Mental Health nurse first worked in Golburn now at The Forensic Hospital, Sydney

Living and working in Australia:

I like Australia very well. Initially in November 2009 I moved to Goulburn, New South Wales, and it was a completely different atmosphere from where I was coming from. I used to live in Colchester in England. So moving into the outback was a little difficult to adjust to at first. But after a couple of weeks I was right at home and I have really loved it here. Now I've just moved to Sydney a month ago to work in The Forensic Hospital. Sydney is very different from Goulburn . It's very, very busy. Goulburn was very quiet and since I lived five minutes away from the hospital I worked at, I didn't even see much traffic on my way to work. I like Sydney even though it's very big and very busy - it's a very nice change.

When I first arrived to the hospital in Goulburn I felt immediately very welcomed and really supported. I feel like my orientation was really comprehensive and well done. I got a group orientation, because there were three students starting at the same time as I did.

I'm really new to my current hospital, this is only my fourth week there but I like it very much. The Forensic Hospital is a 135-bed mental health facility and it's very busy. I work currently in a ward for women.

In England I worked mainly with adults with intellectual disabilities, and the cases were totally different and in a way more challenging. In Goulburn I was working in the adult admission ward. I really liked it there, because I felt like it boosted my skills a lot. In the UK my job involved mostly controlling behaviour on a daily basis. In Goulburn and in my current job I do a lot of admissions, discharging and assessment - I think I get to do more actual nursing stuff here.

In the UK I worked in a private facility, and both of my jobs in Australia are in the public sector -so my job has been very different in that respect. I feel like they really look after you here. They are really up for professional development over here; they send you to classes and courses. They encourage you to educate yourself further. The hospital is really supportive of you in general; it's not at all a blame environment. I was supposed to start my master's in mental health already, but that got delayed because I changed hospitals. So now I'm going to start it next year. You can do your master's while you work.

I moved to Australia by myself in November 2009, and initially I lived in the nurses' accommodation organised by the hospital. I stayed there for a couple of months after which I found myself a very nice one bed room unit that was just perfect because it was very affordable. Now in Sydney I'm living in a two-bedroom unit which costs 400 AUD (410 USD) a week when in Goulburn I was paying the same amount a month.

Application process:

It was a long process. I got interviewed in February 2009 and I got ready to go only in September 2009. I found the process somewhat frustrating, because I thought many times that I'd finally submitted the last piece of paper, but I felt like something more was needed all the time, or that something needed to be changed. It was frustrating that's all - it wasn't difficult to do. In the end, it was worth it, because I've been really happy to be here. Especially the medical examinations etc that Australia requires were at times quite frustrating. In England you go to your GP to get your medicals done, and sometimes the GP couldn't provide what you needed. I have only understood now how the medical process could be that complicated - it's because it would be completely differently organised in Australia (and they probably expected to be the same elsewhere). In England I had to travel to London from Colchester to get some of the vaccinations.

Professional Connections helped me through the application process. I want to give my special thanks to Jonelle at Profco; she was extremely supportive throughout the application process and even kept in touch post departure. I wouldn't have done it without Profco that's for sure so thank you! I was also very delighted that Profco's recruitment services were free of charge - that was great!

I found that the initial settling in was very easy. Opening a bank account was very easy - you don't have to give them very much information and it's quickly done. I found my accommodation through real estate ads in the paper, and it wasn't difficult either. So starting my new life in Australia was very easy. I can remember thinking during the application process that why am I bothering with all this hassle, but coming here has been definitely worth it! I'm actually very grateful that I did follow through with it, because my life is so much better here. In the UK I had to work two jobs to make end's meat, but here I'm able to live a comfortable life by doing one job. I haven't really experienced any downsides. Sometimes it gets very hot. Well, the taxation system is totally different from the UK; they have too many different taxes they want you to pay for and the taxes are rather high. So the only real downside in my opinion is the taxes.

My advice to nurses thinking about moving to Australia is: to just do it! Just go for it! You will definitely not regret it!