Dudette

Hi! So did you take the test? How was it?

Sorry! Excellent French NYDreamer ;-)

Salut ! Je suis francaise et je travaille actuellement a Presbyterian. Tu peux m'envoyer un mail perso si tu veux et je te repondrai.

Wow! I am currently working for one of those big name hospitals in Manhattan and I have to say that my benefits are really great and I have a lot of time off with good salary. So if I can find the same or better closer to my home, well I will send my resume right now! Good to know. I will definitively contact them and see what they have to offer. Thank you for your help. Dudette

Hi hajiagambo! Thank you for answering me. Do you know if the benefits and salary are the same as in Manhattan?

Hi, I am thinking about working in Queens for commute convenience but I have not heard anything about hospitals there. Is someone working at Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens for instance? I would be very grateful to anyone who would share his/her experience. It would be a big help for my research ;-)

Hello NYsante, I am a French RN and I am in NYC for 6 weeks now. In France we have a big store that is the equivalent of the Barnes and Noble here, it is named "FNAC". Their website is www.fnac.fr and you will find lots of them in Paris. There is one in Les Halles... There is a very good serie of books which is recommended by some teachers at nursing school : "Les nouveaux cahiers de l'infirmière". I almost have them all and I brought them with me here in NYC because they are very helpful and easy to read and understand with a lot of illustrations. I would also recommend you another book about the technical part "soins infirmiers - fiches techniques" by Maloine. This one explains every single act we practice at the bedside. I just received my number from the social security office and my green card and so I will apply to some hospitals for a job in Manhattan. May I ask you where in NY you are working and how is it? Voilà, do not hesitate to ask if you wanted to know something else. Salut !!!!! Dudette

Hello JanaP! Just wondering if you've finally found a job in the area you wanted? I hope your hunt has been successfull. Dudette

As you wonder, the rest of the world is wondering why the government is not rushing to send help there. I heard 60 countries proposed their help, even Fidel Castro proposed to send doctors! We all worry for all that people, having nothing left and so for months now, and I really hope they will obtain quickly the help they need for their health and safety. Thank you to people like your husband and you to feel so involved in their duty.

:balloons: Hey! Congratulations!!!!!

I have worked with a Belgium nurse last night, and he told me he went to the DDASS for his papers and it was very quick and easy. As soon as your diploma will be recognized as a European one, it looks like you won't have any difficulties working in one or another European country. For me, it would be difficult to stop agency nursing. You have a better salary (20%) plus 10% more if you work at night, you are your own boss and you don't know all the team problems!!! When your papers will be done, just go to an agency (Appel medical, quick medical service...they have websites), they will ask you for a copy of your diploma, of your identity card and of your bank account to be paid automatically each month. Then they will ask you where you want to work, where you don't want, in which unit, at day, at night, 12 hours or 7 hours..... YOU are the boss. YOU decide the days you work, the days you rest. They will call you to propose assignments that match what you want, and you just say YES or NO. As simply as that!!! You decide of the length of your assignment too. For now, I prefer very short assignments from 1 night to a week maximum, so I have the feeling to be totally free. My fiancé is living in NYC, so I can join him every time I find a good price for plane ticket! I work some weeks and then spend some time there. And when he come, I just stop working or less. It's always up to you. In France, as soon as you are working, you automatically pay for social security. So if you are sick you can be cured at once. Every time you are sick at home, you still have 75% of your salary until you go back to work, with a doctor certificate of course. You have automatically an insurance too. For instance, I had a back injury two months ago while helping a patient. So I went to the ER and the doctor said I needed kinesitherapy for some weeks. So he made a declaration for Social security that I hurt myself at work (accident du travail) and social security paid 100% of the fee for me to be cured. You will find some English patients too, that prefer to be cured in France. Last night I had one, and I asked him why he always come back in that clinic to be cured. He told me you never find such an establishment with all the facilities in London. He said it is all old there and staff is not as numerous as here, and he had to wait to be operated, when here it is done the day after he enters the unit. So you will talk English more often than you think!!! The night before I had one from Scottland. And especially in summer time with the tourists, you will meet more. Plus Paris is full of American and English people. If you want to meet them, just go to the Starbucks, he he he!!!:rotfl: Voilà ! Just let me know if I can still help you.

Did you buy something in NYC? If your agent could help us to find a great renting appartment, so yes, I'd like to have her email adress. Is she located in NYC too?

:balloons: Well, I am happy I gave you some fun, hee hee hee !!! Did you learn French at school or did you spend some time here before? If you wish to speak French with some nurses, I could give you an adress for a good French website. I have to say allnurses.com really helps me to improve my English in general and to know much more about American and English culture. This is my favorite forum.:)

Yeah, this is what I heard about prices and what appartments look like. About the agent, I would never have dare to talk to one if I was not going to use it until you tell me. I realize I don't stop to compare things with my own culture. But it seems to work in a totally different way and I should forget all I know from my country and open my mind to arrive with brend new eye there. To expect something is the best way to be deceive. I guess there is something else that the place you live in NYC for so many people to crave to live there:) . Your advices are very helpful for me.:balloons:

Right, I am sorry for the language and translate it right now. I just came back from my night at work and answered without thinking! I think I should go to bed now!:wink2: "My fiancé is American and does not speak French so we decided to live in NYC in first place. So I had to study all my nurse diploma in English to take the NCLEX to be licensed in NY state. What I did to improve my medical vocabulary, was to buy English medical dictionnary as Dorland's medical dictionnary for instance. I've looked for English-French medical dictionnaries, but they were sold out and never printed again. To work on the NCLEX I bought Lippincott which really helped me. Plus I read English books about beeing a nurse, which were very helpfull to improve medical vocabulary too. I bought all these books on English and American websites as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kaplan. Happily Latin roots are helpfull too!!! I hope I have helped you a little. Good luck :wink2: !"

Hey, that is an idea! I will start to look there. Do you think it is worth it to go through a real estate agent to find an appartment? It says it is expensive, but I've got the feeling I could find something nicer or larger or less old in a better state!!! What do you think?:wink2:

Salut Sissou ! Je me suis retrouvée dans ton cas, car mon fiancé étant américain, et vu qu'il souhaite que nous vivions à New York pour l'instant (il ne parle pas un mot de français !), il m'a fallu réviser le DE en anglais et passer le NCLEX pour obtenir ma license professionnelle à NY. Ce que j'ai fait pour travailler le vocabulaire médical, c'est acheter un dictionnaire médical anglais : "Dorland's pocket medical dictionary" par exemple. J'ai eu beau chercher sur les sites anglais, américains et français, je n'ai trouvé aucune édition français-anglais médical. Il y en a eu mais elles ne sont plus éditées. Le bouquin pour bucher le NCLEX m'a énormément aidé aussi. J'ai acheté celui de l'édition de Lippincott. Et puis j'ai lu quelques livres en anglais concernant le métier d'infirmière. J'ai acheté ces livres sur les sites de Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble aux USA et Kaplan pour les livres sur la profession. Et puis vive les racines latines !!!!! Ca aide ! Voilà, j'espère avoir pu t'aider un peu. Bon courage !:wink2:

hi era! i am a rn for 4 years now and i am working as an agency nurse (intérimaire) at night. for a full time, witch is 15 nights per months, i earn 1950 euros a month. this salary is what you have after the social taxes are taking of. means after you have paid for social security which is very good here, because you can be cured or buy medicines for free with your "mutuelle" wich is about 30 euros per month. plus in that taxes your retirement plan is included too, your job insurance as well. so these are things you don't have to pay for as in usa. plus the cost for an appartment is lower. i am living by the méditerrannée, in south of france, and you pay 500 euros per month for a 3 bedroom. it is more expensive in paris of course, but you can have a better salary there too. you have to know about public and private for the establishment too. "cliniques" are private and "hopital" are public. public pays better than private but i don't know if you can be hired if you are not native from france. you have a lot of advantages for retirement, hollidays, and so on... private can be "ccu" (convention collective unique) that is these ones that pay the less. or "fehap", that is non lucrative organisation, that pays almost as well as public, with the 13th month for instance, that you don't have with ccu. it is a little bit complicated, but these are things that makes a difference at the end of the month! sorry i gotta go, i am working tonight! just let me know if i can help. ciao!!!

Hi and sorry for answering so late, but I just read your question ! All I can tell you, is that a friend of my Mum who is a RN, had to do a stage of 6 months after 10 years of non activity, to be allowed to work as a nurse again. I know it is very long, but I don't know any course to return to the profession. We have a lot of nurses coming from Spain, and I can tell you their french is not always very good when they arrive. But working every day, they improve it very very quickly, and we are used to their accent too so the comunication is going better quickly. It is not a problem for long. Plus, I know lots of them came directly to the clinic to look for a job and I wonder if it is not the clinic that makes the papers for them. Do you have a European diploma?

Oh wow! Thank you for the info. Yes for now we are separated, but he asked me to move to share an appartment with him as we cannot support to be separated anymore, and his level in french doesn't allowed him to look for a job in France for now. But the Memorial is my first choice for when I will look for a job. I have my best friend who is researcher, and she just had an offer to work there. And as she is talking about, this place seems to be the best one for a special experience. Thank you for sharing the info.

Is it a big town? Except NYC, I realise I don't know anything about New York State. A real tourist!! I should start to learn about it.

Yes, I am more and more aware of that. I think it is a good idea to look for a 1 bedroom in Queens or Brooklyn. I think what you lost as space and all the facilities in your house, maybe you win it in all the activities the city offers. At least, I hope so, ha ha ha!!! Are you living in the borough?

It was my dream to discover NYC as a holliday but not to live there until I met my fiancé. At this time it was a little bit scary because I have to leave my family and the way I am living to something totally different. But the more I am reading and learning about the city, plus the time I spent there with him on holliday, make me think it worth to give up some material things. Whatever what will happen, I could say I tried it, and what an experience! I hope your dream will come true...

Thank you both for your answers. Prices are crazy! I can see how difficult it is to find a decent appartment there at a decent price. But if it is the price to pay to be with my fiancé... let's try! He talks about Astoria Queens. I was wondering about living in NJ across the Hudson to have more space, but he said the commute is bad. I am used to leave in a very large appartment, so it's a little bit hard to leave it when I think about the kind of appartment we could afford in the City. I guess all you can do in the City will compensate that.

Hello, knowing life is very expensive in the City, what kind of appartment can you afford as a nurse in Manhattan or the boroughs? My fiancé would like me to join him there, and I was wondering what to expect for a rent. Is it difficult to find an appartment with a washing/dryer? This might be a weird question for you, but it will be first time for me in NYC! Every advices welcome! Thanks for reading me, Dudette