\n \u00a0“Australia was an obvious choice as my degree was a straight transfer and I didn\u2019t have to sit any exams.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“We moved in 2006 on a four-year work visa and have been here 20 years now. I got sponsored by a hospital because I was over 30 years old.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “I have always worked in the public system.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “We lived on the NSW (New South Wales) Central Coast for 10 years and now live in Newcastle NSW.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“It was challenging to start with as I had to learn a new health system. It is similar but also quite different. I had to get my head around different drug names and terminology.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Debbie Hamilton left the NHS in Scotland 20 years ago to pursue a nursing career in Australia (Image: Debbie Hamilton)\n<\/p>\n
\n “Staff to patient ratios have improved over the years. The allied health team within the hospitals is fantastic. Each area has its own dedicated social worker. This would have been amazing when I worked in Scotland. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“Australia has the Medicare system which is similar to our NHS but people still have to pay for some specialist appointments, some investigations, scans and blood tests.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“People also pay to see a GP but get some money back via Medicare. They pay for all prescriptions.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“Australia also has a very large private system also. A lot of people have private health insurance.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“As with all public hospitals it has its issues such as staffing issues, bed blocking and people turning up to the emergency dept for treatment when they should have gone to a GP.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But I feel there is a better work life balance. It seems more relaxed than the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You are allocated sick days per year and encouraged to take mental health days when you need them.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “You\u2019re offered clinical supervision (with a trained professional to talk through issues) and counselling via work at no cost.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “There are incentives if you do post graduate study to get more money. You\u2019re always encouraged to progress in your career, with the opportunity to do further education and secondments.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “That might include clinical nurse educator, clinical nurse specialist\/consultant or nursing unit manager.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Read More:\n<\/p>\n
\n “I think once we had made the decision to move, my husband and I wouldn\u2019t have changed our mind. The lifestyle and weather was very appealing.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“I feel the Scottish government should look at pay for nurses. We\u2019re highly trained skilled individuals and should get paid accordingly. I found the \u201cband pay\u201d system very confusing. There should be more pathways for career development and secondments.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0“We do love living here but we do miss Scotland, our family and friends and even miss the good old Scottish food.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s not all been plain sailing as I was really homesick for a few years. But eventually that settled down and I made good friends. I wouldn\u2019t rule out moving back to Scotland at some point.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0“Australia was an obvious choice as my degree was a straight transfer and I didn\u2019t have to sit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-698609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}