US Nurses Wishing to Work Overseas

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I am starting this thread as a sticky at the request of one of our members, for a place for those that wish to emigrate from the US to work as an RN.

Please feel free to post your concerns and questions about working overseas here.

Does anyone have info about working in Australia, Ireland or Sweden? I am looking to work with an agency, but do not mind going it on my own if it is easier. The funny thing is, I am not even worried about the immigration process. My biggest worry is about all the different conversions involved in the metric system. I have always had a mental block when it came to understanding the metric system.

Oh, and for the OP who had never heard of panadol before,, I actually know its acetaminophen from my trips abroad and the headaches I have had to treat.

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Alibaba said:
Does anyone have info about working in Australia, Ireland or Sweden? I am looking to work with an agency, but do not mind going it on my own if it is easier. The funny thing is, I am not even worried about the immigration process. My biggest worry is about all the different conversions involved in the metric system. I have always had a mental block when it came to understanding the metric system.

Oh, and for the OP who had never heard of panadol before,, I actually know its acetaminophen from my trips abroad and the headaches I have had to treat.

There is already a thread on working in Sweden on this forum, just look for it. It has the contact information there. But be aware that you will need to pass the language exams for there, as well as take their licensing exam. And next thing is that if you are not a citizen of the EU at least, you will find difficulties in getting a visa to work there. Same thing goes for Ireland, unless you have significant experience as an RN and your training meets their requirements. How long was your program? You need to meet the minimum requirements for that country and for Europe it is three years of education plus, not the two years that we have here.

If you have gone thru nursing school in the US, you should be well aware of the metric system, that is what we use for medications in the US.

Check out the Aussie thread here for contacts for licensure there.

And a question for you, your profile states LPN/LVN. Have you actually completed the RN and have a license as one? You cannot do a thing to start the process anywhere until you have that.

And the immigration process should be a concern as you will have issues getting a visa to work in Europe if you are not a citizen of the EU and have a passport from there. Right now, for nurses, it is difficult to get a visa to work there.

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Hi yah, I'm a nurse that has worked in the United Arab Emirates. You do not need a BSRN to work there. There is no Nursing board. You apply to the hospital with your nursing transcript of training and it is approved by the ministry of health.

The United Arab Emirates has better conditions than Saudi - women my drive, they do not require women to cover, there is also churches and you may wear a necklace with a cross. Oh and alcohol is allowed. They pay is almost the same.

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Specializes in Spinal Cord Injury,Tele,Ortho,Home Healt.

Hi,

I am new to this site.I have been searching for some weeks now on nursing schools in Netherlands.I am currently a LPN in the state of Virginia but want to pursue my nursing degree in Netherlands.I will be taking up Dutch In January and then from there would like to attend nursing school.I am coming up empty handed on nursing schools there.I found a couple of universities that come up in the google search but when you go to the schools site I do not see anything for nursing.Please any help would be wonderful

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blackford 1

I would love to hear more about your experience with the 13 week contract with continental nurses in the UK . I phoned them last week and they told me they had contracts in Scotland. Any info would be interesting, eg wages, where you were housed. Thanks Sue

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charmen20 said:
Hi,

I am new to this site.I have been searching for some weeks now on nursing schools in Netherlands.I am currently a LPN in the state of Virginia but want to pursue my nursing degree in Netherlands.I will be taking up Dutch In January and then from there would like to attend nursing school.I am coming up empty handed on nursing schools there.I found a couple of universities that come up in the google search but when you go to the schools site I do not see anything for nursing.Please any help would be wonderful

You are going to need to be fluent in Dutch before you will even get accepted to a program, you will be required to have a passing score on your language exam first. And please be aware that your tuition will be much higher as an international student.

Best suggestion would be to contact their equivalent of the Board of Nursing and they will be able to give you a list of approved schools for the country.

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Hi Suzzane,

I am a CRNA here in the USA. Is there any other country in the world that allows nurses to provide anesthetics like CRNA's in USA?

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My husband is serving in the Air Force and we spent over 7 years in Europe. I would recommend working through the US government. Search on www.usajobs.com One of the largest government medical facilities is Landsthul, Germany. It is an Army Post and it is where most of the critically injured from war are sent to. We spent over 3 years in this area and it is beautiful. So much to see and do. It is just a few miles from Ramstein Air Base and Kaiserslautern Air Base. Ramstein Air Base is huge and will have everything that you need (support too).

Charmen20

We also spent over 4 years in the Netherlands and it is a beautiful country as well. The Dutch speak great English and they are very friendly. My husband worked on a Dutch base, so we did not have very much support. There was a small U.S. medical facility called Geilenkirchen and a small Army Post called Schinnen. We lived in Son en Breugel which was about an hour from these US facilities. The military facilities in the Netherlands were A LOT smaller than Ramstein, Germany.

Good luck!!

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Specializes in L&D, Research, Midwifery Student.

L&D nurse living in Geilenkirchen, Germany on the border of the Netherlands and Belgium. My husband is stationed here with the Air Force.

Is there any opportunity for US BSN RNs here that I may have overlooked? There is not a US hospital here at either GK or Schinnen, and there are no L&D positions available at Landsuhl currently. There are also no military/DoD positions currently available. I know I have to know the Dutch or German language to work in the hospitals here, but would it be the same if I worked for a midwife in the Netherlands, where everyone also speaks English? I read about US Embassys hiring - anyone know about information on that? Where to look? Any other possibilites? I am desparate to find work and have had no luck so far! Am currently thinking of traveling back to the States, like NYC, for travel stints, but since living in Europe is such a fantastic opportunity, my preference would be to find something here.

Thanks so much!

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Specializes in ICU, Triage, Home Health, primary care FNP.

Do you recommend any companies that could help me secure a travel assignment as an rn in the UK? about 6 months of work? thanks!

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Specializes in L&D, Research, Midwifery Student.
jensfbay said:
Do you recommend any companies that could help me secure a travel assignment as an rn in the UK? about 6 months of work? thanks!

I am going through continental travel nurses. The website is:

http://continentaltravelnurse.com/

Hope that helps!

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

currently things are a bit bad for jobs for nurses in the UK and more and more trusts are using less agencies. Plus if outside the EU a lot harder to get work permit

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