I work in the healthcare field. I speak conversational Spanish, not alot.
I want to improve my Spanish and I may decide to become a nurse.
Is there a nursing shortage in Spain, as in the U.S.? (I'm sure this is probably global, but just wondering if anyone has any input).
iMuchas Gracias!

I did a search for NURSING in this forum and found the following threads:

"Working as a nurse in Spain" @ http://www.madridman.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000018

"nursing work in Spain" @
http://www.madridman.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=000121&p=

"Moving to Spain" @ http://www.madridman.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=000181&p=

Hope they help. Anyone have any fresh information?

Saludos, MadridMan

Unfortunately Ilbunny there's no nurse shortage in Spain. Actually, quite a few spanish nurses are going to the UK to work there, since there is a real need of them over there. I have a good friend who is a nurse and she told me it's not really easy to find jobs right now. Sorry.

My Spanish sister-in-law is a nurse, and from what she's told me it's definitely not easy to find nursing jobs now. She finished her degree 3 years ago, and so far she's only been able to find part-time positions. She works in a retirement home, but according to her in these places and also in the private health care system the pay and conditions are pretty bad. She'd like to work in a public hospital, but apparently there's a points system in order to get a job in the public system. From what I understand there's sort of a pool of nurses and the hospitals will call them when they have an opening although it's usually only to work for a few weeks or a month when other nurses are on vacation and things like that. When they call you for these jobs you accumulate points, and when you have enough you have the possibility of getting a full time job in the public health care system. Sorry, I don't know all the details of how it works--this is just information I've heard from her.

Thank you to all for the info.
I work for a very good hospital here in Illinois and so I will probably stay put as I just bought a home in 2003.
Sounds like jobs, housing, etc. is harder that I thought in Spain.

I will just save money for my kids and I to visit maybe in a few years!

YEP, I knew a guy in madrid who is a nurse. He only makes 13000 euro a year. In the uk there is a nursing shortage and their starting salaries were 36000 pounds a year. I said to him, Why don't you work in the uk and at least you can fly home on the weekends?(always cheap flights from the uk to spain). He said that he would miss the food in spain since it is so much better. Being a lover of food myself, I thought, he could be right.

I reckon with 36K POUNDS in comparison to 13K Euros I could eat quite well in the UK

Hi!

The thing is that some occupations in Spain are better paid by the government than by private companies.
I've got a friend who is a teacher in the UK and earns 31.000 pounds/year and the starting salary in Spain is about 25.000 euros/year in the public school system.
They earn more money but the prices are higher too (she pays 40 euros/week for the bus and here we pay 40/month). She also reminds me that the level of life is not the same as the quality of life . But, I'd say any place in the EU is good to live in, from my point of view.