Nursing

[beachboy mike]

I am currently a medical nurse practitioner in UK and am in the process of getting my NZ$ registration. I have been told that I will be on 50 000 NZ$. Is that before shift allowance or after? An agency is finding me a job in A&E in hutt valley out side wellington. Bit in the dark about the pay and annual leave. Any info would be cool.

[Karen]

Hi Beachboy Mike

I would assume $50000 is before any shift allowances are added. Your pay scale tends to be based on years of practice - anything over 6 years and you are put into the $50000 pay scale. I've just accepted a job as a MH nurse and will also be on $50000 but have been told to add about $14000 on top for shift allowances.

Hope this helps, any idea where abouts you plan to settle yet?

Good luck

Karen

[Karen]

Sorry, just realised you said you were planning to go to Wellington - didn't read properly!!

As for annual leave, as things currently stand, nurses get 3 weeks A/L plus 11 bank holidays but as of next year the A/L allowance is increasing to 4 weeks plus 11 which is a little easier for NHS staff to cope with being used to 7 weeks!!

How long ago did you apply for your registration as l found this to be one of the longest and most time consuming things, by the time l'd got all my training transcripts together and bullied people into writing references to actually getting the NZ reg it took best part of 5 months!!

If you need any other questions answering l'll try to help.

Karen

[tonyb]

Hi Karen

I only have just over one years post qualification experience so they have offered me a starting rate of $43,300 (step 2). There seems to be conflicting info on shift allowances. One person told to expect about $8,000, another person said $10,000 - $15,000. Im in MH too. Im going to Christchurch. Where are you going???

Tony

[Lupin]

I'd be interested in this also, my husband will have no post-qualifying experience so will start on the lowest band...must confess I hadn't factored anything near so much for annual shift allowance, so potentially good news for my budgeting

[tonyb]

Hi Lupin

When did he qualify?? Has he been offered a job yet?

I wouldnt take those figures as gospel yet, ill find out when i get there (September, hopefully). I think it depends of what shifts are worked. Some who say they get about $15k in allowances may be doing mostly night shifts or every weekend !! And of course the higher your basic pay, the higher the shift allowance pay will be.

Tony

[Lupin]

He hasn't qualified yet!!
He's been offered a job subject to qualifying and getting a practicing certificate. It sounds quite ridiculous when I actually type it, but we had good reason for wanting to come out as soon as he qualifies, rather then be sensible and wait. He is (will be!) a MH nurse too

[beachboy mike]

My registrations seems to be going quite well. The mmc have sent their bit and all my reference have gone. I am only waiting my police check and uni to do there bit. So hopefully won’t be long. The agency “Tonix” said they should be able to push my visa through. Was told that if I go for a one year work visa I wont need a medical but then some one said I will need it for a job as a nurse dose anyone know?

[beachboy mike]

fogot to say we off to wellington

[Karen]

Hi Mike

If you're planning to be in NZ for 12 months or less, then you won't need a full medical but will (l think) still need to have a chest x-ray done by a NZ approved radiologist (visit www.immigration.govt.nz for further info under the forms and fees section).

As a nurse, you'll be expected to provide all you vacination and booster certificates as well as having a (full body) swab test done on arrival at the NZ hospital where you are to work for MRSA. As l'm signing a visa for 3 years, l've already had the full medical but my contract (a generic DHB one) made no mention of a full medical so l can't see that this is a requirement?!

We're off to Dunedin and l'm supposed to be starting work on 31 July but we're still waiting for my partner's CRB to come back before we can go up to London and apply for our visa's ......very frustrating. We even applied for both an enhanced CRB and a regular police check at the same time thinking one would be bound to come back quickly .......how wrong we were, 6 weeks later and we're still waiting!!!!!!!!!

Hope this answers a few of your questions, and yes, l guess the higher the basic wage, the higher the shift allowances so anything between $8 - $14 a year would be about right, will let you know when we eventually get out there!!

Cheers

Karen