kitdikat

Great story to hear! I thoroughly enjoy having parents like that at the bedside. It makes up for all the times when parents bring in their chronically ill child who has AT LEAST 10 medications but they're "not sure" of the name of the medication or how much they give, and they don't know if they have received X or Y or Z vaccine this year, or ever, and don't know the name of their pediatrician, but they go to "that one building over on main street, you know, the one with 5 floors, that's where the doctor is!" Parents that have a clue are quite refreshing, and every time I feel myself growing a tad bit cynical, one of these parents shows up with their child in our PICU and it puts me back into my place.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess my biggest frustration is that the AHPRA application for overseas qualified nurses wants, on like page 2 or 3, the address of employment (or something along those lines) in AUS. Well, I don't have that ! I'm merely doing this to get it out of the way so that when the time comes to apply for jobs, I dont have to say, "Yes, I would love to work for you, but could you hold my position for a few months while I do all the paperwork and processing??" Lol. (>_ Do you recommend I open an account overseas to help with the process? Every thing I have is anchored here in California. Also, did you have to deal with the ANMC site at all to show you're a skilled worker class or did you get around that? Thanks again!

Hello. I'm planning to move to Aus in about a year and have been scouring the net looking for information and advice, and at this hour of the night I just want to throw my laptop on the floor!! I have been seeing/reading conflicting things, so, someone PLEASE help if you can, preferably another US-educated RN who made the switch to AUS recently. (Just as a brief background: US-born/educated RN with bachelor degree, several years of PICU/NICU experience, want to move to AUS, pref in NSW.) 1) How exactly do I go about registering?? This looks like an incredible stupid question, I'm sorry. I've searched and searched and had up to 13 tabs in my firefox browser looking for a good answer. I've heard AHPRA, ANMC, etc over and over. I've looked on the AHPRA website and all that "internationally qualified nurses" section gives me is a link to a stupid PDF file. Ok, great. That's helpful (not). It's not something I can fill out nor does it tell me anything I didn't already know. I meet the requirements but now what? I look at all their documents that I'm supposed to fill out, but there's a lot of things that say I am REQUIRED to fill out but I CANT because I live in the US, not AUS. 2) ANMC?? Really? Do I have to get approval from these people first? Then wait more (and forever) for AHPRA? or is ANMC just something I need once I'm approved by AHPRA?? 3) VISA. Two things. First, do I absolutely need a sponsor (as in, a job offer) to apply for the working visa? Second, as RNs we file under the skilled workers visa category. Ok... so what kind of documentation do I need to prove I'm an RN? will an acceptance from AHPRA be sufficient? Is this where ANMC comes in to play? I hope someone will be able to answer my questions. I have been up for about 40 hours now and my brain is really starting to hurt just thinking about the registration process.

Good luck to you all! I have worked for Sutter many years and it's nice that we are finally hiring nurses again (after losing so many). Sutter is a great company to work for, and for the most part they seem to care about their employees.

Thanks for your response, talaxandra. Well, I was surprised that the cost of doing my masters overseas as opposed to in my home country is the same, because we have RIDICULOUS fees for international students here in the USA! When I was an undergrad, one of my close friends was studying at my uni but was from Japan. I paid $5k a semester in tuition--she paid $12k, and this was only for her undergrad, as well as 7 years ago. We charge so much, so it's nice that I won't have to sell a kidney down in Mexico to pay for a masters abroad :) Thanks for the further info. From what I remember, NSW has something like 1:5 on morning and evenings, 1:7 on nights for wards? To me that seems chaotic and unsafe, but then again where I work, we don't use LVNs or CNAs (I guess that's your equivalent of an EN and then an aide that just helps with ambulation, stocking supplies, linens, etc) the RN bears all responsibility and care, so I don't know how that factors into the workload and patient safety over there. Does anyone know if all the ICUs are 1:1 there? I remember a friend mentioned that ICUs had ratios long before the other units but haven't been able to find much info other than 'suggestions' of how raitos should work based on those in Vic. Our PICU is usually 1 nurse, 2 patients, 1:1, or 2 nurses for 1 patient depends on how critical they are, the inotropes they are on, or other procedures. Anyway, thanks, hope to get more feedback soon! :)

Hello, a few people have provided feedback but I guess I will as well. We also have a lot of pediatric as well as neonatal hearts that we recover in our unit. For our pediatric patients' art lines, we use the closed system--the same we use for our CVPs. it's really nice--no waste because you can return everything to the patient, and it's set up with a pressure bag. Our neonatal patients, however, are a different story. Our SCN and NICU use a different protocol than we do in the PICU. Their A-line and pressure lines are set up on an open system and placed on Alaris pumps that are continually infusing the heparin in NS solution. I ABSOLUTELY HATE THESE SET UPS! Unfortunately I have encountered them frequently in the past because our NICU surgeries are recovered in the PICU and then sent back to NICU--and while they are with us, they still keep all of their NICU protocols with the patient. The lines have given me a lot of trouble and I spent a whole 15 minutes trying to debug a CVP on a 3 week old preemie once--thankfully the line wasn't lost and the patient wasn't harmed. I suppose it's acceptable for the NICU nurses though, they are used to that system and they are allowed to return the waste to the patient without an order from their MDs. In the PICU we need an order to return the blood, but it's usually never an issue since all our peds patients are on the closed system.

Greetings, I have been reading allnurses.com off and on since I first entered nursing school, but finally decided upon making an account here. I am a RN (with a bachelors) with 4 years of experience in PICU and NICU. I have traveled to Sydney about 6 times in the past 2 years--and I must confess, I am absolutely in love with the city and its people. I am hoping to move to Sydney and work as an RN by the end of the calendar year. Over the last few weeks I have been researching what I need to do in order to be able to work there. It's giving me a headache! So much paperwork, so much wait time. My goal when I arrive in Sydney is to work in a reputable childrens ICU. I am currently employed with a very respectable children's hospital, and qould like to have the same sort of fast-paced work environment. I do have a few questions though, and hopefully someone has some answers. 1) I've looked at different hospitals, and the Sydney Children's Hospital at Westmead sounds ideal. What other hospitals in Sydney have good PICUs and NICUs? I know that I can just go to wiki and look for hospitals with PICU and NICU, but I'd rather hear from people who have experience with various hospitals and the aforementioned units. 2) Do all the hospitals require different shift work? I have worked 12 hour NOC shifts for 4 years, but I've seen most position vacancy descriptions mention the requirement to work days, evenings, and nights in combination. Is this common practise? 3) From what I've gleaned, it appears I have to apply first to ANMC and -then- to AHPRA? So much paperwork (and fees!!). For those of you who have gone from USA--->AUS for nursing jobs, what was your wait time like? How was your experience? 4) Ultimately I'd like to get my masters done in the next few years. I saw that University of Sydney offers a masters in critical care nursing, and their international fees are about what I would pay here in the states for my masters! Does Australia have a type of visa that would allow me to work as an RN as well as attend uni? I have tried to look online for an answer but didn't come up with much. I ask that if any one had advice, or better resources than multiple tabs open in my browser, please respond! I would love to hear your thoughts and also get some advice. Moving to a different country can be scary, but hopefully the community can make it less so :)