International Nursing Careers

Why choose nursing abroad as a career? Many reasons come to mind; you can advance your career, gain a variety of clinical experiences, make a higher salary and, fulfill your travel desires, to name a few.

Many countries are experiencing an acute shortage of qualified experienced nurses. This has resulted in a golden opportunity for internationally educated nurses to move overseas either temporarily for a year or two, or to immigrate permanently.

Most developing countries are suffering from an increasingly severe nursing shortage. They simply are not training enough nurses each year to replace the nurses that are reaching retirement age. This is an immediate problem for countries which also have an aging population who are putting more strain on the health systems in those countries.

Countries like the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand all have a significant number of internationally educated nurses already working in their health systems. And there are still many vacancies that nursing recruiters are unable to fill!

If you are already a registered nurse at home, moving your nursing career overseas to any English speaking country is only limited by your ability to speak the language well enough to pass the required English language test. Similarly, if you are a qualified nurse who is fluent in a language other than English, Arabic or Cantonese for example - there are many nursing vacancies abroad in the United Arab Emirates or Singapore.

Because these countries are crying out for nurses to fill immediate vacancies at all levels it is easy for overseas nurses to springboard their way into senior nursing positions which may include supervisory or management roles.

Even if you are not keen on moving your nursing career abroad permanently, taking your nursing job overseas for a year or two to gain experience in a management role can launch you into management once you return home with a newly enhanced resume.

Nursing overseas can open up opportunities to encounter different clinical experiences because although you will probably initially be hired to nurse in the specialty in which you currently have experience, you will come across country and region specific experiences.

Nursing overseas will also allow you to gain experience in alternative techniques and approaches to nursing and healthcare.

Each country has their own way of registering nurses. And nurses who want to nurse abroad in the United States, Australia or Canada face the added challenge of being required to register with the State Board of Nursing relevant to where they will be working as there is no nationwide system of nurse registration.

Generally speaking, you will have to:

* provide evidence of your nursing education

* provide evidence of your nursing license in the country you are currently working in

* provide evidence of your nursing experience, usually recommendation letters on official letterhead will be accepted

* provide evidence of your fluency in the official language of the country you are applying to register in.

In the UK you'll also have to take part in an Overseas Nursing Programme, and in the USA you'll have to take either the NCLEX-RN exam, or the CGFNS exam... or both.

Finding information on how to register as an overseas nurse can be a lengthy process as much of the information is buried deep inside websites that are not dedicated to providing information to foreign nurses. You can find detailed, step-by-step instructions to moving your nursing career abroad in the Nursing-Overseas Ultimate Job Hunting System.

Countries experiencing acute nursing shortages are desperate for nurses to fill the vacancies in their healthcare system. As a result they are often paying higher wages in an attempt to attract more nurses, both domestically and internationally. Many healthcare recruiters are also offering benefits and bonuses that can add to your bottom line.

I have had a number of colleagues who have worked abroad for a few years to save money then returned home with a healthy house deposit or paid off their student loans completely.

Nursing abroad means you will make your home in a new region of the world. The opportunity this lends to explore new countries and cultures is priceless. If your dream is to explore the UK, the USA, Australia%u2026 then moving your nursing career abroad to one of these countries currently experiencing acute nursing shortages will give you the opportunity to fulfill your dream and fund it at the same time.

This is a technique I have used personally to explore the UK, Eastern Europe and South East Asia over the last 12 years.

Your nursing qualifications and any specialist training you have undertaken may not be the exact equivalent of what is required or offered of registered nurses in the country to which you are moving.

Most countries have a service you can use that will work out what your qualifications are equivalent to in their education system. For example, you can contact NARIC in the UK and they will check your qualifications against the UK standards and issue you a report.

Even if your qualifications do not transfer exactly, you will most likely be able to register as a general adult nurse. Once you are working in a nursing position overseas, you can explore whether you would like to upgrade your nursing qualifications by up-skilling in a new specialism.

Moving your nursing career abroad is a realistic option for both experienced and newly registered nurses not only because there is a worldwide shortage of nurses, but also because there is a long history of nurses moving around the world to work.

The most you will be required to do in order to get a job in a new country is prove you are registered at home, have a suitable equivalent level of education and training and perhaps sit an exam. While different countries have vastly different rules which can be confusing to work around, it is easy to find a nursing job abroad with the right roadmap through the recruiting and registration process.