nurse from france

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hi everyone

i just moved from france since 8 months ago, (I'm sorry by advance for my english)

I living in vermont and I gonna move in las vegas soon

I had my diploma in 2005 and I worked 1 year in emergency and 5 year in intensive care of cardiology.

I would like to know wich jobs I can do with my certification in usa?

how I can valid my diploma to be a nurse?

thanks for your help






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hi everyone

i just moved from france since 8 months ago, (I'm sorry by advance for my english)

I living in vermont and I gonna move in las vegas soon

I had my diploma in 2005 and I worked 1 year in emergency and 5 year in intensive care of cardiology.

I would like to know wich jobs I can do with my certification in usa?

how I can valid my diploma to be a nurse?

thanks for your help


Probably things you should have researched prior to leaving France. With all due respect you are basically asking us to assist you in taking a job away from a qualified US citizen during a time when jobs are scarce.

I am pretty certain that if I wanted to work in France as a nurse they would not be very accomodating to me......

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Specializes in GICU, PICU, CSICU, SICU.

Salut Audrey,

Je suis désolé pour mon mauvais français. On s'habitue aux États-Unis? Il peut parfois être un pays très compliqué. Je pense que vous devriez prendre, entrer en contact avec l'ambassade ou le consulat français. Ils vous aideront à cet égard.

Bonne chance!

Since it is an English site I'll include the translation ^^. But I wanted to give her some feeling of home.

Hey Audrey,

I'm sorry about my crappy French. Are you getting used to the United States? It can be quite a complicated country. I think you should contact the French embassy or consulate. They can probably give you some more information about this.

Good luck!.

@ mindlor; I'm pretty sure you'd be very welcome to work in France, you would be in Belgium for sure. You'd most likely struggle with the language for quite a bit. The luck we have in Europe is that we generally have great shortages of qualified nurses. And I'm pretty sure if the US citizen is more qualified than Audrey they have nothing to fear.

For years we had agencies whose only purpose was to attract nurses from the Netherlands (where I originally did my education) and get them to work in nearly any specialty of choice in the USA as an RN or BSN.

We were offered a house, job, car, job for my partner, expenses paid for moving and for getting registered in the USA. Apparently they thought we were very qualified :) Therefore I'm shocked that only 7 years after my graduation the job market in the USA has trimmed down so much and I'm very glad I didn't decide to take the plunge back then.

So if you ever have a desire to live/work in Belgium mindlor chat me up we'll get you started ^^

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I examined before leaving, I wanted to know if you knew tricks(clevernesses) to validate my diplome.

If you wanted to work in France you would be welcomed well because we always are to interesser to learn(teach) the other persons

thank for your help......

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thank you for your answer.

I try to do my job in usa I want learn more than I know and I pretty sure working in the hospital here is very interesting

your french is very good

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hi everyone

i just moved from france since 8 months ago, (I'm sorry by advance for my english)

I living in vermont and I gonna move in las vegas soon

I had my diploma in 2005 and I worked 1 year in emergency and 5 year in intensive care of cardiology.

I would like to know wich jobs I can do with my certification in usa?

how I can valid my diploma to be a nurse?

thanks for your help


Unlike France each state here has their own board of nursing and therefore qualifications for licensure. As a graduate of a nursing program out of the country if you are moving to Nevada start here: http://www.nursingboard.state.nv.us/license/international%20additional%20information.pdf

and here:

http://nevadanursingboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Instructions-for-RN-LPN-application-for-license-by-examination.pdf

The following illustrates some of the difficulties non-native nurses face in the LV area:

Foreign nurses can slip into communication gap - Tuesday, March 10, 2009 | 2 a.m. - Las Vegas Sun

As you probably already have found out there is a world of difference between text book English versus what one encounters on the ground in daily communication. This of couse is almost always the case and as one who has studied French through high school and college am here to tell you it was a shock at first getting used to "France" French. *LOL*

Until you have had your credentials verified and receive a license from a state here to practice there isn't a hospital in the land that will touch you. Due to a major excess supply of American nurses in most areas hospitals do not have to go through the expense and trouble of sponsoring a non-native nurse even if she is already here legally.

One thing you will find in common with France is that applying for nursing licensure here requires endless amounts of paperwork. Even when one thinks one has finished the odd bit has gone missing and a request comes to resubmitt. Then there is the wait.

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Actually France like much of the EU and UK has a shortage of native born nurses and would probably welcome United States nurses. However in France and many other places RNs are a protected job class thus those outside of the EU/UK stand little to no chance of getting end despite conditions on the ground.

Then there is the language barrier. A vast majority of persons who take the French proficiency language exam (required for those seeking employment in nursing and most other areas as well), fail. This includes those whom have spent years studying the language and considered themselves quite fluent.

Would have to find the article, but read recently that nearly 1/3 of nurses working on London hospitals are imports from other countries.

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Hello Audrey! I'm also a French citizen here in Las Vegas since 2011. I was a nurse in my country since 1997.I'm currently working as a real estate agent but I'm planning on doing all the paperwork and pass the required exams in order to work as a nurse. I was wondering if you finally reached your goals and if you would share your experience with me.I'm looking forward to hearing from you :)Thank you!

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Hi Vahine hi Audrey, My name is stephanie. I am also a french nurse working on my Toefl and Nclex to be able to work as a nurse in Massachusetts. I have been here since 1 year now. I would like to know how to get some experience in a hospital? I am working as volunteer already but I am not in a medical service and I don't see how the nurses are working. Do you know if there are some training or something like that for foreign nurses who want to improve their knowledge?

I am so sad to read a post where people says that is not respectful to come in a new country and take a job away from a citizen nurse. Sorry to read that! but you don't know how is difficult for us to come here and restart every thing! with all my respect, you should think about this.

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Probably things you should have researched prior to leaving France. With all due respect you are basically asking us to assist you in taking a job away from a qualified US citizen during a time when jobs are scarce. I am pretty certain that if I wanted to work in France as a nurse they would not be very accomodating to me......

Wow. Not very nice. You don't know the circumstances that led her to move to the US. Maybe her circumstances did not allow for extended planning. Even if they did, still not nice.

To the OP...I don't know how to help you but good luck to you and I hope you are finding the U.S. enjoyable. Your English is great. Certainly a lot better than my French...ha,ha.

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