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Questions about nursing in Queensland - finding my way

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Author Questions about nursing in Queensland - finding my way

drevs22

(offline)

  • Joined: Aug 2008
  • Location: Soon to be Australia
  • Posts: 2

Sun Aug 31, 2008 11:08 am

I am moving to Queensland in January. My husband will be attending school in brisbane and I think we are going to live in Ipswich. Is that reasonable? It looks like they pay a premium for working out there instead of in Brisbane itself - is that correct?

I have heard there are jobs where they will help find/set you up with accomodations is this true? Are there big differences in pay depending on where you work? Are there places to avoid. I'm having a really hard time finding postings and finding out information about general nursing stuff there - can someone please help me out.

I have a 4 yr nursing degree: 2 years hospital experience on a Cardiac medicine unit, 1 year aged care, 1 year in a dr office and lab and 1 year in Home Care.

I need to know about finding a job, finding housing, finding child care for my 2yr old. In order to get my visa I need to have an employer sponsor me and we both agree that I will be working for them for a year. I am scared I'm going to commit to some crappy job.

Any and all advice wanted.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Janet, James and Jacob

Steph88

(offline)

  • Joined: Aug 2008
  • Location:
  • Posts: 21

Sep 01, 2008, 08:32 pm

Hi Janet,

I can't answer all of your questions, as I don't live in Qld, but I can give you a couple of links that might be helpful.

For housing you could try looking at www.realestate.com.au

In regards to jobs you could try the qld health website www.health.qld.gov.au or seek, www.seek.com.au

I wouldn't have a clue how you go about child care as I don't have kids yet. To gain employment in qld you will need to be registered with the Queensland Nursing Council www.qnc.qld.gov.au

Hope these websites can be of some assistance :)

Steph

drevs22

(offline)

  • Joined: Aug 2008
  • Location: Soon to be Australia
  • Posts: 2

Sep 03, 2008, 02:23 am

Thank you for the reply. The site was great. I knew there had to be a major site somewhere. All I was getting were recruiting agencies.

Can someone tell me what it means when they say Level 1, 2 or 3. And does advanced practising level mean more school?

What is superanuation? Packaging and all the other terms they use when they say what a job pays?

SilverLining

(offline)

nurse
  • Joined: Oct 2007
  • Location: Melbourne
  • Posts: 34

Sep 08, 2008, 10:42 am

Hey Janet,

I don't live in QLD either but I can help with some of your other queries.

This page gives basic information about superannuation: http://www.workingin-australia.com/info/938
Other areas of the same website also explain how annual leave works here too.

In any job ad, they will state salary + super. (Superannuation) So the salary figure is your base salary, and the employer pays a min 9% Superannuation on top of that into a Superannuation fund.

Some job ads will state a total package amount, and no separate Super figure, so that means it's all included in the figure. These will state "package".

I don't know how 'Levels' of nurses work in QLD, here in Victoria we have Divisions and Grades. Perhaps the Nurses Board could help there? The website was already put up by another poster.

Good luck with your move! And hope you love Australia. Let us all know how you go!

Mara.

julieeastham

(offline)

  • Joined: Sep 2008
  • Location:
  • Posts: 1

Sep 08, 2008, 12:30 pm

Hi

I'm a RN and moved to Brisbane 2 yrs ago from UK. Not sure where you're moving from. It's a reasonable commute between Ipswich & Brisbane, not sure if I'd want to do that daily but depends what you're used to, I guess. With a sponsored visa, do as much research as you can, some employers exploit their staff on visas. You say your husband will be attending school in Brisbane -is he a teacher, if so can give you some pointers as my hubby is a teacher. Sure you'll have no problems getting set up with a job, house and childcare. I am happy to make a few recommendations if you'd like me to email you personally. A level 1 is a basic RN grade. A Level 2 is usually called Clinical Nurse and is more senior, like a junior sister. Level 3 is Clinical Nurse Consultant and again more senior - middle management level. Queensland Health generally pay the most money, but you can get some good options from other organisations that include a car which you can use for unlimited private mileage (that's what I opted for). Watch out for the term salary package - it can be very different to you take home pay, and employers include different things when they talk about this (eg holiday pay, superannuation etc). If you work for a not for profit organisationor government you can salary sacrifice, which means you pay less tax. It can be very beneficial and works well for me. RNs have to buy an annual practising licence via the QNC. I had to get my qualifications accredited by the ANMC before I could get my visa (permanent residence) - don't know how this works with other visas. In terms of advanced practice, I have 2 post qualification degrees that I haven't yet been able to use here, and was working at advanced level in UK but can't find an equivalent role here. I've only used child care attached to schools,which isn't relevant for your 2 yr old, so can't give specific advice. But there are private child care centres, ABC is a big group and then small independent providers as well. Local council websites usually are a good reference point for all sorts of info for potential residents. Hope this helps.

Julie

Liz

(offline)

  • Joined: Sep 2007
  • Location: Brisbane
  • Posts: 79

Oct 27, 2008, 06:21 pm

Hi Janet

I am a QLD nurse, in fact i just graduated from uni.

First of all, if you are going to be living in Ipswich, Id say to apply to Qld Heatlh and ask to go to Ipswich Hospital. It is of a lower socio-economic class but it is a boom town at the moment due to housing prices etc. Ive done a prac out there and I liked it. They are one of the very few hospitals around that still have nursing quarters if you are say doing a late then morning shift and dont live close by.

Commuting between Ipswich and Brisbane take about 1hr-1.2hrs on the train. Just make sure you get a seat, coz in a few stops time it will be packed and you still got heaps of stations to go. They are 'talking' about improving services out that way sicne more and more pple are moving out there. DO NOT drive between the two in peak hour coz it will take ages and ages, especially i fyou have a minor car accident involved. And since the road is a truck road, its likely that you will always find a truck involved in an accident.

But its good if your doing afternoon shifts coz you wont have to worry about traffic.

RE nursing, go to www.thinknursing.com.au and that will give you heaps of information about nursing in qld. That is with Qld Health. If you want to go private, try the following:

Northern Suburbs:

Holy Spirit Northside (next to Prince Charles Hospital...difficult public transport wise esp after hrs)

Northwest Private Hospital (got maternity, smaller hospital but its nice and modern, but again difficult public transport)

St Andrews War Memorial Hospital (well known for cardiac, DBS for parky patients and ortho)

Brisbane Private Hospital

Greenslopes Private Hospital

Mater Private Hospital (wonderful hospital i think it is..good reputation..definatley the most accesssable out of the private hospitals)

I think thats all at the moment. Just google private brisbane hospitals

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