WA Health Authority

gwenith, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2006

Nicki - there is a reason most visa call for 12 months experience! Mostly it is so you get to do your Grad year overseas plus we are different enough to make it that much more difficult to do your grad year here.

WA is a BIG place with a relatively small population - as I have said before and will again please do not get yourself into any job here in Australia that says "rural and/or remote" until you have at least 3-6 months in a metropolitan/regional hospital.

sandgroper · Feb 26, 2006

This site refers to Royal Perth Hospital and has some information that you may find useful.

http://www.nursingwa.com.au/content/movingToPerth/migrationAndSponsorship.aspx

Do some research into the regions in this state. As Gwenith rightly points out, you may need some experience before you accept work in rural areas.

There are also grad programmes available in the larger centres.

Good luck.

uk student nurse · Feb 27, 2006

thanks for the info. plan on heading to Perth, maybe rockingham area

bulletproofbarb · Mar 3, 2006

You'll be pushed to get a place in a hospital if you don't have experience. We had one UK nurse who was 6 months out at a hospital in Perth I worked at and it was very stressful for her and was an eye opener for management as well, as in it was something they would not consider doing again.

She was an RN but couldn't do IV antibiotics amongst other things. Things that our grads can do whilst training.

Rockingham area gives you a choice of Rockingham-Kwinana District hospital, Rockingham, Peel Health Campus, Mandurah and Fremantle Hospital. Plus SJOG Murdoch and Armadale hospital as well. They are probably the bigger ones in the area with a 40 minute drive from Rockingham to some of these places.

You definately will need experience to work at all these hospitals. SJOG more than likely won't consider you. The grad programme is small and hard to get on to. Rockingham and Peel cover a large area of population and have mixed wards which require experience in alot of things. You get pretty much everything through the A&E department, although they do transfer the sicker patients up to Fremantle/PErth

Fremantle is very popular to work at and they are very choosy and can afford to be since they rarely have staff shortages. It's not one of the places where you can go to and say "I want to work x number of shifts ect" They call the shots there. It's a nice place to work at though.

As much as you want to come out straight after training, I think you would be better doing a year in UK and definately do your IV antibiotic/medication competency before you come out and aim for experience in general medical and surgical especially if you want to work in Rockingham area.

Also, there are not enough graduate nurse places for nurses that have trained in WA, let alone ones from overseas.

uk student nurse · Mar 3, 2006

bulletproofbarb,

thank you so much for your detailed reply, really useful.

Have identified a couple of visa that we can apply for after 6 months experience. With a processing time of approx 6 months sell the house etc etc etc, think the timing could be about right.

Am heavily leaning towards a palliative nursing career although i think a stint in CCU(another area of interest) would give me a better overall grounding when i qualify(thats if i can find a job when i qualify, things not too healthy on that front in our area).

Noticed you were in the UK, how comes you are so knowledgeable about Perth.

My son(11) has epilepsy as well.

Many thanks again for the info.

Regards

Nicki

bulletproofbarb · Mar 4, 2006

I was working in the UK in 2004 and didn't realise I hadn't updated my profile until you mentioned it!! Must put that on list of things to do.

I live in Perth and have worked at all the major hospitals.

I suggest maybe an email to the hospitals may help see how successful you may be.

http://www.nursing.health.wa.gov.au/

is the main nursing site for WA government hospitals.

You should be able to find links to most of the hospitals on that site.

My parents live in Rockingham, as does half the UK. I left Rockingham as soon as I went to Uni. Couldn't stand it personally, still can't. Too far from the city!!

There are palliative hospitals at Hollywood Private Hospital, about 50 minutes from Rockingham, one in the grounds of SJOG Murdoch, but not affiliated with the hospital, about 30 minutes from Rockingham. Hospice in Shenton Park, about 50 minutes from Rockingham. Can't think of any others at the moment.

CCU units at Fremantle, Sir Charles Gairdner and Royal Perth only.

Most shift lengths in WA are 7 hours, with night duty being 10 hours.

if you can't find the links to any of those hospitals, post back and I'll post them but you should be able to on Google.

Hope your son is okey. It won't affect your visa application that he has epilepsy, that restriction was lifted in 1984 but you will have to pay for medication, it's not free out here and I don't think the disabled child allowance covers epilepsy anymore. Still, it wasn't much money anyway. Best paediatric neuro centre is at Princess Margaret Hospital.