US Nurse wants to know best place to live in AU

K+MgSO4, BSN · Mar 9, 2011

Australia is as big as continental US. You need to narrow it down to a state for us at least. Do you want tropical, sub tropical, desert, moderate climate. How small is small? Do you want to work in an ICU of any speciality or just a general one. Specialised ICU is only going to be in the big cities.

talaxandra · Mar 10, 2011

There are several threads here debating the merits of various capital cities.

Like MgSO4 says, it's a big country, so that's a little like asking where I should look at if I wanted to move to the US (though our population's way smaller).

alyced21 · Mar 11, 2011

I'm Australian, born and live in Brisbane. It's one of the major cities, but is fairly spread out, you can live in the suburbs but still feel near nature, or on acreage. Honestly not sure about cost of living as I've never lived anywhere else, and we did just have a flood. It's safe as far as I've experienced, there are a lot of good schools and a few universities, and it's not too far to drive to either the sunshine coast or the gold coast to get to a beach. Brisbane has some excellent hospitals, both public and private. I would say queensland in general is a nice place to live but each state has something nice to offer. Just depends what you'd like, if you want to live on the coast or more rural/inland, it's a pretty big country so there are lots of cities/towns to choose from. You might want to consider climate...the northern territory and queensland are very humid/hot, Western Australia gets very hot as well, Tasmania and Victoria are cooler. I've never been there but Hobart looks like a nice city to live, no idea how it is for health/nursing or cost of living though. Maybe you could try looking up some Australian cities/towns on wikipedia to get a general idea?

remoteareanurse, LPN, RN · Mar 15, 2011

Potassium MagnesiumSulphate is right, you need to narrow it down, and climate is a good way to do that. And although only big cities have specialty ICUs, your skills would be hugely appreciated in country hospitals, especially remote ones where there is often a significant delay in evacuating critical patients.

One of the things you should consider is the opportunity to work with our indigenous population, which can be frustrating and at times heartbreaking, but also hugely rewarding and interesting. I worked in the Torres Strait for a while when my children were small and its a fantastic experience for the whole family, the TS Islanders adore kids and are SO good to them, and the islands are paradise on earth.

The outback is also beautiful and unique in another way, and I've found traditional aboriginal people to be so generous in sharing their culture, traditions and knowledge, and although schools might not be so great in these areas, your children will receive their education in very different ways which will really benefit them.

If you do plan to go remote, make sure your accident and emergency skills are solid, because many of these towns have limited or poor medical support and you'll need to feel confident in assessing and treating emergencies.

Hope this helps, let us know what you decide.