Are medical/surgical placement hours important?

[kimmy91]

Hi

I am a fresh graduate in Australia.

Now I want to go to US with my license, but I am worried about my placement hour records.

I did not do placement in medical/surgical ward while I was in school,

because there was no spot left for me.

Instead, I spent more hours in a geriatric and rehabilitation ward.

Is it important to have records of placement hours in medical/surgical ward to transit my license to US license?

[SpidersWeb, BSN]

Hey kimmy91,

My experience with credentials evaluation is that nurses with foreign degrees need a certain amount of both theory and clinical hours in each nursing area, including medical and surgical. Some foreign nurses have been able to negotiate special arrangements to make up any missing hours.

I used the CGFNS for my credentials evaluation as required by the board of my choice.

For reference, look at the table on their transcript verification form: http://www.cgfns.org/wp-content/uploads/AcademicRecordsFormNurses.pdf. In each category you need a minimum of 40 h of theoretical instruction and 80 h of clinical practice.

I hope this helps.

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

Are you saying you did zero hours on any kind of general ward???

A renal ward, plastics, orthopaedic, stroke are all considered med/surg.

Here in Australia we tend to describe the ward by its specialist area but unless a critical care area e.g. CCU, ICU the rest of your wards are med/ surg in most hospitals

If the geriatric was acute then it is general medical but sub acute may be described as such if it was a GEM unit.