International student

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Hello,

I am about to start my 4 year bachelor nursing degree in my country (I'm from Europe). My main goal is to get an NNP degree.

As someone from outside the US, all of the laws and requirements are very confusing to me and even after doing a lot of research i still feel the need to ask someone who can really give me a detailed explanation of how everything works.

After I finish my bachelor in nursing, I plan on doing a master's. In my country we have one in " Maternal Health and Obstetric Nursing" (it allows nurses to work in OB&GYN and neonatal care, as the course also focus on neonatal and perinatal care) but i wanted to get a master's in the US and after looking through programs i concluded that it should be a MSN.

After looking through various forums of nurses, I also read that in the US, in order to even apply for a NNP you need to have experience in the NICU department so I was wondering if a Midwifery degree allows me to obtain that clinical experience.

One of the reasons why I want to get a master's in the US is because of the immigration process. Is it easier to obtain a working visa/ green card (?) if I study in the country ?

Another question is, how will I be able to take the NCLEX if I'm overseas and hold no American degree ? What are the requirements ?

I apologize in advance if there's any confusion or if some of my questions don't make sense but the more research I do, the more confused I get!

Thank you !

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Specializes in Acute and Critical Care.

I'll answer this one part of your post,

Another question is, how will I be able to take the NCLEX if I'm overseas and hold no American degree ? What are the requirements ?

In order to be authorized to take the NCLEX, you need to look at the criteria on a specific state's board of nursing (BON) website. Each state has slightly different requirements.

One of the most important things is to have your nursing degree evaluated. My experience is that I needed to submit certain documents, education and nursing licensure, to the CGFNS. They confirmed my European BSN degree is equivalent to an American BSN degree.

This evaluation is forwarded to the BON of your choice, with which you'll have to have made an application as well. The BON will see if you meet all their criteria and if so, you'll receive an authorization to test (ATT). Only after this you can schedule the exam with the testing center. In Europe, there's a Pearson Vue center in London. Once you've scheduled, you just book the flights (if applicable) and take the test.

Also, I don't think studying in the US will make it any easier to get a working visa or permanent residency. Basically a student visa and a work visa/PR are treated as standalone requests. With regards to PR, or the so called Green Card, you'll need to find a sponsor to petition for you. There are some recruitment companies specifically for nurses, so you might want to look into those and see if any of those companies match your needs.

All the best on the journey! It's not impossible but it requires a lot of patience!

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Thank you so much for your reply.

I understand now the NCLEX process. Do you know if there's any way of contacting a BON to see if a course I would take (a postgraduate) in the UK or in another European country, is equivalent to the US' ? I believe the Bachelor I'm about to enroll is accepted everywhere but if by studying in the US I won't get help for the immigration process then it's probably much wiser to save all the tuition money and get the master's in Europe.

However if I could get that "confirmation" by them for the equivalency of the courses it would really help me in when it comes to choosing one.

(What I mean is if I send the modules and credits of the courses, maybe they could analyze them and conclude if it's equivalent or not)

I hope that made sense :)

Thank you again !

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Specializes in Acute and Critical Care.

The BONs don't determine equivalency themselves, it's always assessed by a third party, like CGFNS or WES. These companies base their evaluations on actual credits.

If you take a look at this document from the CGFNS, on page 2 you can see a table for breakdown of hours.

In my case, I filled out the nursing theory and clinical hours as well as the related sciences and that was enough. There are some varying guesstimates but what I was told, it's adequate if you have 40 hours of theory and 80 hours of clinicals in each category. I far, far exceeded those amounts; from my perspective the requirements are very minimal.

As far as I know (some) UK nurses have obstacles because of specialization in their degree and they're missing hours especially in pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology. The US requires a more generalized degree, and this is also reflected on the comprehensiveness of the NCLEX-RN.

A subsequent MSN can't be used to make up for missing components or hours because each degree is looked at separately. Also, for the NCLEX you'll only need a BSN, although Americans can also take the exam based on their ASN but these degrees don't exist in Europe.

I'm only familiar with the Nordic UASs BSN degrees and these are equivalent and competitive in the US. Do you already have a syllabus for your Bachelor's? Or maybe you can ask your school to give you an estimate how your degree will compare to the American requirements.

Hope this helps!

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The document really helped !

I was very interested in studying in the UK for a bachelor, but for the exact same issue you mentioned I decided not to. My course is a 'general' nursing degree so not as specific as "adult" or "children" nursing like in the UK and by looking at the modules on my university's site all of the specialties are in the document you sent. I will have to calculate the hours as well.

So glad you explained that because I thought the master's would be looked at with the BSN for the NCLEX.

The reason why I mentioned the postgraduate's degree was because I found the Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner degree (in the UK) very interesting and I'm researching if it's an asserted choice to practice as a NNP in the US (although I'm still not quite sure about the requirements due to the US demanding applicants to have worked a couple of years in NICU, and in the UK they don't really mention that).

But I will definitely email my university and the ones in the UK who offer that Master's and ask if it fits the American requirements!

Thank you for all the help !

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