How to Work as a Nurse in Spain
8/9/2026
Welcome to MedSpain — I'm glad you found your way here.
If you're reading this, you're probably a healthcare professional thinking about moving to Spain, or perhaps you're already living here and wondering how to work as a nurse in Spain or how to continue your healthcare career in the country.
The good news is that working in Spain as a healthcare professional can be much more straightforward than you might initially think.
I know this from personal experience. I studied nursing in Estonia and now work as a nurse in Tenerife, Spain. I have personally gone through the process of getting my qualification recognised and starting my professional career here, so the process is still very fresh for me.
In this article, I'll give you a simple overview of how to work in Spain as a healthcare professional, what you need to prepare and what the general process looks like.
Can EU nurses work in Spain?
Yes, if you are a nurse who qualified in another EU country, you can have your professional qualification recognised in Spain and continue your career here. The same European recognition system applies to several regulated healthcare professions, including:
Nurses
Doctors
Dentists
Pharmacists
Midwives
Veterinarians
This means that if you are an EU-trained nurse, you don't necessarily need to start your education all over again in Spain.
Instead, the first important step is having your professional qualification officially recognised.
What documents do I need?
One of the most important parts of the process is preparing your documents correctly.
Depending on your profession and individual circumstances, you may need documents such as:
Your professional diploma or qualification
Academic documentation
Proof of professional qualification
Identification and residency documents
Other supporting documents required for your application
You should also pay close attention to Spanish translations. Some documents may need to be translated into Spanish by an authorised translator, so it is important to understand the translation requirements before submitting your application.
This is one of the areas where a little preparation can save you a lot of time and frustration later.
What happens after your qualification is recognised?
This is where things start becoming much more exciting.
Once the professional recognition part is completed, you can start focusing on actually building your career in Spain.
For nurses, this could mean looking at:
Private hospitals
Public healthcare
Clinics
Specialist centres
Temporary or permanent positions
Different regions of Spain
You also need to consider your Spanish language skills, the type of healthcare environment you want to work in and whether you want to live in a large city, on one of the islands or somewhere smaller.
I personally chose Tenerife, and I now work here as a nurse.
So yes — working as a nurse in Spain is absolutely possible.
What I wish I had known before starting
The hardest part isn't necessarily the recognition process itself.
For me, one of the biggest challenges was figuring out exactly what I needed to do, which documents were required, where to get them and how everything fitted together.
When you're dealing with Spanish administration in a foreign country, even relatively simple things can become confusing. That's one of the reasons I created MedSpain, I wanted to create a resource specifically for healthcare professionals who want to to work in Spain.
Ready to start your journey?
If you're serious about working as a nurse in Spain, the best thing you can do is understand the process before you start submitting documents.
I've created a practical MedSpain guide that brings the important information together in one place, so you can follow the process step by step and prepare your documents correctly.
Start your journey to working in Spain, get the guide from here: