[matthew]

My husband has just secured a post in Christchurch and I am looking for employment. Qualified as a Health visitor in 2006 and would love to use my skills in NZ. We have currently a little info around Plunket but would love to hear from anyone who has made this move or has some experience as a parent or worker.Anything helps. Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you soon, Claire

[nickydwuk]

Brilliant news on the job. Well done. What kind of work is it? Can't help much with your questions - we will be moving to Chch in September but would be interested in any answers you get.

Welcome to the forum. :clap

[matthew]

My husband has a job in the public sector.... hence me now trying to use my health visiting qualification. We do know Chch quite well so can answer qu's about it if you don't know it! A little (lot) nervous about moving over there and could be as early as May and still got loads of questions.

Who are you going to work with - one of the hospitals? what paper work did you need to supply to transfer your nursing reg?

Claire

[nickydwuk]

Hi Claire, I have a job at Chch hospital. You need to get the forms from the New Zealand Nursing Council to apply for registration. You will need verification from the NMC, a personal reference and a professional reference and a transcript of your course from the University you trained with. As a Health Visitor I'm not sure if there are more things you need to supply. When you actually send off the application form you also need a police check and certified copies of your passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, NMC registration and I can't think what else. I'm sure there was another document. One word of warning - they do take their time and have a habit of losing or mislaying your documents. I had to get my transcript sent 3 times.

Once you have your registration you then need to apply for an Annual Practicing Certificate. For this you need to show evidence of your practice hours and practice development (training) hours over the last 3 years. I am still in the process of getting this.

I have not seen any ads for Health Visitors but it may be worth contacting some of the nursing agencies for info. You don't need to sign up with them for them to answer your quwestions and give you lots of helpful info. They did for me.

If I can help at all just ask.

[snailandthewhale]

www.plunket.org.nz has a careers@plunket section which you may already have looked at. I've had some contact with Plunket here and from what I can tell, they do exactly the same stuff as a HV in the UK.
Like Nicky says, you have to keep a close eye on the Nursing Council.
Good Luck!

[matthew]

Thanks for your reply guys, all very usuful info and it looks as if i've got to get the paper work going.
matts off to work this am after ruturning from a weeks trip to NZ for talks re job ( just a tad jet lagged) and we've got estate agents/rental agents round today. Things will happen quick if we go for green light. Had 2 years in ChCh from 1998 so know some of what we are doing and just how hard it was at times to tell and leave family.
Hope all's well with you and the decisions made so far.
TTFN,
claire