I need some help.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Oct 16, 2007

Think you will find it hard to get anywhere abroad to accept US credits, same as if someone moving from abroad to the US. Some may take them but you have to do your own searching asking questions and coming to agreements. Also depends on how the nurse training is done in the country you move to. You could do your training in Italy but would be classed as an International student so will be expensive and when you return to the US you will always have to declare your training as foreign and meet their requirements. Also as a LPN I find it hard that you will be able to find work unless in a US military hospital as usually immigration/work requires RN.

Thedreamer · Oct 16, 2007

sigh that sounds like a really tough call and lengthy process. Thanks so much for the info.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Oct 16, 2007

your welcome. Any immigration to any place tends to be lengthy as you must meet that country's requirements. Hope you sort something out

kukukajoo, LPN · Jan 18, 2008

What about distance learning? It seems that anywhere you have web access you could complete online courses.

Miss Cola, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2008

Well I can ask some of my relatives over in Italy what the whole nursing "set-up" is like over there. On the other hand, I can just teach you how to cook all that really good Italian food, like that stromboli I made for the 3rd term class party,.......:redpinkhe

suzanne4, RN · Jan 19, 2008

As far as completing training there for your RN, it will be almost impossible in their program. They require that you are completely fluent in Italian first of all and can pass their language exams. Then add onto it the fact that they will not give credit for your LPN courses in most cases.

You will be better off if you can find a distance learning program that will get you the RN license but make sure that you select one that will be able to get you a license in the state that you wish to work in when you will return to the US. Not all programs are accepted for licensure in all states.

Also be aware that you may have issues getting a visa to live there for any length of time. As an American, you do not need a visa to visit there, but in terms of living there, then a visa is required. You will not be able to work there in most cases so will need to prove that you will have the funds to support yourself while you are there.

Best of luck to you.

kukukajoo, LPN · Jan 19, 2008

As far as completing training there for your RN, it will be almost impossible in their program. They require that you are completely fluent in Italian first of all and can pass their language exams. Then add onto it the fact that they will not give credit for your LPN courses in most cases.
You will be better off if you can find a distance learning program that will get you the RN license but make sure that you select one that will be able to get you a license in the state that you wish to work in when you will return to the US. Not all programs are accepted for licensure in all states.
Also be aware that you may have issues getting a visa to live there for any length of time. As an American, you do not need a visa to visit there, but in terms of living there, then a visa is required. You will not be able to work there in most cases so will need to prove that you will have the funds to support yourself while you are there.
Best of luck to you.

Suzanne- where did this information come from? I am not sure it is entirely correct. It is fairly easy to go to Italy to go to school as I have has a few do this for art and art history majors. This does not require you to be fluent in Italian at all and there are even schools over there that teach in English.

It also is not that difficult to get a work visa. My daughter went to Italy and ended up working at a vineyard for the harvest and loved it. You just have to get all the documents in place and make sure you apply for the right visas and permissions, etc.

At the very least, the OP can pair up with an American school and do a study abroad type set up. There are tons of schools that do this and funds available as well.

Italian is not a hard language to learn at all if you ask me. I am actually learning it now from tapes at home and in my car. I got the idea from a friend who learned this way. His reasoning was if you can learn terrible songs by heart from hearing them so much on the raido, why not listen to a language and learn something beneficial. By golly it works!!

kukukajoo, LPN · Jan 19, 2008

http://www.usembassy.it/acs/general-visiting.asp

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4033.htm

http://www.conncoll.edu/academics/departments/italian/studyaway.html

http://www.wellesley.edu/Italian/Italian-old/bologna.html

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jan 19, 2008

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/qualifications/docs/nurses/2000-study/nurses_italy_en.pdf

Found this on nurse training in Italy. What you need to remember is clinical placement will be within hospitals and other health settings and some knowledge of language will be required as not everyone understands English. The same happens when a nurse wants to work in the US, if English is not their native language and/or their nurse training was not done with English text books then they have to sit and pass English exams

Also countries always charge more for International students

kukukajoo, LPN · Jan 19, 2008

They do have a language test in some cases. I can't even imagine how much it would cost to pay international rates.

I can imagine a learning curve besides the language would be learning the new med names as they are different in most countries.

I think the best option if the OP can still go would be to do the online education. But gosh, I would love to attend some schooling in another country just for the expereince and to see how they do things.

Even if the OP can figure out a way to attend there, when he comes back to the US there is the whole process of gaining licensure for foreign trained Nurses.....

suzanne4, RN · Jan 19, 2008

Suzanne- where did this information come from? I am not sure it is entirely correct. It is fairly easy to go to Italy to go to school as I have has a few do this for art and art history majors. This does not require you to be fluent in Italian at all and there are even schools over there that teach in English.
It also is not that difficult to get a work visa. My daughter went to Italy and ended up working at a vineyard for the harvest and loved it. You just have to get all the documents in place and make sure you apply for the right visas and permissions, etc.
At the very least, the OP can pair up with an American school and do a study abroad type set up. There are tons of schools that do this and funds available as well.
Italian is not a hard language to learn at all if you ask me. I am actually learning it now from tapes at home and in my car. I got the idea from a friend who learned this way. His reasoning was if you can learn terrible songs by heart from hearing them so much on the raido, why not listen to a language and learn something beneficial. By golly it works!!

Nursing is a licensure program, quite different from going to school in the arts or something similar. There are very strict requirements for that. Without already being accepted into a BWN program here and having completed a majority of the program, there is no way to get into an overseas program as a guest student for that one term. This is the same for any foreign country.

The ADN is not recognized for licensure in Italy in the first place, so trying any type of additional programming there would be quite hard to do.

Using a language tape to learn a language does not prepare you for having to pass a language exam, same thing for foreigners that wish to work in the US in nursing.

And the visa that you are speaking of is as an unskilled laborer, not as a nurse or as a student. Going to school full-time requires a student visa, and if working full-time, then you are not going to attend school full-time and meet those requirements.

If the training for the RN is not done with a distance program from the US, the training will not be recognized in the US when she returns. The US requires that the training be considered first level RN in the country where the training was done and there is no program that can be completed and the hours transferred that will meet the requirements for licensure here.

Example, just by wishing to attend another school in your area, many times they require that you complete their hours again, they do not necessarily accept hours at face value for transfer when you are in a program.

When talking about nursing programs, and the person has the LPN/LVN license in hand, always much easier and faster to complete a bridge program on-line and if needed just fly back to the US for short visits to complete specific requirements.

I have been working with International nurses for too many years to count and very aware of the requirements for nursing all over the world.

Doing training for a year overseas or so, does not give one full credit for the required nursing license here in the US, you can only get credit as a guest student for a few hours in nursing, usually just one or two classes to meet the degree requirements for licensure.

Nursing students can go and do a semester of gaining work experience but they will not get credit for all of it when they return home, it is usually for about 8 credit hours maximum and they usually do it for just one semester and that again requires that they are already in the BSN program and have completed most of their classwork already. I am used to working with foreign nursing students from all over the world and have done so when I have lived overseas as well, and they never come for more than a few months to gain experience in the area that they are interested in, it is considered elective time for them, but they do not get credit for required/mandatory hours for that.

This is where I have gotten my information from, years of experience in the field.