jajpe

hi!
i'm new to this! enjoying all the useful information on this site and wondering if anyone has any specific information/experience on nursing in new zealand particularly south island. we are at the stage(me ,hubby and 3 kids) of seriously considering this drastic move and have a fact finding holiday booked for April this year.

ultimately (if april goes well) we will apply for residency under general skills catagory with me (the nurse) as principle applicant. i have a few questions though, well heaps actually, but i'll start with a few.

1.are jobs generally easy to come by? my most recent experience is in surgery.

2. is the pay as bad as it seems? could a family of 5 survive on it? we should be able to buy a home outright so no mortgage/rent etc. (one of the big attractions to going) but we are not that confident that hubby(middle management) will find a job immediately.

3. what are the moving/handling policies like. is it very physical like it used to be here or are there any safeguards on our backs/health.

4. are the hospitals very understaffed and are stress levels better/worse than u.k.

that will do for now. please reply as this is my first time to do anything like this!!!


p.s . if you don't know anything about nursing but can tell us anyhing about life in Christchurch or even Timaru(hubby would like to really get away from it all!) we would appreciate any info at this stage.

many thanks
shirley