RN Military Spouse Relocated Internationally

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Specializes in Tele Med Surg.

Hi everyone,

Wanted to reach out to the community to see if anyone has been in a similar position before and could give me any insight.

Background: I have my BSN, RN license from California, have been working in acute hospital setting (tele med surg) for 4 years. I recently relocated to Korea as my husband is in the army and this was his next assignment. I have done research and since I don't speak Korean, I am limited to working only at a military hospital (there are 2 within an hour of where I live). I have been keeping my eye out for usajobs postings since way before the move, and while the job availability are scarce, my application is "automatically" rejected as one of the questions asks for experience in a specific area (ER, lactation, public health nurse). I have met with HR on base to aid with "spouse preference", which they told me that it's not likely I will get a job anytime soon. With my experience thus far, there is little support for military spouses on finding employment.

This is a little disheartening to hear, as everyone keeps telling me, "You're a nurse, surely you won't have any problem finding a job in the pandemic." My last resort would be to be a travel nurse and pick up intermittent assignments back in the states, but this comes at the cost of me being away from my husband. My husband and I are newly weds (got married during the pandemic) and we are trying to start a family next year, so picking up travel nursing would only be temporary. I am at a crossroads because being a nurse is a calling, I can't imagine not working for the next 2 years, but I also don't want to be away from my husband. Any insight would be appreciated.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Getting hired as a GS nurse (or any federal nursing job for that matter) is a challenging and time consuming process even for the ideal candidate.  Some spouses work on advanced degrees when they have to move overseas for that reason.  

The federal government is really bad at verifying nursing experience.  I can't tell you how many contractors we hired as ICU nurses (tiny base hospital I use to work at) who completely made up their ICU experience.  Honestly, most survived just fine because base hospital acuity is so low.  If you did med-surg at a reasonable sized civilian hospital, you would do just fine in a military base ER.  Having worked at several, I can tell you from experience that most are really just an urgent care.  Both Korea 'ERs' are super low acuity...really tiny inpatient facility.  You could just say 3 years of med-surg and 1 year of ER experience and be fine.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

And I would also add that we sent med-surg nurses down to augment our ER staff all the time.  They did just fine with minimal on the job training, which you'll get anyway as a new hire.

Ultimately, you have to assess your own comfort level.  Other than working in the states (as you've already suggested), school and inflating your experience are your only 2 options.

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Specializes in Tele Med Surg.

Thank you jfratian, MSN, RN for your response, I appreciate your insight. Yes, in the four years at the two hospitals I worked at was high acuity and we did get floated down to the ER quite often. You're right, I do have to reassess my comfort level and be more patient in the meantime.

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On 10/18/2021 at 4:39 PM, Christine_RN said:

Thank you jfratian, MSN, RN for your response, I appreciate your insight. Yes, in the four years at the two hospitals I worked at was high acuity and we did get floated down to the ER quite often. You're right, I do have to reassess my comfort level and be more patient in the meantime.

Honestly you are lucky to even go with them. I knew a lot of guys who didn't even get to bring their famillies.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
On 11/16/2021 at 2:59 AM, Numenor said:

Honestly you are lucky to even go with them. I knew a lot of guys who didn't even get to bring their famillies.

Gosh, you aren't kidding. When I was STILL IN AFGHANISTAN, my chief nurse emailed me and was like, "Hey, how does Korea sound?" Unaccompanied, so my husband that I hadn't seen already for 9 months would be solo for another 12+ months. I was like, "yeah ... no." I was planning to ETS in 2015 so they didn't send me. ?

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1 hour ago, Lunah said:

Gosh, you aren't kidding. When I was STILL IN AFGHANISTAN, my chief nurse emailed me and was like, "Hey, how does Korea sound?" Unaccompanied, so my husband that I hadn't seen already for 9 months would be solo for another 12+ months. I was like, "yeah ... no." I was planning to ETS in 2015 so they didn't send me. ?

Yeah, it's an awful place for families but as a single guy it's awesome. Even better than Germany haha.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
1 hour ago, Numenor said:

Yeah, it's an awful place for families but as a single guy it's awesome. Even better than Germany haha.

So I have heard! My husband was a military brat like me and lived in Korea for a while as a teen, and I lived in Germany when I was a teenager. We have compared notes, hahahaha. 

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