nursing in france

[Tracy624]

Hi there,

I am currently thinking of moving to France to set up a gite business with my partner who will be running it while I work. I am a qualified RGN in the UK and am wondering about working in the health sector in France. I have many questions such as,

- will my qualifications be recognised?

- How accessible is health care work to someone of a British background?

- what is the financial renumeration like?

- what are hours of work?

- does french healthcare have many various facets like UK, such as community, elderly, etc.

If anyone could shed any light on these questions, or give me any other advice I would be very grateful.

Thanks,

Tracy

[Patf]

There's some useful information on nursing in France on the Owning French Property forum, 20th June 2003, a posting from Ballinderryie called "RGN RNMH". You'll find it in the archives. Pat.

[Jomo]

Dear Tracy,
Hi I` posts. -Re your questions.
Your qualifications are recognised ie. your RN diploma, however if you have higher qualifications you may have difficulty having these recognised,and as I stated in the info in a previous post even if you are not RMN you can work in a pyschiatric setting. I did not require verification from the NMC but did register with the DHASS .When I worked in France, now 7 years ago, the money was not great at all, especially as I was paying quite a lot for the rental of an appartment in Toulouse. They have sort of district nurses, infirmieres liberales, they are not usually employed by the health board but are private practices affiliated to a surgery. You could possibly find a job with one of them . With summer coming up there is always the opportunity of "remplacement".
One option if you are thinking of Paris is the American Hospital in Neuilly, it is a prestigious private clinic in the suburbs of Paris. I worked there and found the conditions pretty good compared with the other clinics I worked in. Good staff/patient ratio, subsidised accommodation. However as it is very much a consultant led clinic I found it quite frustrating at times that I could not even do a simple wound dressing without first asking what to put on it! In some parts of France it is difficult to get a position in a public hospital but there are plenty of large private clinics.
There is also the Hopital Franco-Brittanique closeby in Levallois, Paris. Both these hospitals employ bi-lingual staff.
You should have a copy of references from all your previous jobs in order to have your experience recognised and be remunerated so, I think I had everything translated too.
How is your French? Are you fluent. It really is quite difficult if you do not have a good grip of the language. Prior to working in France I was a head nurse in a big Swiss-French speaking hospital. I thought my French pretty fluent after several years in Lausanne however the speed and dialect of the Parisians really took a bit of getting used to.
There are also agencies eg Appel Medical, where you could get work, however unless you are really fluent I would definitely not recommend this, I walked out of a ward after being asked to take charge of a very busy surgical ward plus high dependency beds . no other qualified staff, no orientation, had never worked in the clinic before, I was terrified I would kill someone! This was despite stipulating to the agency that I never wanted to take charge of a ward and that there would be other qualified staff, so be careful. i did do several other shifts with this agency and although I was with another nurse , I found it very stressful.I am not trying to put you off but be realistic , and you are accountable for your actions so you must make sure you are able to cope with what you take on.
Working at the American Hospital was a good experience, and when working in Toulouse I chose to work in the psychiatric sector, more laid back, but could be scary too at times !

Have you considered Switzerland? Better money, subsidized accommodation, good social life, skiing etc, better working conditions and always looking for nurses too.
if you need any more info-, websites etc let me know.
Good luck
Joan- sorry about the length of this post!