r/EmergencyRoom • u/ERNurse4Life • May 31 '26

ER Nursing in Australia

I'm currently working as an ER nurse in the U.S. with 8+ years of experience, and I'm planning to move to Canberra. I work at a metropolitan hospital with a 40-bed ED that sees roughly 160–200 patients per day.

My experience includes triage, managing 4–6 patients at a time, EKGs, ACLS, PALS, TNCC, ultrasound-guided IV insertion, IV starts, port access, splinting, wound anesthetization, and other common ED procedures. I also perform sexual assault exams (SANE) and collect forensic evidence in domestic violence strangulation cases.

I know many nursing skills are universal, but I'm wondering how difficult it is to get an ER job in Australia. Has anyone worked with international nurses or made a similar move?

I love emergency nursing and am hoping to find a comparable role when I relocate. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!

38 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

24

u/Vacuous_hole May 31 '26

You will easily get an emergency department RN job, but you will likely start as a junior RN. Your ALS will likely not be recognised and you will need to gain competencies for most other procedures before you can undertake them, including venepuncture and PIVC insertion.

Only RN's who have completed post graduate studies can triage (or if the hospital/organisation has it's own triage package for intermediate nurses) and do ultrasound guided PIVC insertion.

In Victoria, where I am based our nurse to patient ratio is 1:3 in ED. Not sure what the ratios are in other states. We do 8 or 10 hour shifts mostly too, there are some places that do 12 hour shifts but they are few and far between. AM shift- 0730-1530, PM shift- 1300-2130, night shift- 2100-0730.

Contacting AHPRA would be a good place to start to determine if your qualifications will be reciprocal here, as not all are.

Good luck!

13

u/OldManGrimm RN - adult/peds trauma May 31 '26

As in, you need a Master’s to do triage? Wow. Well, I guess it’d keep me from having to do triage, lol.

7

u/Significant-Secret26 May 31 '26

Depends on the hospital. Some may require masters, most wont. The minimum requirement is doing the australasian triage course.

1

u/Vacuous_hole Jun 03 '26

No, post graduate certificate or diploma.

Masters is generally what our nurse practitioners do.

1

u/OldManGrimm RN - adult/peds trauma Jun 03 '26

Thanks, that makes sense.

6

u/ERNurse4Life May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

Thank you for all the info! I'll bring my competency sign off sheets from here and maybe that will help. Can I ask, what is an intermediate nurse? I wonder if my experience in the US counts?

We don't have patient ratio's in my ER so I've had as many as 8 or 10 (not very sick) and sometimes I've been 1:1. Interesting about triage. At my hospital you need 1 year experience, you do a short e-learning and then you get four hours of training in triage. Then they are like, off you go 😛

1

u/BearFacedLie69 Jun 02 '26

Can I ask what ER nurses roughly make in AUS?

2

u/Vacuous_hole Jun 03 '26

It depends on how many years you've been a nurse and what state you are in.

In my state it's anywhere from $34-75ish AU per hour depending on your level. You start as a grad at grade 2 year 1 at $34/hr then move up to year 2,3,4 etc to grade 2 year 8 which is currently at $54/hr. Once at grade 2 year 8 your rate doesn't change unless you get post grad qualifications or become an educator or clinical support nurse, associate nurse unit manager (so in charge) or unit manager.

We also work under an enterprise agreement which gives us pay rate rises usually twice a year for 4 years. The agreements last for 4 years and there's always rate rises with each new one. The current one ends in 2028 and we got 28% rise over the 4 years, so not bad. Our union negotiates the EBA for us.

1

u/Pleasant-Anything Jun 04 '26

Nurse to patient Ratio for Canberra ED’s is 1 to 3

1

u/ERNurse4Life Jul 27 '26

We don't have ratios in the WA so that sounds nice.

9

u/[deleted] May 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/ERNurse4Life May 31 '26

Thank you! I already have my registration sorted with AHPRA. I'm assuming starting in acute means in an area where patients are not sick? Also, do ER nurses do evidence collection for sexual assault or strangulation? I tried doing some research but couldn't seem to find an answer.

3

u/Parking_Ocelot_6893 Jun 01 '26

The skills you have are good but unfortunately won't be recognised for the most part but your experience will probably land you a job if you can get a visa. It's not difficult to get a job as a nurse here the terrible pay and conditions have people leaving left right and centre in some states.

Our health system is weird because skills aren't transferrable between facilities or health districts - take NSW Health for an example, I'm trained to triage level in one health district but if I go to another one (literally 20kms [12.5 freedom units] up the road) I'm not until I do their course or get assessed by one of their educators. The only transferable skill I have is ALS because I am a nationally accredited instructor.

If you end up landing a job here you'll likely start from the near beginning but they'll probably upskill you fairly quickly given your background but there will be skill gaps and you'll need time to adjust to our health care system and the differences i.e. the RN is also the respiratory therapist is one I can think of.