gotlib

I am unaware of VA hospitals in Japan. The military hospitals may serve this function there, but they are not likely to be hiring civilian nurses. As favthing and classicdame suggest, I am planning to keep my continuing education current and participate in some health care related volunteeer activities (looking into the Japanese Red Cross) Perhaps the reason I am seeking information on this is in an attempt to avoid pcbnurse's experience - an experience I've had before entering the nursing world. With regards to favthing's question, either of two things are likely to happen within two years: 1. My wife gets tired of working/commuting on trains in Japan and/or will become tired of being a primary income provider. In this case returning is likely if I find a job in the States. 2. I find some sort of job in Japan that I can live with and/or my wife wants to keep her job. In this case we could stay there longer, of course. There are some places in the US where knowing Japanese may hopefully be useful for patient care (primarily Hawaii)

I've been working as an RN on a telemetry/stroke unit for the past two years out of school. My wife is from Japan and appears intent on keeping her job there, at least for another year or two. Up to now we have been spending significant periods of "long distance marriage", but we decided that within the coming months one of us will have to quit so that we can finally live together. As I am a nurse my tendency has been to think that I may be able to more easily find a job in the future as long as I keep my nursing license. For her finding an equivalent job in the US would not be as likely (she works in a large company's HR department as a recruiter). Working in Japan as a nurse doesn't appear likely, at least from what I gather from nurses' input on this website (US military jobs there are not so many and appear to be mostly hiring either active duty nurses or spouses; knowing Japanese, a challenge in itself, may not be enough for working in Japan as a nurse) I wonder if anyone here has some idea on whether it would be a likely ordeal for me to find work in the US if I quit for a year or two. Thanks in advance for any input