Nurse and doctor from Eastern Europe to USA

[attorneyalex]

I am an attorney helping a client of mine. She has a green card and lives in the states, working as a medical assistant. She was educated overseas. She is licensed as a nurse, and then went on to medical school and is licensed as a doctor as well. She attended a four year intensive high school program, that included nursing and secondary school, in one intensive program, no summer break, etc. She has passed Toefl.

CGFNS has refused to recognize her program as a first level general nursing program, instead categorizing it as a LPN program, or second level nurse, despite the fact that the hours in theory and practice exceed a full time US nursing program. We're not even considering her 6 years of medical school plus residency here. Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? It's pretty silly that she is licensed as a nurse and a doctor in her country, can sit for the USMLE medical exam, but cannot write the NCLEX and become a nurse?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

[suzanne4, RN]

The issue is that she did the training during high school time and not completely separate from high school coursework. The US requires that it be done after high school, and they will not give credit for anything more than the vocational training that they permit during high school which is for the practical or vocational nurse.

And her training is not considered first level if it was done in high school. There are many from Eastern European countries that did their training after they finished high school and had no issues at all.

China has similar programs and the US does not accept the ones that were completed during high school. You can try all that you wish to get CGFNS to change their rules, but the fact is that they are abiding by the rules that the US federal government has put into place. CGFNS does not make the rules but follows what is in their contract that was designed by the US government and nothing more than that.

Your client is not going to be able to practice as an RN in this country without completing a program that meets the requirements of having been completed after high school, and at the college level.

[suzanne4, RN]

You are not going to find one board of nursing that is going to accept her training that was done during high school time, just not going to happen.

The rules in the US is that they complete an approved program in an accreditied school of nursing and one that is done after high school, not at the same time or while in high school. In all of my years as an RN in the US, have never seen them accept it one time and do not expect to see them do it now.

Medicine and nursing are two very different courses, and we have seen many physicians that thought that they could just write the exam when they came here, but found out otherwise.

You are going to be wasting a great sum of money of your clients and for no reason. Just not going to happen, and it is not just me telling you this, but every other poster here.

[suzanne4, RN]

Just a note to others that have been reading here on this thread:

CGFNS is actually a corporation that was put in place to provide services for the US government. They do not make their rules directly, but do so under the requirements of the US federal government. They also cannot waive any requirements without it going thru meeting after meeting and taking about two years to get it done. And they cannot waive any requirements for one person and not for any others.

The US government requires that the nurses training be completed after high school and not during the same time. We have not seen one get approved to get licensure here in the US without meeting the requirements of attending school again.

A program done in high school is not considered as one of a first level nurse. But only as vocational/technical.