2016 US RN to Australia

US RN in Oz · Nov 20, 2017

Hi there,
I'm about to start my registration for AHPRA. I called them last week to inquire about the documents I neede to send. However, they just gave me general answers.
My first question is: Do I need to send all my class syllabus from college or just the nursing classes?
2nd question: I went to two schools to finish my BSn. I went to a community college first to take my prerequisites for nursing and transfered to another college for my BSN. I didn't get any sort of fegree from the community college. I just finished some nursing pre requisites such as anatomy, microbiology, nutrition from the said school. Do i need to get my syllabus from them too?
3. Do all the pages of the papers that i need to turn in contain i have seen and certified or just the first page?
If anyone could help me with this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!
Gil

Long story short...

A1: This one's going to sound wrong at first. You will not need to send your syllabi from any of your classes, nursing or otherwise. The reason being; what Americans consider a "syllabus" is not what other cultures and educational systems consider a syllabus. Part of the reason the English language is such a pain is because, there are just too many words with multiple definitions.

A surprisingly large percentage of words are used differently between the two countries... way more than we anticipate. Words like; faculty, college, syllabus, assignment, and course all have a considerably different meaning. I do not have access to what I used at the moment but, it worked. Got my rego with no extra delays or conditions.

A2: No.

A3: This depends. Which docos, specifically?

Brookeee · Nov 21, 2017

When I first submitted my application, I provided everything that the application was asking for. Then the board started requesting addutional documents, such as a syllabus for my nursing classes, not all, but they listed specifics like pharmacology and medsurg and something else I think..so I just submitted a complete syllabus for all the classes in nursing school just in case...they also asked for an official letter with hours for all clinicals in nursing school, because Australia has specific parameters in how many clinical hours they needed to complete

US RN in Oz · Nov 21, 2017

Hey Brookeee! How's the status of your app? Have they given you a final answer yet?

g.isid · Nov 21, 2017

Thank you for promptly answering my question! I appreciate it a lot!

As far as the certification, does the notary need to certify every single page I have to submit to AHPRA? I mean for example, I'm sending a syllabus copy of my med surg class, does s/he has to certify it page by page?

Another thing, I started college in a community college fall of 2007 and finished my BSN spring 2012 in a university. That's a total of 4.5 years in college (took summer classes too in between). I didn't finish high school in the States. I came to the States right after high school graduation from the Philippines. My question is do you guys think I meet their 5 year minimum English language requirement for secondary and tertiary schools? I mean I'm only a semester shy away from the 5 year requirement. I've personally called the AHPRA Sydney office regarding this and they said I have to take IELTS Academic to meet the English language requirement. However, I feel like its (for the lack of words) stupid to take IELTS just because for this matter. Any insights? Anyone on the same boat as I am?

Thank you guys.

Brookeee · Nov 21, 2017

Hey US RN in OZ! No, unfortunately I'm still waiting for my answer...i just recently emailed them to follow up and they said I should be receiving an answer via email and post in the near future...but that's a pretty vague reply, so I have no idea what the outcome is just yet, but hoping for the best of course. I will keep you posted :)

G.isid...as far as certifications, I certified the documents as a whole, not page by page. For example, my certification read "syllabus-pharmacology", even if it had 5 pages to it.

Also I had to take the IELTS myself. I wasn't born in the US either, but moved here at the age of 12, so I attended middle school which they would call secondary, but I entered in the grade 7 rather than 6 so I was short a year. They will only accept 5 years of college if it was full time, and a lot of my college courses were taken on a part time basis over the years, therefore, I did not satisfy their English standard and had to take the test. I would give it a shot, as the test is very easy, I literally scored 8.5 in all areas except speaking, where I scored a 9.0, so besides that it took 5 hours out of my day, it was a breeze.

Brookeee · Nov 23, 2017

Hey guys,

So I wanted to update you with the decision i just received from the board. They have denied me registration because I have an ADN and not a bachelor's, or the Australian's equivivalent to a bachelor's. They have given me no option to complete a bridging program or no information on if I may even reapply again if I did complete my bachelor's here in the nearest future...in the past I have pulled up the bachelor's requirements from the University of Brisbane and it seemed to match the classes I have completed here under my ADN...but I would like to get more of a complete breakdown of classes from the board, which is the only thing they seem to be missing from their website, so I may know exactly what academics they assess...as Australia isn't even given an option of an ADN degree for their nurses at all, but US does, so how are we seem to find our nurses qualified at an ADN level? I'm just at a loss at the moment in terms of what else I may do moving forward or if someone on here knows of a similar situation in the past and how it has played out for them? Besides of course completing my BSN here, which would lose me another year as this process has already taken me 7 months.

abbz18, BSN · Mar 5, 2018

So sorry to hear that, I submitted my application in Oct 2017 and I still haven't been approved. Like @Brookeee they also had me go back and forth with so much paperwork, recertifying/notarize documents. Sending middle school and high school transcripts. It seemed like after completing one thing, they had 3 more things to ask. And it was not cheap having to mail stuff to them with tracking. I am starting to feel unmotivated but hearing that I am not on the same boat, kind of makes me feel better. Sorry to say. Also my officer isn't very personable nor helpful at all, which makes it 10x worst communicating with her.

That is very insulting requiring you to do a bridging course, especially when US RNs more trained than Oz with old-school healthcare system. I totally feel you on sponsorship. I also would need to be sponsored.

Do you mind me asking what your final decision was?

tlthorpe · Apr 26, 2018

Hi PurpleKicksRN-BSN,

I am currently in the process of completing my AHPRA application and my only concern is i have 585 clinical hours and not the required 800 hours. What are my options to achieving the outstanding 215 hours? Would the AHPRA take a unpaid internship where i shadow another RN?

Thank you!

tlthorpe · Jun 5, 2018

Hi,

I am in the process of completing my paperwork. I went to a few different colleges and I'm wondering i the AHPRA needs each transcript of every college attended. I also have less than 720 clinical hours completed- do you think this would pose a problem?

Thank you!

Tara

ScentelessApprentice · Jul 9, 2018

This 800 hour thing is so unfair. I do not know any fellow nurses who had 800 clinical hours in their bachelors programs. So is bridging the only solution?

US RN in Oz · Jul 9, 2018

I had 820 hours of clinical over 15 months in a 2nd degree program. There are ways around the 800 hour ahpra requirement, at least, to some extent.

g.isid · Oct 29, 2018

Hello!

I am in the final steps of gathering all the docs needed to be sent to AHPRA. I just talked to the nursing personnel at my nursing school earlier to get an information about the total clinical hours and to my surprise she gave me this breakdown:

N313 Adult Health I: 90

N315 Adult Health II: 90

N316 Childbearing Families: 67.5

N405 Children and Families: 67.5

N407 Mental Health: 67.5

N408Adult Health III: 90

N409 Principles of Community Health: 15

N413 Capstone: 180

Total: 667.5

I only have 667.5 clinical hours!!! And I know AHPRA requires a minimum of 800 hours. I have my bachelor's degree and it baffles me that I only have those number of hours. I also went straight to BSN after taking the nursing prerequisites at a community college. I didn't take the ADN route. I was wondering though if they didn't include the laboratory component of some nursing classes I took like Health assessment, etc. I know every nursing program is different in the US but do you guys have any idea what could be missing in their breakdown? Does lab hours from other classes count? Thank you!