Just how far would you go to make ends meet? For one nurse, that means traveling 5,200 miles across the Atlantic from Europe to work in a NICU in the United States. Courtney El Refai commutes from Sweden to San Francisco for work, and the transatlantic grind is worth it for her $116-an-hour paycheck. Just one 12-hour shift is enough to cover her monthly rent in Stockholm, where she lives with her husband and 2-year-old daughter. The family moved from the U.S. to Sweden in 2022, but Courtney quickly began to miss her career as a registered nurse. It wasn’t until she gave birth to her daughter in 2023 that the couple began splitting time between the U.S. and Europe. Following a 19-month return to the U.S., Courtney secured a job as a NICU nurse at a hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area. She then committed to the 11-hour journey to work, racking up 30,000 miles and spending $1,500 so far since January. On a per-diem schedule, Courtney works just four 8-hour shifts every month and can cluster her schedule to allow for a 6-week break between shifts. Courtney said she earns more part-time as a nurse — with travel included — than a full-time nurse in Sweden makes. She pays around $500 for her return flights every time she visits the U.S., and once she has paid $50 for a room she rents from a fellow nurse, she brings home roughly $5,000 after every 8-day stint. In Sweden her rent is $1,350 a month, whereas she was paying $2,600 when she lived in the states. When asked why she doesn’t just get a job as a nurse in Sweden, Courtney explained that the top wage for nurses there is $30 an hour. When you compare that to $116 an hour in the U.S., it’s a no-brainer.
