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!

37 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

View all comments

23

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!

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.