Menu
Menu
In Ireland, nurses are highly sought-after healthcare professionals and can work in various institutions, such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and health centres. Nurses can work as general practitioners or as specialists, such as clinical nurses, emergency nurses, psychiatric nurses and others. And there are many interesting nursing roles available throughout the country. In this guide, Clarity Locums walks you through everything you need to know to get started as an agency nurse.
An agency nurse is a nurse who works on a temporary basis, as a locum. They work in different locations, such as hospitals, patient’s homes, rehab centres, and nursing homes, instead of working as a permanent employee in a specific institution. They usually find work with the support of locum nursing agencies.
Agency nurses are often used to fill staffing gaps in healthcare facilities during periods of high patient demand, staff shortages, or special circumstances like seasonal illnesses. They provide essential healthcare services, including patient care, administering medications, and assisting with medical procedures, just like regular staff nurses.
If you are self-motivated, able to work independently, able to manage your own time, and like to travel & work in different environments, working as an agency nurse may be the perfect job for you!
Agency work opens up a range of benefits for nurses
Say goodbye to missing the events you want to attend! Working as a nurse through an agency will give you more control over your career, allowing you to create the perfect balance between your personal and professional life.
Choose the days and times you want to work, as well as the locations and professional settings. Want to take a few vacations? Don't like working at the weekend? With agency nursing such as ours, your schedule is entirely in your hands. All you need is an account and a locums app.
One of the leading benefits of working as an agency nurse is the excellent rate of pay. Generally, agency nurses earn a higher hourly wage than those in permanent positions.
With Clarity, you can earn between €30 to €60 per hour, depending on your experience and place of work. Read our blog here to learn more about agency nursing pay rates.
Agency work offers nurses great opportunities to sharpen their skills. Working in a variety of locations and institutions will expose you to different environments, allowing you to further develop your skills and perhaps find your speciality!
It will also allow you to develop important interpersonal skills, critical thinking and adaptability skills – qualities that are all essential to grow and develop as a great nurse.
Grow your professional network as an agency nurse
Working as an agency nurse enables you to focus on doing what you love and providing the best care to your patients without having to worry too much about administration and paperwork.
Clarity Locums takes care of that for you! Say goodbye to paper timesheets and easily manage your locum shifts and hours through your account.
Working as an agency nurse, depending on where you're working, you will work in collaboration with many other professionals, such as doctors, paramedics, home helpers, students, and community members, among others. This will allow you to expand your network of contacts and probably make several friends!
Discover more benefits and ways in which agency nursing can enhance your professional career here.
To work as a nurse in Ireland, you must be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI).
Depending on whether you are an Irish nurse, a nurse graduated in the EU or graduated outside the EU, there are different registration routes:
If you’ve qualified outside Ireland, it is important that you choose the group because this will determine what documents you need to submit to the NMBI. It is also important that you can prove your English proficiency.
To work as a nurse in Ireland, and if you are an EU citizen, you will not need a visa. However, if you graduated outside the EU you will need a visa.
To start working as an agency nurse, there are a number of requirements you will need to have, the first of which is to be Garda Vetted.
“Garda Vetting is conducted in respect of any person who is carrying out work or activity, a necessary and regular part of which consists mainly of the person having access to, or contact with, children or vulnerable persons.” National Vetting Bureau
As well as Garda Vetting, there are several documents and certificates which you will need to complete your compliance – a number of which can be found on HSEland. Lastly, it's recommended that nurses engage in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) throughout their career.
When you first register with Clarity Locums as an agency nurse, you will receive a handy new starter pack which contains a checklist of these documents, and how to obtain them.
Ireland has great opportunities for agency nurses
The first step to finding nursing shifts is to register with Clarity Locums. Sign up and create an account either via our website or mobile app. This will involve filling in your personal details and NMBI pin.
Once you've confirmed your account, our team will get in touch with the next steps.
Read through Clarity's registration process for nurses to get all the details you need to launch your career as a nursing locum.
Once you've completed your account setup and uploaded all mandatory compliance documents, you can start booking shifts! This can be done easily online or conveniently through our app.
Filter your preferences and find work in locations that suit you. We've laid out everything you need to know about booking shifts.
As of August 2023, Clarity Locums is now an official HSE-approved service provider. This is a huge development for nurses registered with our agency as it has drastically increased the number of vacancies we're hiring for, meaning there are hundreds of new opportunities around the country.
If you need any further information about working as an agency nurse in Ireland, feel free to contact us! Our nursing desk is always on hand to assist with any queries or issues you may have.
Call us at 01 211 8840 or email us at the button below:
First of all check out our FAQs section, it might just have what you need.