition fees, living expenses, books etc.....ack, I'm a fulltime student, I have about $50 to my name lol. Although it would be extremely cool to study in the US even if only so I could say I have been to `college' instead of university (I know it's the same thing, but college just sounds so American ) Maybe I need to go sweet-talk my folks - hey ma and pa - got a spare $5000 - 10,000 to give me?? It'd almost be worth asking just to see the looks on their faces :chuckle

Seeing as there appear to be some of us here in Oz having trouble getting the required courses needed to meet US registration requirements, I wondered if there were any Aussies working in the States now? There must be some! If you have moved to America (especially in the last few years) perhaps you would let us know what university you studied at here in Australia, and how difficult/easy you found it to get your studies verified and accepted by the USA. If we knew what uni you studied at it might narrow down the search for courses that have the paediatric/maternal health classes required. At this stage any information would help I am currently studying at La Trobe and they are not offering *any* classes related to kids or child-bearing women (they were, but they changed their mind half-way through this first semester...darn it!). Help! :rotfl:

They're not really specialist programs here like they have in the UK....all nursing degrees lead to to the same thing here (for basic pre-registration degrees). We all come out at the end qualified as RN's and able to work in any area, except midwifery which requires an additional years training. It's just some (or a lot!) of programs don't cover paediatrics or maternal health, or if they do, don't offer specific clinical placements associated with those areas. I've done the mental health I need (I just completed 120 hours of clinical placement in that this semester). I guess I will just have to keep looking around for universities with what I need, but frankly it won't be possible to do it unless it's via distance education, and I haven't found anything yet. It can be difficult here to just jump into another university mid-year (though I'm sure it's possible at some places). It's a shame about that Deakin Uni course, but it certainly seemed odd that the classes are claimed to be acceptable everywhere but California :uhoh21: Oh well, I'll keep looking but this is starting to get very tiring. I understand and appreciate that the US has it's standards and thats that, but it sure is creating headaches down here! If I won the lottery I guess I could go study in America...but if I won the lottery you can bet I wouldn't be looking to work either! I just want to say thanks Susanne for always so patiently answering questions (from everyone) and listening to the griping (mostly me lol). I would have lost my cool long ago always reading the same things being asked over and over!

Hmm, sounds good. Can you give some links or code info to the particular units? Did you speak to someone from the univerisity about this? Is this off-campus study?? I know, I know too many questions! I'm looking at the Deakin website now but I could be here all night at this rate! And I'm yet to find specific info from the US about the exact hours of theory and clinicals required (everything I look at, whether BON or CGFNS, says `an approved number of hours, in an approved undergrad course'...not very precise. Maybe I am just blanking it out in my frustration?? lol)

I've no doubt there are people out there that are in it purely for the money..though it surprises me they last more than two minutes in the job. It's a rather large leap to assume that because money and job security make the top of my list for reasons to become a nurse also somehow make me lazy, inefficient and a bad nurse. Someone who is lazy tends to be lazy in all areas of their lives, including in how they care for their own families. I'm choosing nursing because I care about my fiance and want to be able to help us build a secure future together. I care about the children we will have one day by having a safe (employment-wise), flexible job with many career opportunities no matter where I live. I'm prepared to work hard to achieve these goals. I also know my caring attitude will extend to those patients in my care. Yes, I enjoy the patient contact, yes I care about them - and I show it by studying hard, making sure I understand what I'm learning, turning up to work on time, getting done the things I need to get done each shift, handing out meds safely, providing a listening ear when needed etc etc - but I still want my pay cheque I'm no Mother Teresa. If I didn't have to work, I sure wouldn't! I might volunteer my time to help other people even if I won a million dollars, but it wouldn't be on a hospital ward doing what nurses do every day....you gotta pay me to be worn out like that!

`de novo automatism'??

Heh. I like that! I'm pretty sure noone would ever accuse me of being a nun As I said in the previous thread on this topic: I made a conscious choice to go back into nursing for the money. Not in the sense of making a whole bag load of cash, but in the sense of having a secure, reasonably well paid job (though I reckon we should be paid more!), that offers a variety of job choices/fields and will allow me to travel all over the world. Thats not to say I don't care about people - if I didn't, I'd make a pretty shoddy nurse. My patients always seem happy and tell me how well cared for they feel when I have looked after them, so I must be doing something right. But that doesn't change the reasons why I decided to go back to school to become a nurse (for the second time around: maybe thats why I was able to leave `caring about people' off my list of reasons to go back to school. I knew exactly what I was getting into and I had no illusions about any of it!). In the end I'm doing it because I want to. I'll let other people do it for whatever reasons *they* want. It's none of my business. If they're in it for the wrong reasons then they'll find out soon enough (and how!). I *do* think it takes a special kind of person to be a nurse, but I'm not so special that I don't have bills to pay and a need to put food on the table

Yes, it's 40 hours of lectures and 80 hours of clinical practice isn't it? Is there an official site somewhere to see this information set down? I have an enquiry into Charles Sturt about the subject. It's a semester long subject, and hopefully has a clinical placement associated with it. 80 hours of clinicals is nothing....it's only two weeks worth of shifts. Is that requirement per topic though? 80 for paeds and 80 for maternal health)? I suppose it would be. Not so bad I guess...I just completed 295 hours of clinical this first semester..and that was only for two subjects!

I've been searching high and low for an answer to the fact my uni is NOT going to offer *any* instruction in paediatrics or maternal health. So far I have found this (in the neighbouring town no less!): http://www.csu.edu.au/division/deanstud/associatestudent/ Now in the undergrad nursing program Charles Sturt have this subject available in second semester of third year (both on campus and via distance ed. by the looks of it). The associate student program doesn't come cheap ($AU950/8 credit points), so it would be an expensive option. Though cheaper than studying in the US! Did I read somewhere on here that paeds and maternal health didn't have to be taken as `stand alone' subjects? Just that the US requires that you cover the topics at some stage in your studies? I can't remember where I read it now....damn my failing memory! At 16 credit points this subject is the equivalent of two normal subjects....but I don't want to try and take an extra subject in my last semester at school, at a price of nearly $2000 if it's not going to be acceptable I may have to look into this one more tomorrow!

I've tried to post this once already - lets see if it works this time! I can't see any reason why you won't be able to get work as a nursing aid in say, an aged care facility or some other similar care place. So long as you are permitted to work when you get here that is. Are you in Australia yet, or still waiting to come over here? Can you not take a sort of English `rehresher' course where you are now and then take the test again? You're so close to the score needed already! Anyway, if not I'd say you still have a good chance of finding work in the healthcare field while you improve your English skills (although they seem pretty good to me already!). I imagine it won't take you long to improve once you are surrounded day in day out by us Aussies :) Good luck!

I have to say that `helping people' didn't make it onto my list of reasons for becoming a nurse now or in the past when I did it before. I chose to go back to school and do this basically because of the job security it offered, the relatively decent wage, and the fact I can travel and work the world over with a nursing degree. I also have always loved `medical stuff'....procedures, learning about diseases etc. Thats not to say I am not compassionate or caring with my patients, in fact I consistently get great marks in clinicals for the way I deal with patients and staff - which is odd given that helping them is not even a factor in my being in school now Of course I appreciate that I get to help people, and by nature I am a `helper' I suppose, but it comes a long way down the list compared to being able to get a job anywhere anytime. Frankly if I had my way, I'd be something like a wild-life photographer, or do research into horses. But I need to eat, pay bills and put a roof over my head, and I need to do it sooner rather than later, so nursing it is! I wish I could say I love it, but the best I can say is I like it a lot. Which is more than many people can say about their (potential) jobs. I hope to find an area of nursing that I might come to love....but if not, then I still have a satisfying job, which pays fairly well, has much diversity and will see me always employed. Not too bad!

I'm only a student nurse now, but I was a nurse previously in my life (too many years ago to remember )....I only dealt with one brain dead patient in the past, and I continued to talk to them. Not because I'm too daft to understand they're dead, or because I think they might `come back' but because I'm not sure that they're not still there in the room somehow. I don't know if I believe in an after-life or not...but if there *is* one then I want that patient to continue to know their body and soul is cared for, and about. It harms no-one, and I think it helps *me* to keep treating them that way. My way of `letting go' if you like... Unconscious/comatose patients I will always talk to. One of our nursing educators spent 5 days in a coma and she says she can remember conversations and procedures that were done to her. She doesn't remember clearly, and certainly not everything, but it makes you think....I guess I have to believe her, I've no reason not to! So I will talk, and talk, and talk.......just because I can, and because it might make a difference somewhere, somehow.....

Hi Clarrissa26, I find myself in the same position as you - almost. I am in my third year of nursing training, and found out at the beginning of the year my course most likely won't offer paeds or maternity units this year. They previously did.....which is one of the reason I TOOK the darn course! I'm looking to move to the US too and this is kinda cramping my plans (not to mention the plans of the guy waiting patiently for me in California ) If you come up with a solution, I'd be pleased to hear about it.

Yes, in Victoria LPN's (enrolled nurses) are called Registered Nurse Div 2's. Div 1's are Registered Nurses with a degree (or the full hospital training from the past). Confusing, huh? Everywhere else in Australia a Registered Nurse is a Regstered Nurse as in the States and Canada, and LPN's are called Enrolled Nurses. Good luck with the job hunt :)

I just did some of my mental health placement with a student from UTS (I'm with La Trobe) and from our discussions it sounds like that course is great! Much better than the one I am doing. UTS seems to have better elective choices and a better schedule for practicals. As for age - at 28 you'd be one of the younger ones if you were at my university. I'd say the majority in my course are 30+, with at least half being in their late 30's/40's. At nearly 35 I am a long way from being the oldest in my class! Go for it if thats what you want :) It's a hard slog, but the time really does go quickly.

Ok, I'm back from my mental health placement in Goulburn and thought I'd do a little thread padding here in the Aussie forum I started my next med/surg placement this week (back home too, which is a relief). It's going ok so far....except...big smart ole me went to give my first injection this placement (whoo hoo - big deal for us students). Dummy me decided to crack open the med vial without using a swab around the neck of it. Now this is a big thing of mine - I'm paranoid about possibly cutting myself. Yup, you guess it - I cracked the vial, drew up the meds, went to the pts bedside, and with all the intelligence I have within me went `oooh, look....theres blood everywhere....' LOL. Uh huh I was a'bleedin' all over the patient and their drugs. Which drug was it?? Oh well, Heparin of course! Duh! Luckily I have a sense of humour (and so did the pt and the RN with me). But really...when I'm so wary of cutting myself like that why did I go against my usual instinct?? Ah well..live and learn :rotfl: I so love being a student (not!)....but at least I've finally stopped bleeding now LOL.

Oh well, let me add another post to swell our numbers I've been lurking on this site for..uh...probably a year or more. Guess I should contribute more huh? (anything to stop the Poms from winning at *anything*....!!) And posting here lets me avoid doing any work on the mental health assignment I should be doing....so all is good! Anybody here work in or around Goulburn? I am heading up there next week to start my mental health clinical placement. Nothing like going four hours from home to get your experience! No one told me about that when I signed up for the degree.....oh well, join nursing see...NSW....(somehow not as thrilling sounding as the `join the navy, see the world' campaigns :chuckle ) I'm not complaining really..it should be fun..!

ooops...forgot about the recruiters part of the question. I really have no idea if Acclaim is good or not. I know that in looking to move to California myself after I graduate I have mostly given up on the idea of using a recruitment agency - too hard to find one that everyone agrees is good, and most want a couple of years experience before they'll take you. I have found a hospital that is willing to consider sponsoring me as a new grad directly (in San Diego) so I'm gonna cut out the middle man so to speak. Not that that applies to you as you obviously have some years of experience behind you :) I don't know if hospitals here in Oz will sponsor directly or not, but there's no harm in asking!