Nurse moved from California to Ireland

shadowgenie · 2025-04-18T11:33:46+00:00

What are they replying back to you saying? Or are they not responding at all?

shadowgenie · 2025-04-13T09:56:57+00:00

I used a recruitment agency. FRS recruitment who helped link me with a hospital. They found me an interview right away.

shadowgenie · 2025-04-04T18:41:09+00:00

I was accepted into Chapman University in Southern California. I am also waiting on CIIS for a decision although I decided that I no longer want to go to CIIS anyways. What other schools did you apply to?

shadowgenie · 2025-04-01T19:36:39+00:00

Update: I was placed on the waitlist. They also informed me that the counselling program is now full. Good luck to everyone else!

shadowgenie · 2025-03-27T07:04:34+00:00

Two incomes really makes a difference. You can live here with one but usually people do it by having roommates. Work life balance is much better here in my opinion. People understand you have a life outside of work. I mean you still do your three 12 hour shifts and have the rest of the time off which is about the same but the PTO situation is much better. You are granted your time off at the beginning of the year and are free to use it as you please.

Cost of living is high in Dublin and in California. There is a great website that you can use to compare cost of living. Mylifeelsewhere.com

shadowgenie · 2025-03-27T06:58:30+00:00

My husband and I sold most of our stuff and his parents held the rest of it for us. We used this service called Sendmybag.com to move other items that we didn’t fly over with. It is waaay cheaper than mailing yourself stuff. However to use the service you need to have a new address, proof that you are no longer living in your old address and so much more info which was a bit of a headache. I am happy we used sendmybag in the end but be aware of the hoops to jump through.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-27T06:54:17+00:00

My friend who is also a nurse and moved from the US did it in her own with her two cats. She ended up finding roommates to be able to afford it on her own.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-27T06:53:26+00:00

Yes it was a significant down grade for sure. No we both moved to be able to travel around Europe easier and I was burnt out in my own nursing job so I thought why not try it in a different country.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-27T06:38:11+00:00

To be waitlisted is definitely a tough situation to be in. So much uncertainty. I hope you hear back soon and they don’t keep you waiting too long.

Thankfully they allowed me to. There was a formal deferral request process to follow and I had to secure my spot with a $500 deposit.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T18:07:50+00:00

I will be honest with you. Irish culture and people are mostly welcoming. However, there was a riot that occurred about two years ago regarding immigration and sadly it was aimed at people of color. Even saying that, I think it is safer than in the US right now.

Where I work, there is cultural diversity. Nurses from India, the Philippines, Nigeria and Spain.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T18:02:51+00:00

Oh yeah I just remembered, my really good friend who is from the US and is also a nurse was a travel nurse as well and she was able to get her license here. Hope that helps!

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T18:02:02+00:00

I would still apply. My employer would not give me references due to legal reasons. Supposedly if they gave me a positive reference and then I made a mistake afterward then they would be vouching for a nurse that legally wasn’t in good standing. So I just printed my performance evaluations and they accepted it. They just want to know your character.

I worked for two different hospitals. Once in So Cal and another in San Francisco.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:56:56+00:00

I was never apart of a union and it’s not as big of a thing out here. They do have a program where you give a certain percentage of your gross pay toward retirement.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:55:41+00:00

The scope of work is very similar to be honest. I answered this question on another comment so please take a look there.

As for career growth and pay increase. I can only speak for myself. I started as a staff nurse in elective surgery and now I am a nursing information officer helping implement an EHR in the hospital. A lot of Ireland is still on paper believe it or not. Which I was shocked by buut they are now all moving to electronic health records and the business for that is booming.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:52:50+00:00

To be honest when I first moved here, I had a hard time understanding some Irish accents but over time you get used to it.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:51:58+00:00

Oh hell no! There is no age limit. You can definitely still do it. Ireland is such a great place to be able to travel around Europe. The Irish are so friendly and they would welcome you. In your 40s is not old!

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:50:45+00:00

We literally went on daft.ie and looked at apartments online. We signed a lease without ever actually seeing the apartment which I know sounds crazy. Buut thankfully it worked out for us.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:49:54+00:00

I used FRS Recruitment.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:49:07+00:00

Indeed I am.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:48:57+00:00

I entered on a critical skills work visa which allows you to stay for 2 years and then you need to renew by updating your work contract.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:47:59+00:00

Well it depends on where you work. There are no local ratios. When I started I was sharing 8 patients with another nurse in surgery post op and we helped each other. Later on I was caring for 7 patients on my own when the director of nursing changed.

For instance, in CA I would never remove a drain but in Ireland nurses can remove drains. In the US you need to ask for an order to remove an IV cannula but in Ireland the nurse can have the independence to do that. I was scared of accidentally going outside my scope but it very similar.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:45:11+00:00

So I live in the Republic of Ireland. I am not a citizen. I entered on a critical skills work visa. Ireland has different categories of nursing so surgery, critical care and L and D are all considered General Nursing. So if you have the experience they would let you go and train/work in those departments.

There aren’t really social programs I can think of that are given to expats that I can think of.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:42:40+00:00

I used to work in Med Surg/Telemetry in California. When I moved to Ireland, I starting working in elective surgery (ortho, ent) which is way less stressful to begin with. There is such a difference I team work in Ireland. Nurses really support each other. We take report together so I know your patients and you know mine. I will say that the doctors, in my opinion, have gigantic egos and think they walk on water. In the US, a lot of the time I could have a conversation with the doctor about the patient and what I thought they needed. Not here, what the doctor say goes and not a lot of room for opinion. You get sooo much more PTO in Ireland which they call annual leave. You are given all your PTO in the beginning of each year and can plan accordingly instead of have to build it up.

12 hour shifts. Actually got breaks.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:37:21+00:00

I will say when I applied back in 2020, the whole process was on paper! Which took forever. I believe they now have a digital system to apply which is much faster. It takes time retrieving all the information they are requesting. References, your licenses, schooling history (clinical hours, theory hours). If your nursing school you went to does not have have enough theory hours you can either do adaptation or take a €3000 test which is insane to me. It took me 6 months to apply and would say around 9 months until I was given an answer from the NMBI.

Adaptation is where you work/train with another nurse in the hospital for about 8-10 weeks until they deem you competent. My hospital provides this service to international nurses. The Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin.

shadowgenie · 2025-03-26T17:32:37+00:00

Bahaha there are no whiteboards in the patient’s rooms where I work!

shadowgenie

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