Contract Labour

Using a Nursing Job Overseas to Fund Your Overseas Experience

An Executive Summary by Kelly Blackwell

Working as a nurse overseas is an economical and sustainable way to fund your overseas experience

Nursing is a transferable skill, especially if you are a fluent English speaker because Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK and the USA are all experiencing an acute shortage of qualified nurses. This has resulted in an immediate opportunity for English speaking nurses to travel and nurse overseas.

If you get a nursing job in the UK you will be able to easily explore Europe using the network of budget airlines that fly between the major European cities. If you base yourself nursing in Australia you can easily explore the South Pacific and Asia. There are three strategies you can use when nursing to fund your long term trip abroad.

Firstly, you can get a nursing job abroad, work full time and travel in your regular vacations. With shift work and overtime it is easy to earn extra vacation days to add onto your trips. Secondly, you can work as a contract nurse. With this strategy you sign a contract for a limited period of time. In some countries, like the UK, you can employ yourself through your own limited liability company when you are a contract nurse and this means you can pay minimal income tax.

Thirdly you can work for a nursing agency on day by day basis. Which strategy you can use where is dependent on the visa restrictions placed on overseas nurses in each country. For example, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK offer travelers under 30 a working holiday visa which means nurses can work for any employer.

*Taking Cost of Living Into Account When Assessing An Overseas Nursing Contract*

How much will it cost to live? If you want to send money home, or have enough money to travel with and take advantage living in another country, then it is not the salary offered that you should be looking at when deciding if a contract is worth signing or not. Many factors affect your disposable income, and you need to consider them all when you are assessing a nursing employment contract.

To find out how much accommodation will cost you - use the power of the internet. You may find that accepting a nursing job in an area which has a low cost of housing, or one where housing is included will result in you having a higher disposable income, even if the salary figure is lower than you are being offered in other places.

The second highest expense would probably be your food bill, and the cost of food can vary drastically, even within a country. The cost of food includes your groceries that you bring home and cook for yourself, and also the food and drink that you purchase while you are out. You can actually use McDonalds to help you compare the cost of living between two countries. Each year economists work out the Big Mac Index which compares the cost of living in a number of countries and shows the information as how much a Big Mac costs. So the USA has a Big Mac cost of a dollar and places like Sweden have a higher Big Mac cost, but countries where it is cheap to live, like Indonesia, have a Big Mac cost of less than a dollar. It is a very rough guide to the cost of living in different countries.

Lastly, when working out your disposable income remember to use your take home pay when you work it out rather than your salary pre-tax. Unless you are nursing in the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia you probably will not receive a tax free income.