Nursing in Spain

dizzy · #1 (**permalink**) 13th July 2008, 12:08 AM

Hi I am new here and wondered if there are any English Speaking Nurses working in spain. I am finding it very difficult to find information regarding regulations etc. I understand that currently Spanish Nurses are leaving in droves due to poor pay conditions and poor job prospects, even still I was hoping that there would be some private clinics or hospitals that have been set up for expats that would possibly need nursing staff.

I am in Australia at the moment and hold a Bachelor of Nursing from Aus University. Can any one assist with my questions? We desperately want to be in Spain with the rest of my family. Will be bringing hubby Electronics Engineer and 2 children 10 + 16.

Thanks in Advance for your help.

jojo · #2 (**permalink**) 13th July 2008, 08:40 AM

I have a bank job (I cover for sickness and holidays) at a private expat nursing home and they pay trained staff 7 euros an hour - I would be happy to work there full time, but there are no vacancies at the moment, nor do I want to work while the kids are on summer holidays from school. As for full nursing in private expat hospitals - well I honestly dont know, I havent come across any, but I'm sure a "google" search would bring any up and you could e-mail them??? Thats maybe a route I will look into when the very long school summer holidays are over!!!

My OH is also an Electronics engineer, running his own business in the UK - he commutes, 2 weeks here and 2 weeks there. Once the economic crisis settles down and has a better understanding of business in Spain (although he does have contacts in Marbella), he's hoping to start a sister company here.

Jo

dizzy · #3 (**permalink**) 13th July 2008, 01:57 PM

Hi Jo, Thanks for the info. I am assuming you are also a nurse. Does your husband have many contacts in Spain for electronics engineering? Which area of electronics is he in. Does he need staff?? haha worth a try! We spent 3 weeks during january 08 in spain mainly in north where my family are but did spend a week in and around granada and we are so desperate to go back. I have done searches on google and cant find anything. I was hoping that some of you on here would know of some private hospitals or clinics that specialise in expats. i know the pay is pretty small in spain for most jobs but they are just details - when you really want something you find a way to make it happen. Thanks again for the reply.

jojo · #4 (**permalink**) 13th July 2008, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizzy

Does your husband have many contacts in Spain for electronics engineering? Which area of electronics is he in. Does he need staff?? haha worth a try!

My husband works mainly in audio/visual stuff, tvs, hi-fi, multi room multi media, lighting, centrally run computerised smart houses, super yachts.... He has 2 shops in the UK that sells high end hi-fi and TVs and he works from there. He has some friends/contacts in Marbella who run a similar operation and they want to be run from the UK - summat to do with tax. So OH will eventually use his UK company as the head office for the Spanish stuff - I think??? When that happens he may want to take on staff, but I think he's relying on employing as many spanish nationals as possible - purely cos they know the spanish language and way of doing things!!!? But of course all this has been slowed down by the world economic crisis and the fact that his father died and he "took his eye off the ball". So our plans have been put on hold until his UK business is performing well enough for him to stay over here long enough to get the Spanish leg underway.

We live about 40 minutes from Marbella and 20 minutes from Malaga - down in the south.

Jo

dizzy · #5 (**permalink**) 13th July 2008, 11:20 PM

Jo, like I said - worth a try. anyway it sounds like you both have your hands pretty full with all that commuting etc. My OH is in manufacturing Electronics currently making weather stations for Kazakstan or something i think - i find it difficult to keep up. do you know anything about the regulations for registration of nurses in spain? Is it easy to get recognition of skills and training or is it very difficult? are there many nursing home type establishments around or is it as i have been told a case of the spanish look after their own and very few end up in nursing homes? Do most towns have some sort of nursing service?
Thanks again for your help

Bevdeforges · #6 (**permalink**) 14th July 2008, 07:38 AM

Hi dizzy - I'm not real familiar with Spain and Spanish regulations, but there used to be quite a bit of information on the European Union website (Europa - The European Union On-Line) about transferring credentials in the medical professions - at least between EU countries.

Tried to find the information a couple months ago, but didn't have the necessary time. I believe it was part of their "Living and Working in..." material.

My understanding is that medical personnel from within the EU have priority over those trained and qualified outside the EU - and at least here in France it can be very difficult for a non-EU trained nurse to get qualified at all. Knowing the local language seems to be a base requirement for getting medical qualifications acknowledged. But that may have changed by now.
Cheers,
Bev

jojo · #7 (**permalink**) 14th July 2008, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizzy

Jo, like I said - worth a try. anyway it sounds like you both have your hands pretty full with all that commuting etc. My OH is in manufacturing Electronics currently making weather stations for Kazakstan or something i think - i find it difficult to keep up. do you know anything about the regulations for registration of nurses in spain? Is it easy to get recognition of skills and training or is it very difficult? are there many nursing home type establishments around or is it as i have been told a case of the spanish look after their own and very few end up in nursing homes? Do most towns have some sort of nursing service?
Thanks again for your help

I dont know anything about the rules or regulations. I have all the hecessary paperwork and when I wnet for my interview, they didnt even wanna see them - they just took my word for it. they said I'd prove or not what I could do one the job - but then this was just a nursing home, which may not need major nursing skills

Jo

dizzy · #8 (**permalink**) 14th July 2008, 01:41 PM

Hi Jo - thanks for the info. Can you tell me what is a bank job (you refered to in your first post)

dizzy · #9 (**permalink**) 14th July 2008, 01:42 PM

Thanks Bev, I will check it out.

jojo · #10 (**permalink**) 14th July 2008, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizzy

Hi Jo - thanks for the info. Can you tell me what is a bank job (you refered to in your first post)

Bank staff are staff who dont have regular shifts but can be phoned at either long or short notice to cover holidays, sickness etc. So you can have times when you're working all the hours god send, times when you just have one or two shifts or indeed times when you have no work at all - no work = no pay though. So although this type of arrangement suits me at the moment, it wont once the summer holidays are over. It doesnt give a regular income

Jo