Tech that tells everyone she's a nurse

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We have a nurse tech who is from Germany. She's forever telling everyone...other staff & patients...that she was a nurse in Germany but the United States won't let her practice nursing here without going back to school and earning a degree here. She is currently in her first semester of an ADN program.

From a lot of the things she says and does, we don't think she really went to the kind of nursing school we have to go to here. She says she spent 4 years in nursing school, being taught by the nuns. I asked her just yesterday if she had to take classes like Anatomy/Physiology. She avoided giving the actual answer, but just said, "maybe our school was a little different than here". So, that told me NO. The other day, she came to me and said, "that patient said they couldn't breathe good, so I turned their oxygen up to 6". I told her to NEVER do that again and explained why. I could go on & on. I (and others) are really getting sick of hearing her talk about being a nurse and how good she is at being a tech. She does get her vitals & baths done quickly and is good about many things AS A TECH. But she also refuses to do anything else with patients that aren't assigned to her. She will sit & read magazines if no one is available to listen to her tell how good she is. I've told her before that they aren't just "your patients/my patients"...that they all have needs and if someone else is tied up with another patient and someone else isn't busy, then that person needs to attend to the needs of the other patients. She also loves to say, "I'm just here to help the nurse with the patient's I'm assigned to. If other techs can't do their work, then that nurse needs to do it, not me."

Anyway, back to my original reason for writing this post...does anyone know if the requirements to become a nurse in Germany is different than in the US?

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

Not sure if this helps but it's what I came up with on a google search

http://www.dbfk.de/english.html

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Specializes in ICU, Psych.

In Germany you do not go to college or a university to become a nurse. It is more like a diploma course. They have a school that is state run or attached to a teaching hospital. It is a vocational concept, perhaps similar to our LPN program. Except that a LPN in the US does more then a nurse in Germany. There most IV drugs are given by an MD, staples removed by an MD and so on. At least it was that way 10 years ago.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Interesting. I've always wanted to know how nurses practiced over in Europe. Can nurses from the U.S. practice in Germany or in other european countries?

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

we have a CNA from mexico who told us she was a RN in mexico , and she knows nothing about nursing. bu she loves bossing all the nurses around and speaks spanish to all the other CNA's about the nurses. she will say our names in a sentence and keep speaking spanish .. the other CNA's from mexico just look at us and laugh. like we are idiots... she and i had it out about 3 weeks ago.. i asked her to help a pt and she said " i was a RN in mexico and i won't do that here" and i said " well you arn't a RN here you are a CNA and you will please do as i ask" what did she do? she went to lunch and ignored me....

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She could go work in a dosctor's office and have the physician call her a nurse too!

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While I was in NS I met an RN who had been a practicing nurse in Germany for about 20 years. When she came to the US she had to go to nursing school again... She never specified what her duties were in Germany but did say she had never learned anything but adult nursing and to do peds was different schooling completely... Its interesting to read the post about how different the job description seems! Could you imagine the docs here having to do all the IV meds!?!?!? HA!

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Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..
Not sure if this helps but it's what I came up with on a google search

http://www.dbfk.de/english.html

I was doing the same thing,amazing what you come up with!Florence Nightingale trained in germany for 3 months!She then came back to Uk and eventually set up the training school for nurses.

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
we have a cna from mexico who told us she was a rn in mexico , and she knows nothing about nursing. bu she loves bossing all the nurses around and speaks spanish to all the other cna's about the nurses. she will say our names in a sentence and keep speaking spanish .. the other cna's from mexico just look at us and laugh. like we are idiots... she and i had it out about 3 weeks ago.. i asked her to help a pt and she said " i was a rn in mexico and i won't do that here" and i said " well you arn't a rn here you are a cna and you will please do as i ask" what did she do? she went to lunch and ignored me....

i know its a sticky problem, but i fired a nurse who would not stop chatting in spanish with the cna's in front of residents (after the appropriate paper trail). he never did understand why it was upseting to the residents (and the rest of the staff, of course!)

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Specializes in Geriatrics.
Could you imagine the docs here having to do all the IV meds!?!?!? HA!

I think I would hit the floor laughing, The looks on thier faces if it was suggested would be priceless!:lol2: :chuckle

here you are a CNA and you will please do as i ask" what did she do? she went to lunch and ignored me....

That's called insubordnation (spelling??) and I have written up many CNA's for thinking they could work under my licence and ignore my orders :nono:

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

We have an RN on our floor who moved here from Australia. She had a 4 year college degree and was a nurse in Australia for 17 years. She had to take a test (can't remember what it was) and once she passed that she had to take the NCLEX-RN. She got 12 weeks orientation just like a newbie. She is a great nurse. She did have to learn IV's because in Australia doctors do the "cannulations" :nurse:

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
could you imagine the docs here having to do all the iv meds!?!?!?

yes, and i could imagine them having to answer all of the call bells as well. and dumb the bedside commodes, bedpans, foleys, jps, ng tubes. as well as fill out all of the flowsheets.

in my fantasyland.:wshgrt:

but isn't it possible, based on what other posters have said about foreign nurse preparation, that she is a nurse? i have seen some nurses who were rns or lpns in the us, passing school and their boards here, who have done some stupid things!

does she try to do tasks that a licensed person must do (aside from the oxygen) or does she just talk about her experience? there's a bit of a difference in that case.

jess

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