Working in Paris, France

roxannekkb · Dec 1, 2005

I know that there are agencies which place nurses overseas, but to work in France, you need to speak French. Saying that you want to work in a hospital with "limited French" or "enough to get by" is the same as saying that you think it's okay for a nurse with "limited English" or "enough English to get by" to work in the U.S. And it's not.

You will be dealing with patients, other staff, families, and so on. Your language skills need to be on par so as to communicate easily with all of the above, to read doctor's orders, to speak over the telephone, and so forth. I would suggest that you bring your French up to a fluent level before you even consider going to work in France.

Teachchildren123 · Dec 1, 2005

Good luck!

I would brush up on my french if I was you. Being native french speaking myself, I would recommend reviewing the abbreviations, your generic drug names, your lab values are differents and the overall culture is different there. If you could network with some nurses from there, it could be a good start.

I would work in a nursing home, if I was you. That's what I did when I came here. That's how I learned english. The good and the bad words too! :rolleyes:

Let us know, how you did!:)

KatieBell · Dec 3, 2005

Having recently been a patient in Paris, I can attest that English is not commonly known by hospital staff. My French is considered "very good" by the French Org. I worked for, and most of the time in hosptial I had not a big idea of what was going on...(No interpreter either.) Luckily I am a nurse and I had an idea of what my problem was and what was the normal treatment was so what they were doing made sense, but I can not imagine working in that environment without being fluent in French...I had to deal with nurses and Physicians from all over France, speaking in a variety of French accents, and it really was difficult....

One option though is The AMERICAN Hospital in Paris. It is a hospital used by American diplomants etc...and I believe everyone speaks Englsih there.(At least that is the rumor going round.)

NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN · Dec 3, 2005

Or you could work as a civilian nurse in one of the US military hospitals there. That way english would be all you needed to know. At least I think that is possible.

KatieBell · Dec 3, 2005

I'm not 100% sure there are any active Military bases, or hospitals in France. There was one in Marsailles, but it's units closed in 2004. But maybe, I'm not military, so who knows what secret undeground hospital they have!!!:roll

suzanne4, RN · Dec 6, 2005

Paris does not have any US military bases. You will need to pass the nursing exam in French, your US license isn't accepted. Next, you will need to go thru the immigration process, just like a nurse from overseas would be required to do to work in the US.

You are looking at about 18 months or so, before you could be ready to have a visa that would permit you to work as a nurse there. That si provided that you passed the exams.

If you do a search on the International forum you will find a thread talking about working in France. Be aware that much of the talk on the thread is about nurses that are already citizens of the EU that do not have to go thru immigration issues.

Europe does not have travel companies like we do in the US. I have a heard of a compnay starting up in the UK, but haven't seen anything yet, they are way to new for me to even recommend or consider them.