WARNING! NEW SOUTH WALES BOARD OF NURSING: DO NOT RISK GIVING THIS WOMAN OR OTHER INTERNATIONAL NURSING VOLUNTEERS A NURSING LICENSE IN YOUR STATE!
PHOTOS FROM THE PERUVIAN AMAZON CLINICS
Well, tomorrow I head back to the USA for five weeks! This is a trip that I did not want to make, but I have had nothing but grief trying to obtain my nursing registration in Australia and I need to earn some money ASAP. I applied for my nursing license in May of 2009 and it is still waiting for approval!! The New South Wales Board has found a RED TAPE issue that has put my nursing license on hold. It has nothing to do with my credentials or qualifications as an RN and has put my review for my Nurse Practitioner license on hold as well. Just a little back ground on the issue: I have been a volunteer with Amazon Promise, a US non-profit humanitarian health organization since 1995 and I have spent many months as a volunteer in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. I have volunteered with this NGO and have never worked in Peru as a nurse, but the nursing review board is requiring a letter from a "Peruvian Authority" stating I don't need a PERUVIAN nursing license to volunteer in Peru! NO one so far in Peru or the Peruvian Embassy will write a letter as they have nothing to do with the US NGOs. And frankly, everyone I have spoken to about getting this letter thinks it is the most ridiculous thing they have heard of! The nursing review board has letters from Amazon Promise stating the fact that I do not need a Peruvian nursing license to volunteer in Peru with them, but insist that the letter needs to come from a Peruvian authority. It is so absurd to say the very least. When I have explained to them that I have not been able to obtain the letter, they have actually told me to write to the board stating that I am refusing to submit the required paperwork. grrr.....Frankly I have had it with this Australia bureaucracy and xenophobic attitude! So, back to the USA to work for Group Health for 5 weeks, then the long flight back here, while I wait for them to review and hopefully wave the ridiculous red tape bull shit! If they won't wave this requirement, then it is their loss on so many levels!
Maybe it will be time for me to rethink what I want to be when I grow up.
2 comments:
God forbid a country with a healthcare system decades behind that of the US grants a license a rogue humanitarian nurse practitioner who is frankly overqualified to work in Australia as a mere nurse.
It's dangerous to have people who have been working in the healthcare industry of the US for 30 years *gasp* contributing to society.
Maybe you should come up with some bizarre condition that costs the system tons of money. Then they'd be more worried about getting you to pay into it.
I think when you return you should enrol to study medicine and begin your own practise as a GP. You can live on grapes, wine and vegies. While you are studying medicine you should be able to aquire a hefty hecs debt that will take until your retiring years to pay it off. It's obvious this is your passion area of work and study so go for it! You won't ever have to deal with the NSW Nursing Board again but i'm sure there will be other hurdles fo you to jump through!
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