Careers To Go

A Career In Health Education
By Luitgard Holzleg

Lui, who lives in Switzerland, explains how she turned her nursing experience into a portable career and describes the success stories of four other accompanying partners.

Maybe I was prepared for it because I had worked in the medical field in various countries across the globe? Through my expatriate experience I have been able to find out first hand about a range of different approaches to health issues. With the benefit of objectivity I was able to broaden my horizons and understand the difficulties of maintaining a healthy life when living away from home. Preventive medicine had always been an important issue for me. In fact before I left my native Germany I began offering First Aid introductory classes to kindergarten children.

So when moving to Switzerland as a trailing spouse I did not need to look far: arriving into an international community with our own children, it was a small step from the idea to the actual deed and I soon offered classes in First Aid to children and adults. There is always a high demand for information in the health field particularly relating to children. Parents and teaching staff require a sound knowledge of accident prevention and First Aid, for example. So, within two years, I was not only introducing teenagers to basic First Aid techniques and offering classes to adults, but also had the opportunity to talk to the teaching staff of several international schools about important First Aid procedures that could be used in schools and their surroundings.

I have found that it is typical for a career in the health field to begin on a small scale like this, and is often started almost accidentally, when friends start asking for advice and support.

In our home countries we know where to turn if we have a health problem, but when we are living in a country where we have limited knowledge of the local language, we no longer have a family doctor to turn to for important things such as regular check ups. Our knowledge of up-to-date health-related information can be limited.

Of all the careers relating to health, education is probably the most accessible. Thanks to the Internet, gathering information appears to be much simpler and faster but is still a poor substitute for personal information, given face to face from a professional. People also need help with knowing how to access local health care and what the options may be.

As a professional, it is fairly simple to get a career started as an advice service. Before long your reputation will spread thanks to word of mouth and referrals.

Give presentations
If you have a specialism in a popular field, you can find yourself invited to give talks, seminars or workshops. By contacting international women's clubs, schools or any other networks, health fairs and exhibitions you will soon pick up more bookings. See if local or international television or radio stations would like to interview you too. Do not be too modest about what you have to offer, your skills put you in a position to share important information and in a transient community, you will have a constant turnover of clients. While you may often be expected to speak for free you will find that each presentation will result in referrals.

Write about it
If you are not someone who likes to speak in public, then you could always offer to write articles on your specialism in local magazines. Again, writing may not pay you very much in real money, but it will increase your profile considerably. Even if you have never written an article before, compiling information that is not commonly available and putting it into simple words is on of the easiest way to start your portable career. Remember that magazines have editors, who, providing your content is up to scratch, will be happy to edit your style.

If you publish in school newsletters, an international women's club magazine or a local free magazine, you may not get paid for your work but you will have the reward of helping many others with the knowledge you are sharing. Instead of payment for your articles you could ask for some publicity for your forthcoming courses.

What to teach
Health information can be offered on a huge range of topics including: nutrition, especially when dealing with allergies or dermatological problems such as eczema; antenatal classes for both pregnant women and their husbands, art and music classes for children with special needs, alternative healing methods ranging from homeopathy, herbal medicine and home remedies, kinesiology, Feng Shui, colour therapy, or dental hygiene.

You could consider developing and offering a correspondence course in some subjects too. However, you will need to accept, that unless you can manage to acquire certification for your courses from a reputed body or college, you will not be able to offer recognised qualifications. Take a look at www.odlqc.org.uk for further information.

Challenges
Working in the wide field of health, you will need to be particularly open minded to and tolerant of many different education systems and expectations than is the case in most other fields. How one country traditionally treats an ailment may not be the same in another. In the East for example, reflexology, magnotherapy and acupuncture may be the preferred treatment. In Norway you will often be prescribed little more than painkillers. If you want to work in an alternative health field, you need to be prepared for open criticism and opposition. Hang onto your self-confidence be shattered, continue to trust your feelings and believe in yourself. Often if you continue to operate with conviction and passion you will find that, over time, people will start to believe in your methods and ideas.

Be inspired by:
Ruth Ann Striegel
Ruth is an American who has lived outside the US since 1985 and currently lives in Germany. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education with a major in speech pathology. For many years she practised speech and language pathology in public schools, in many countries including Germany and Japan.

Two years ago she established a private practice in the Frankfurt area of Germany . The emphasis of her practice is working with children from the international community between the ages of two and seven on a variety of speech and language concerns. She has also developed a class in English as a Second Language. Ruth has never experienced any prejudice against herself because she is American. On the contrary, Americans and other English speaking families have been delighted to find the services of an American trained and certified speech pathologist when they arrive in Frankfurt.

Additionally she certified in Feng Shui five years ago through the Feng Shui Institute of America and now does Feng Shui consulting as well as teaching classes in the subject. Since her husband is a career school administrator with DoDEA she was lucky never to have had to apply for a work permit.

Ros Piper
Ros is a trailing spouse who lives in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman and, in her capacity as a midwife, takes antenatal classes at the Elixir Holistic Centre. She has a partner at the centre, a well qualified physiotherapist, who herself is a mother, who leads the exercise part of the course. Ros also does follow up post-natal care when required. She feels very happy to be involved with her professional work and lucky to have found something that fits in with school hours, school holidays and husband's schedule.

Mary B Uhlenhopp
Is a 40 year old American living in Switzerland. She is married with two children and prior to moving to Switzerland, lived in Germany. She earned a Nursing Bachelor's degree and two Master's degrees (Oncology Nursing and Public Health Administration and Policy) while still in the US. In Spring 1996, while living in Germany, she was asked to be on the editorial board of the largest oncology nursing website, for the Oncology Nursing Society. She now manages and represents the society's international side, addressing concerns of the international members and developing content and resources for the website, as well as moderate the international issues discussion forum. She was also asked to participate on the website editorial board for the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care, ISNCC. This relationship led to being asked to represent oncology nursing interests at the World Health Organisation World Anti-Tobacco Summit a few years ago in Geneva. She also works part-time as project manager being responsible for International Breast Cancer Study Group.

Nevertheless, Mary feels that she has not yet successfully found a position functioning at a Master's prepared level as a nurse in central Europe in a clinical setting. The status of nurses, albeit improving is markedly different in Germany and Switzerland than in the US. Educational programs for oncology nurses are improving and focusing more on speciality areas, but do not yet allow nurses to function at the level to which master's prepared nurses in the US are accustomed . If her German language skills were improved she trusts that many teaching opportunities would be available to her.

She recommends for women and especially nurses to network with local and international organisations in their profession and to contact key or important people in the area of their relocation to learn how to penetrate the job market. It is important to recognise that people may not always be supportive of the new arrival in the community but no-one should allow themselves to be intimidated by this.

Shabnam Frei-Yadav
Shabnam is of Indian origin and also holds British and Swiss passports. She has moved frequently as an adult, having lived in the UK, USA, Thailand, Yugoslavia, France, India, Bali and now in Switzerland. She originally trained in Ayurveda and Homeopathy in India. Additionally she trained Magnotherapy and Nutrition and now works in a private practice with her Swiss husband as a Bioacoustics Practitioner. She has worked in a variety of different professions too, including being an air stewardess and s an assistant film director. Following her studies in Homeopathy and Nutrition she spent three years assisting several prominent homeopaths in India in order to gain more experience. She studied Sound Therapy in the USA while living there and later qualified as a teacher. She now lives in Switzerland and has had a full time practice for seven years.

'Starting anew every time you move is difficult, especially when you work with alternative healthcare and futuristic methods like Infra Sounds,' says Shabnam. She also feels that it can be more difficult still, when, like her you are a member of a minority colour or are unusual in any other way. She feels that it never works if you try to become more like the locals than the locals themselves. But instead advises that you remain proud of your origins while respecting local traditions.
'Beneath the skin and traditions, people are the same everywhere,' she says.

You can contact Lui on:LuiHolzleg@aol.com