Taiwan RN to Australian RN License 1️⃣

G’day! Good afternoon, it's Alice~ I've been slacking off for a long time, and quite a few people have asked me things like “I'd like to know about the license conversion process~” or “What should I do about such-and-such problem I ran into while converting my license?” Boo hoo, I'm sorry I couldn't help you before (。 ́︿ ̀。), but! Maybe now I can (kidding!). This series is for everyone who has hit problems on the road to converting their license, doesn't know how to convert it, or can't make sense of all that long-winded English on the AHPRA website~ Of course, let me make it clear first: I'm not AHPRA, I'm not a professional agent or consultant, and I'm definitely not someone who came through the conversion route myself. What I know is limited to the information on the website and my own reading of it. And of course, questions and additions are always welcome in the comments~

First, let me introduce our good friend AHPRA, full name Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. It handles the licenses of all healthcare professionals and sets up the related systems and regulations to protect the public. Health workers who want to work in Australia must hold an AHPRA license. Of course, AHPRA also takes complaints about any unlawful practitioners, and you can check whether their registration is genuine. But! AHPRA is “not responsible” for finding you a job or providing a visa!!

To put in a good word for Australia: it may be all great scenery and dead boring, but for nursing it's honestly way easier than Taiwan. Pay is in proportion to living costs, patient ratios are low, you get off work on time, your social status is upper-middle, you can choose your own hours so you can have a life of your own, time off is fixed, and the benefits are good too (^_^)v Below are the 22-23 figures for international nurses registering in Australia~

Don't want to spend too much money on a master's and want to go straight to work? Oh! Of course you can, but you need an Australian license~ You ask me what to do? Convert your license~ But before you do, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

❓Do I have what it takes to meet AHPRA's license requirements? Like, have I graduated in nursing? Passed the national licensing exam? Is my English good enough? And do I have savings?

❓What visa will I come to Australia on? Working holiday? Offshore migration? Or something else??

❓Where do I plan to work? Aged care? A clinic? A hospital? Travel nurse?

❓If a job needs a referee, is there someone who can recommend me?

I hope you think these questions through before applying. They're about the most basic, practical questions there are, so think them over carefully and get clear on what you really want!

I put together a flowchart. The conversion process breaks down into roughly 4 steps: self-check, portfolio, examination and registration. Today I'll cover self-check and portfolio.

📍What is self-check?

Self-check is the first thing you do when applying for a license conversion; everyone converting a license has to complete this step. Here you mainly fill in your education, and then you get classified. AHPRA has its own standards for assessing your home country's qualifications (image below, but I won't go into detail).

(According to AHPRA, Taiwanese qualifications don't quite meet criterion 2)

After the assessment you're classified into one of three categories, A, B or C. Taiwanese qualifications mostly fall into B, which means your education is highly similar to Australia's but not exactly the same. Don't panic! Being in B doesn't mean you can't get an Australian license; the application steps are just different. According to the AHPRA website, they've handled a huge number of qualifications, and most common ones can be found on their list. If you can't find yours, you can click “can't find it” and AHPRA will tell you what to do. If you decide to start the conversion process after finishing the self-check, this is where you'll be asked to pay the assessment fee, which is $410 AUD and non-refundable. After paying, you have to complete an online course, orientation part 1, within 90 days; it mainly introduces the Australian healthcare system. Part 2 comes after registration is complete.

📍What is a portfolio?

The portfolio is the first step of the conversion application. If you're classified in Stream B, you have this extra portfolio stage compared with Stream A. This is where you provide more documents, such as transcripts, your diploma, personal documents (a passport and so on) and proof of a name change (if any). Every document you give AHPRA must be notarized, and anything not in English needs an English translation. Once everything is uploaded, AHPRA will assess again whether you can move on to the next step.

That's it for the first two steps today. Only after reading through the AHPRA website did I realize what a hassle converting a license is; Australia's long process really is plain for all to see (._.) In the next post I'll talk about the last two stages. If anyone has experience converting their license, please leave a comment~ If you'd like to add something, don't hold back!

Alice wants to tell all the kids who feel lost: when you can't see the future clearly, just hold on a little longer than everyone else, and one day the thing you want will turn around and hug you ٩(˃̶͈̀௰˂̶͈́)و

References: https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Accreditation/IQNM/Before-you-apply/Meeting-the-registration-requirements.aspx