OffTheGrid123

Go to the trumerit (formerly cgfns) website and apply for credential evaluation. Every board of nursing has different methods, you'll find them on the website, but ces is the most common. You'll also need you high school diploma and proof of English proficiency.

What's the main difference between eDas and CES, do they have different requirements/is one less strict than the other? I also will likely be lacking obgyn, psych and peds. I contacted Maine BON and aside from listing all the theory subjects (a couple of which my uni just doesn't have in its syllabus, like cultural diversity, nutrition, humanities and group dynamics) they also listed, and I quote: Clinical AND Theory in: Maternity Pediatrics Med/Surg Mental Health Public Health Now, so far I've gotten and I'll only be getting med/surg experience, probably ER/ICU too, but that's about it. The only clinical I might (and it's a pretty big might) be able to request before I graduate would be psychiatry, but otherwise I'm lacking. How was it that they still let you through even though they list obgyn and peds as required? I'm from Europe by the way. Is there some way around it or to complete the hours after I graduate somehow? My uni likely won't let me do clinicals on request so maybe an employer or some course stateside? I'm at a loss right now. Also @uounique you said WAbon didn't accept your endorsement from MT because you were lacking peds, does that mean MTbon is more lenient, did they just let you through without peds, what were their requirements? Did you have obgyn/psych?

Hey, thanks for this post; when you apply for CVS to NY BON do they give you an exact breakdown of the clinical/theory hours you need? I'm from Europe and I'll likely have little to no theory hours in geriatric nursing (and no clinical hours whatsoever in such area), no hours in psychiatric nursing, no hours in community nursing, and no hours in ob/gyn/paed (although I might be able to request hours in the latter three before I graduate). The only option I'd have to go through such missing hours is to perhaps require an employer to grant them to me through a voluntary apprenticeship/stage after I graduate and send a letter to say TX BON and have them waived. Otherwise I'm really at a loss; is NY BON so strict on specific theory/clinical hours? What are their specific requirements? The clinical hours I've done are surgery and emergency medicine (450h combined) and I'll 100% do OR, ER and ICU in the next two years for a total of 1800h clinical hours at least.

By the way when I say applying to different boards, I don't mean for NCLEX, but for CES or CVS in the case of NY, so that I may save time and have a higher likelihood of applying to a state who'll accept my credentials straight off the bat.

I'd like to work in a compact state like Texas, Montana or Idaho, but I'm not sure I'll meet the education requirements (I'll probably lack clinicals in paed/obst, gynecology, psychiatry, geriatrics and community nursing). I'm not sure of what the educational requirements for these states are, but I know some states are more lenient. Would it be possible for me to apply to, say, Texas and NY at the same time so that if Texas refuses to validate my credentials I can still work in NY? Also, I wouldn't wanna go back and forth to my school and hassle them to send basically the same emails over and over again to different BON addresses cause the previous one refused my credentials, so would it be possible to just do it all at once and have my credentials sent to like 10 different BON's in one go?

Hey, I'm in the same situation, could you help me?

I'm in the same boat as you guys above; does anyone know if there's been any update to this 80 hours per area rule, and also which areas specifically are strictly necessary? I'm also from Italy, just finished my first year (finished surgery clinicals, going into medicine), I know I won't be doing ob/gyn, pediatrics, psychiatry and community nursing clinicals by default, so I'd have to require those hours either in the coming year of nursing school or after I graduate.

I'm a nursing student from Italy, which is where I'm studying at the moment. I've gotten past my first year and have just finished clinicals in general/emergency surgery (I'll start emergency medicine clinicals in a few days). As far as I know US nursing students also get clinicals in community nursing, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, which we don't get here (we study it in year but stopped doing clinicals in those areas a few years ago). Since I'd like to work in the US as an RN after I graduate, which wards/areas do I specifically need to get experience in, and how many hours exactly? Also, does every single state require experience in these areas or is experience in med/surg, OR, ICU and ER (which is what we get here in 3 years of nursing university, a total of 1800 hours of clinicals) enough depending on the state? (if it helps, the states I'd be mainly interested in are New York, Texas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota and Alaska) Thank you in advance, I ask because I might be able to require the specific clinical hours that I need in my second year of nursing school, otherwise I'd have to request them after I graduate and hopefully have them granted to me (also, as far as you know, do US colleges/hospitals/agencies offer opportunities for foreign nurses to get their clinical hours so that they may be fully equivalent educationally speaking and take NCLEX?). A specific list with hours for each area would also be highly appreciated.

I'm a nursing student from Europe, which is where I'm studying at the moment. I've gotten past my first year and have just finished clinicals in general/emergency surgery (I'll start emergency medicine clinicals in a few days). As far as I know US nursing students also get clinicals in community nursing, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, which we don't get here (we study it in year but stopped doing clinicals in those areas a few years ago). Since I'd like to work in the US as an RN after I graduate, which wards/areas do I specifically need to get experience in, and how many hours exactly? Also, does every single state require experience in these areas or is experience in med/surg, OR, ICU and ER (which is what we get here in 3 years of nursing university) enough depending on the state? Thank you in advance, I ask because I might be able to require the specific clinical hours that I need in my second year, otherwise I'd have to request them after I graduate (also, as far as you know, do US colleges/hospitals offer opportunities for foreign nurses to get their clinical hours so that they may be fully equivalent educationally speaking and take NCLEX?)

Hey Alberto, I'm in nursing school in Italy, I will graduate in about 2 years. Is there any way to know exactly which clinical hours/experience in what wards are specifically required? If possible I'd like to get the strictly necessary clinical hours before I graduate so I don't waste too much time. Also, do all states require hours in pediatrics/obstetrics or just some?

That's understandable but I guess it really depends on what your curiosity, as you said, is. If you like art, fine you'll go see art, which is something you can do while on a vacation, which will be far more affordable and enjoyable if you're actually making money (as someone who's lived in the city with arguably most art in the world for 21 years and as someone who loves art, I can tell you the yearly amount of hours I spend satiating such curiosity is about equivalent to that of a two week vacation; 90% of your time is going to consist of working and commuting, not going on sightseeing on your Vespa or whatever sanitized prospect you have, and you'll no longer associate Italy (or your favorite country) = vacation/intellectual curiosity, it'll just become routine). As for the language, you can learn any language in the country you're already in. I learned English without ever even stepping foot in an English speaking country. Still, if you wanna learn it you'll have something more when you go on a vacation that you'll actually be able to better afford and enjoy due to your economic predicament not being making bare minimum month to month survival money. Thirdly, if you have specific hobbies like camping/hiking/enjoying nature or anything you'd easily be able to do in most part of the US, forget about that; totally illegal. Someone busts into your house to harm you/your family? Give them all they want and more on a silver platter or you'll go to jail for as much as touching a hair on the head of someone oppressing your bodily/material integrity and freedom. Wanna take a bus somewhere? It's the third strike of the week, guess you'll have to take a cab or your car for which you'll have to do lapses around 10 neighborhoods to find a parking spot and get fined hundreds of euros if you're an inch out of the parking line, all while driving on dilapidated streets that aren't getting fixed even by the exorbitant amount of taxes you pay here. The list goes on; things aren't good here and they aren't getting any better; the nursing profession is one of the most undervalued, with there being little to no career growth paths like NP or CRNA in the US, and underpaid here, with it being a relatively frequent talking point even in mainstream media, and with Italian nurses fleeing the country en masse to Switzerland, the US, Australia, Norway etc. You can have hobbies and intellectual curiosities, but they don't need to be hampered by your largely decreased quality of life and little to no dignity as a worker, nor ruin or tarnish the image you have of a country or place you like for reasons that go beyond its economy and laws, which is what you're actually going to be dealing with for the absolute vast majority of the time you're gonna be living there. Just my two cents, anyone can do whatever they wish with their life, just know what you're getting into and be realistic about your expectations.

In the same boat as you but will graduate in two years. Am also from Europe. Cgfns requires at least 2 years of experience, for all the research I've done agencies cannot get around that as it's the legal requirement. The fastest way about it would be to start the bureaucratic process of credential evaluation, English proficiency and NCLEX as soon as possible from whenever you graduated and work in the meantime. Get in touch with an agency as soon as you graduate or even slightly before that, get them to tell which type of working experience is optimal and what paperwork they need exactly to make you eligible to sit NCLEX, work in the meantime and in 2 years you'll get both your experience as well as the bureaucratic process done (it will take months if not over a year for cgfns to evaluate your educational credentials anyways, so you might as well work in the meantime and get the experience you need). Good luck!

I'd strongly advice against that unless you have a lot of money saved up or something. I'm from Italy, nurses are severely underpaid here, ratios suck and the cost of life relative to what you earn is pretty high; that's without mentioning the ridiculously high income tax (if you earn anything between 20 and 50k you'll be taxed at 23 to 35%); let's say you'll make 45k before taxes (which is the high end of a nurse's salary here given your 20 years of experience, since neo-graduates barely scrape 20k) taxed at 35%, you're left with 29,250, subtract 12k-15.5k for rent (1-1.3k/month in your average city for a single room apartment), you're left with 17,250-13,750, subtract 3k (conservative estimate) for yearly groceries for one person and you're at 14,250-10,250 euros (all of these expenses account for 1 person). With what's deemed a "medium high" wage here with two decades of experience you'll be left with about 10 grand at the end of a year (possibly a bit less if you also account for a 2-3 thousands worth of car insurance and gas) of working 40 hours a week in an understaffed hospital, which is about a third of what a new grad nurse would get after taxes and living expenses in your average US state, excluding big hyper-expensive cities like LA, NYC etc. perhaps even less compared to states with no income tax and even lower cost of life. And that's assuming you live austerely when it comes to what you buy other than groceries/whether or not you're gonna go on vacations etc. and also assuming you don't have further expenses like children etc. This country's far past its prime economically; stay in the US; hell if you don't already go live in a cheap state, you have 20 years of experience, that will at least matter something in the US since it kinda doesn't here; take vacations in Italy if you're simply fascinated by its culture/history/land (you'll actually have money left for vacations working in the US) but moving here especially from one of the countries where nurses have some of the highest income and standard of living just seems silly.

I'm a nursing student from Europe, am halfway through my first year and so far I'm liking it, however if I were to work in my country I'd pretty much have barely anything left at the end of the year after taxes and living expenses (like either net negative or €1-2k if I'm super austere). I'm thinking of moving to the US after I graduate (Texas is one of my top picks) due to far better pay, quality of life and autonomy; do you think in the late 2020s/early 2030s moving to the US a foreign RN is still gonna be doable or is the shortage going to be compensated, making foreign RN's undesirable by that time? I ask this because there's a very high chance I just got into med-school which would allow me for better financial security in my country (literally the same if not less of what I'd make as an RN in the US) but lower chances for emigration due to the more tedious bureaucracy and competition linked with having medical credentials evaluated abroad as opposed to nursing credentials. I really would like to leave this country after I graduate (takes 3 years) and get a couple of years of experience here, and then offer a high demand service to a country that respects our profession; do you think the US is still going to be offering such chances in the next 5-7 years based on your observation of current trends/predictions?

Hi, I'm a nursing student from Italy; I have started nursing school recently and the program here lasts 3 years to get a bachelors degree and become a RN; I wouldn't mind moving abroad after I graduate, preferably to the US. I know about the whole CGFNS evaluation process to get your title recognized (I'll probably need more hours in obstetrics, pediatrics and gynecology based on what I've seen from past threads) and about NCLEX once you've verified your credentials, and I've also seen you need 2 years of experience in a hospital with 100+ beds apparently, but is that in some specific field/specialty? Cause I think that for working in more specialized areas like ICU or ER I'd probably need a master's degree, which would be another two years (not sure it'd be counted as working experience in and of itself). Am I just being paranoid or can you just work in any area/floor of a large scale hospital for two years with a bachelors degree and meet the eligibility criteria as far as professional experience goes without having to spend time on further specialization/master's? If you have experience with this, are from the EU, or even from Italy, feel free to share your experience from when you got your bachelors to when you emigrated to the US (I'd specifically be interested in the process that concerns the so called compact states, like Texas, Montana etc., which don't require an SSN as far as I've seen, but also non compact states with a more specific pathway, to be precise NY state). Thanks in advance, have a good day.