Nursing careers on offshore oil drilling rig

Working on offshore oil drilling rig is always dangerous, and qualified medical personnel should be the first to respond to emergencies, accidents or illnesses. Generally, oil company requires someone with extensive medical training, such as a nurse, to serve as the medical staff of the deck, coordinate nursing, medical supplies management, coordinating the training of the oil workers in first aid to each other.

Nursing positions opening on oil rigs

Since there are oil rigs around the world and almost all of them require medical personnel, there are jobs available in nursing. For example, a nursing job in UAE requires a person with a minimum of two years of emergency room experience and proven experience in emergency medicine, certified in CPR and first aid, and excellent English language skills. It is also desirable to understand and speak Arabic. Oil rigs that operate under the aegis of the British government that are near Norway and South Africa require different language skills.

Nurse offshore

As a nurse working on offshore platform, you should be able to diagnose and treat wide range of medical problems and conditions, as well as perform a rapid assessment of patients, providing life-saving procedures and managing necessary evacuations to hospitals onshore. The range of treatments required is varied and include administration of the medications to control bleeding, calibration of drug doses and application of restraints. Most likely it will be the only person in the medical field to treat up to 150 rig workers, although in severe cases, offshore nurse can contact a doctor by phone for advice. During the work offshore nurse will be responsible for the health of the entire crew, as well as for the guiding of all medical records, training of the crew as lifeguards, and ordering all medical supplies and sanitary equipment. Beyond medical needs, as a nurse / doctor on oil rig, this position will be a member of the management team and therefore is required to meet the required from the managerial staff.

Offshore life

Life aboard an offshore oil platform can be exciting or frustrating for a nurse, depending on your attitude. Employer can ask oil rig platform medic to work six months a year maximum, while the remaining six months constitute employee's free time on leave. For the total of the 6 months of working on the oil rig, you will make 12-hour shifts each day. You will not have days off, except the possibility of having a half day off on Christmas and / or New Year. No alcohol in the tower and all purchases are made on the oil rig shop, which sells only toiletries, sweets and cigarettes. Some people complain of six months off, because they are bored and unable to rest. On the positive side, the nurse usually is autonomous, working only with the doctor that resides on shore many miles away from the drillship's or offshore platform's location at high seas. The rig nurse will use free kitchen facilities, and all types of laundry and cleaning will be also free. Still you receive a higher salary than you would receive for a normal land based job.

What working on oil rigs is like?

There is no denying that the upstream oil sector is the most complex of the three that we have discussed. But the lack of expert people in this field ensures that good candidate gets hired to a job that is relatively permanent and quite well paid. Wages and salaries in offshore work are considerably higher than those of any ground work. In addition, the cost of accommodation, food and transportation are paid by the company that hires, thus turning the experience into an important source of income.

The life and work on the offshore oil drilling and production facilities are hard, and sometimes risky. The extreme offshore isolation and conditions of ultimate cold and heat are an issue to consider when accepting a job involving hardships of the kind.

Shift duration vary from one oil drilling company to other. But generally worker gets 21 or 14 days off for every 14 days on duty, but there are also companies where no rest is available until the job is finished.

The working day is the longest, with an average of 80-100 hours per week. Meanwhile, free time available is one of the main attractions of the the employment on the offshore platforms, leaving much of free time to devote to personal activities or even working in addition for more money with the other company.

It is really a very hard kind of work, but it is well paid with lots of free time and opportunity to travel to distant and unfamiliar places around the world and many chances of meeting people from other countries and continents.

General offshore job requirements

The first thing required from good candidate is that the applicant is of the legal age. Good health and fitness are also essential requirements, and need to be proved by physical examination performed by doctors of the company in question, and various tests aimed to detect possible drug abuse or using the banned substances.

It is advisable that before you apply for a position in the offshore petroleum sector that as potential employee you do your own research and review some of the industry specific requirements set for the different positions available on offshore platforms and assess if you are really ready for the experience as described in oil job descriptions. Be it nurse, mechanic, roughneck, roustabout, or even less demanding job in catering as cook, steward, galleyhand, chef, or camp boss, it's for a reason that all of them are bing paid so well.