Tag: International

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Border Town

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We’ve been traveling pretty frequently across the border to Canada. It’s real close where we are up here in Presque Isle, Maine.

The first weekend we were here, we just went for a drive in a loop that crossed over into Canada and came back in up at the Northern tip of US Rt 1. Although I grew up with a couple trips to Quebec City being my exposure to Canada, I was surprised how French it is just a few miles from my current home and work. When we drove up to Alaska last spring via Western Canada, English was the only language I heard spoken. We drove through the large city of Calgary, rural areas with a couple Canadian national parks, skied in British Colombia, and camped multiple nights in the Yukon — I don’t think I heard a word of French during that long road trip. Turns out when you walk into a restaurant just across the border here, 30 minutes from where I’m living now, the hostess greets you in French, realizes you’re a little stunned, and then flips the switch over to English. French is the default! Back in high school, I took a lot of French, and Kate took French and grew up with some French speaking in her family. So, we’re not hopeless, but someone speaking Québécois Français at a normal pace totally loses us.

This past weekend, instead of heading northwest with all of the French speaking folk, we headed southwest into New Brunswick. That’s right, southwest. To Canada. SOUTH. We are so hopelessly far North. In the southwest direction, we are back to English speaking Canada. Definitely a lot of French being spoken by other tourists around us in New Brunswick, but all the store clerks went straight to English as the go-to language. It was a cool weekend. We camped with some co-workers on the Bay of Fundy, home to the highest tides in the world. Did a lot of grilling, smores making, and sampling of the local breweries. (Note: When in the New Brunswick Liquor Store, some things while in six packs are priced by the bottle…. if you think you’re getting a good deal on a six-pack, it’s priced by the bottle. YIKES!) On the way home, we stopped by a local winery for some tasting and took a good hike in Fundy National Park. A great weekend in a “foreign” country.

It’s been a pretty good assignment up here. We have quickly reached the ½ way point of the 13 weeks we will be here and time is flying. Time to start looking for the next job and make some licensure decisions. Yuck, hate that part. But, we hope to spend the 4th of July weekend off vacationing on Prince Edward Island. I think P.E.I. is the Cape Cod of Canada… we’ll see!
Enjoy some Canada-centric photography by entering the slideshow below through clicking on anyone of the thumbnails.

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International Travel – Reflection (part 4 of 4)

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Reflections

How could Amy not bust out a move at a time like this!?

How could Amy not bust out a move at a time like this!?

So after all of that, all of the waiting, searching, and more waiting, was it all worth it? Most definitely. We were told by those that have traveled to the Middle East before us that our worldview will change from living and working here, and it no doubt has.

From a Physio perspective, there are so many opportunities, so many ways that I can contribute to the department I am part of, and so many things I can learn from others. I am working with people from over 50 different countries, in 1 hospital. The hospital is world class and offers me all that I am willing to accept. I can formulate a research hypothesis and have the means and staff to assist me in carrying it out. We have top physicians, Physios and speakers from around the world presenting topics to us and consulting with our team to make our hospital a better place. It is quite an amazing to be part of something so unique.

One more shot of Doha from the water a night.

One more shot of Doha from the water at night.

From a personal perspective, we have learned how to adapt to different living conditions and more importantly to different cultures. I have learned that being open, non judgmental and genuinely interested in others has allowed me to create trusting relationships with my patients, coworkers, and friends.

I have learned, most importantly, that people are genuinely nice, despite their class, country or religion and that we are all fighting the same battles. We have met wonderful people from our drivers (yes we all tend to have drivers out here!) to CEO’s, tried new sports (squash), adapted our old sports (“mountain biking” in a flat desert) and had our share of love-hate relationships with everything from traffic, to food, and the eternal sunshine that is Qatar.

I hope these posts have kept you engaged and maybe even gotten some to want to jump on a plane and move abroad tomorrow. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you!

~Amy

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PT International Travel – The Prep Work (part 2)

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This is part 2 of a series on travel abroad as a working Physical Therapist. For previous posts, click “previous blogs” on the menu at the top of the page.

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Whether you are following a significant other somewhere or you are looking to relocate abroad on your own, there are a lot of things you want to consider before and during the transition process. Hopefully my story will help those of you thinking about travel abroad decide to take that leap out of the US and help you figure out how to do it. The process is never ending, but the better prepared you are, the less frustrated you will get!

Souq Waqif, a marketplace and one of the favorite tourist spots in Doha.

Souq Waqif, a marketplace and one of the favorite tourist spots in Doha.

 Like I mentioned in the first post, having a contact may be your greatest advantage in landing a job abroad. Think of a friend or family that lives abroad, a coworker that worked abroad or even someone that knows someone that worked or has contacts abroad. Six degrees of separation may work here! That is generally how most of us foreigners here in Qatar ended up where we are.

Since my husband was the one who took a job that was placing us overseas, I had to do a ton of research on the possible countries – Chile, Australia and Qatar – to see if any of them would be a place I could practice. Unlike many other professions, healthcare workers usually have either the burden of proving their proficiency through re-examination (who wants to take the boards again!) or through verification.

So, before you start packing your bags for some beautiful coastline, there’s a few things you will want to research, and then continue to research throughout the process. I’ll try to keep this as condensed as possible, but here’s some quick links if you don’t want to read all of it.

On the water looking back at Doha

On the water looking back at Doha

Given that we had 3 potential locations we could move to, I started by looking into the culture and the requirements for a PT in each country. A good place to start is the World Federation of Physical Therapy (http://www.wcpt.org). They have contact info for a ton of countries, including websites, emails, phone numbers and addresses. Awesome.

I started by emailing the contact for Chile. The biggest questions I was asking at first were 1. Do they accept a US licensure carte blanc, on a case by case basis, or do they require all international PT’s to take an examination? 2. Is Spanish (or Arabic for Qatar) a requirement or are there hospitals where the primary language among healthcare workers is English? I also checked out Chile’s physiotherapy webpage that I found on www.WCPT.org and googled hospitals in Santiago, Chile. Everything was in Spanish. The email I received from their PT association was in Spanish. Fluency seemed like a must at this point. So for Chile, I waited on proceeding until I had a better idea if we would end up there.

Next was Australia. I started by checking out http://www.physiotherapy.asn.au but also contacted a college professor as well, knowing that she practiced there. In Australia, they evaluate each candidate on a case by case basis, but chances are, an exam was likely. Now, being 6 years out of school, I would want to know that I would be here for at least a few years if I was going to study for another board. Again, further search was put on hold. But I couldn’t help to check out New Zealand, since I was looking in that part of the world. http://www.physioboard.org.nz/index.php?Registration-Overseas-QualifiedPhysiotherapists . Now this is the kind of information I was looking for! Direct information on how to apply as an international PT. Perfect. Now only if we were going there instead!

I saved Qatar for last. This is where we ended up and was probably the most complex process I have ever endured! I began with checking out background information on Qatar which is a moderately liberal/conservative Islamic country in the middle east. We have to be married to live together. I can drive, walk around, and do most things as I would in the US. It is respectful to have my shoulders and knees covered when in public. English is the common language given the hundreds of languages that are spoken here. So it seemed I should be able to transition here with moderate ease.

We then started by asking my husband’s company a ton of questions to find out if I should come over with my husband of if I needed to wait before I made my move. The big questions – sponsorship, benefits and education qualifications. I will get into these topics in the next blog and the details of what I specifically had to do to be eligible to work in Qatar.

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PT International Travel – An Introduction (part 1)

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People are ALWAYS asking me about travel abroad. Unfortunately, I have never traveled abroad to work and know very little about it. Recently, a friend, packed up her bags and headed for Qatar where she has now resumed work as a Physical Therapist. She has been kind enough to put some of her experiences to paper and share them with us.

Over the next month or so, we will post several blogs by Amy Sheridan about her experiences finding work abroad and the logistical and cultural obstacles that she has contended with.

Without further a-do, here is an introduction to Amy and we will soon follow-up with the next several pieces.

-James
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Doha, Qatar largest city. A population of about 1 million.

Doha, Qatar’s largest city. A population of about 1 million.

Ever think of working as a PT abroad? My husband and I had been throwing that idea around for a year or so before a great opportunity arose for him as an engineer in Qatar. We jumped, and I left my physical therapy job in the US and followed him there. Why Qatar? Why work abroad when you can work as a traveling PT in the US? Well, hopefully our tales will give you some background on not only work and play life abroad but also on the process that I had to go through to work in Qatar.

Prior to jumping ship, I worked as a Sports and Ortho PT in a private outpatient clinic in Boston. I had been working there since graduating from Northeastern University in 2006. Having a boss that traveled to the Middle East for 10 or so years to treat athletes actually prepared me to work abroad. I always thought it would be awesome to start traveling with him there. Instead, I ended up here myself.

Amy getting around Qatar via some local transportation.

Amy exploring Qatar via some local transportation.

The number one reason we ended up in Qatar, of all places to relocate to, was contacts. And patience. My husband must have posted his resume on 50 job websites for work all over the world without a single reasonable follow-up (very frustrating, I might add!) before a conversation with a subcontractor led him to a brilliant contact and a job. My job also came from a contact I made 3 years ago at a conference. If that’s not an ad for keeping old business cards, I don’t know what is!

Over the next few blogs, I’ll share the seemingly never ending production of preparing to relocate, the millions of questions we asked before and during the relocation process, securing visas and residency, idiosyncrasies of living in another country, culture shock, and finally what it is like to work in Qatar. I’m hoping that my experience will guide any of you looking into it or in the midst of the process.

-Amy