[carola]

hello everyone,

I'm a student from the netherlands so I'm sorry if my english is bad and I don't use the normal words or grammar. I would like it if some other students from all over the world would talk with me about being a nurse student. I'm really interested in the diffrences between the netherlands and other country's. for example do you use the healths patrons of Gordon? And what year of your study are you and how long is your study?
I'm in the first year of my study and it's 4 years to do the whole study, so I'm just begun.
If my english is very bad please improve so I can learn from it.

Carola

[carola]

is there no one who react to this?

[cougarnurse]

Hi, Carola! Sorry that no-one has answered you yet; perhaps busy with studying and all. I am glad to have you join us. Perhaps you can tell us a bit about studies in the Netherlands.

'Cat'

[jessicalee]

hi.

Here in Australia, its a 3 year course to be an RN.
I just finished last year and am a new grad this year.


we use Gordons 11 functional health patterns here, i think thats what u meant.

Jess

[christian76]

Hi Carola,

I'm new in this forum. I'm a nursing student in Italy. Like you I'm very curious about becoming a nurse in other parts of the world. In Italy in order to become a nurse you have to take a three years course in university, and this will give you a general nurse degree.
If you want you can carry on with two more years of study and become a kind of an advanced nurse. Really it is almost a new title, so there are just a few advanced nurses, basically they are involved in the education of nursing students and clinical nursing research.
We have also a few masters (= post degree, one year course) to specialize in some fields (intensive care, pediatrics, forensic nursing, etc.).

[airm8t23]

My name is Mac and I am a nursing student in the US, well to be more specific I am in the state of New Mexico. Here in the US there are 2 major ways that you can become a nurse. There is the ADN way which stands for Associates Degree in Nursing;that's a 2 year program. In order to get into the program you have to complete almost 1 1/2 years of general education studies, (classes like biology, chemistry, english). Then there is the BSN program which is a bachelors,that route requires four years. I decided to enroll in the ADN program; to attend the University of New Mexico it would have cost me almost $30,000 american dollars. The government will only subsidize a small portion of your education, usually through government loans. My program costs me about $3000.00 a year.

In my state there is a huge shortage of nursing instructors so it is very difficult to get into nursing school. I had to have almost all straight A's to be competetive in the application process; I then had to take a competency evaluation, sit for an interview with the department staff so they could evaluate if I would be a good candiate. I don't know how diffcult it is to get into nursing school in your country, but it seems in the US at least in my state it is quite difficult to get into nursing school. I know of at least one school in my city (Albuquerque) that has a 2 year waiting list to get in.

Nursing school for me has been a very rewarding experience. Our education is based on Sis. Callista Roy's method. We focus alot on the caring aspect of nursing as well as the normal nursing diagnoses as set out my NANDA, and NIC/NOC classifications. We start out with theory and start med/sug in the second semester. Each semester we complete 2 clinical rotation cycles at local hospitals. Our clinical groups are small, about 5 students, while lecture is about 25 students. School is fun, sometimes boring, but always challenging. We have to maintain a C average, which in my school is a 75%. Anything lower then a 75% and you fail. You are allowed to retake a course once, if you dont pass it the second time then you are dismissed from the program. I love school but I have to say that I hate care plans...HAHAHAHA.

At my school the major portion of our last year is spent on legal aspects and how to chart, since unfortunatly a large portion of a nurse's time is spent charting. Here EVERYTHING has to be documented. If you don't chart it, then it was never done....which could possible lead to a legal issues in the future or your loss of license. Thats one thing that I hate about privatized health care.

I also work the University of New Mexico Hospital as a nurse extern in the department of neurology. I shadow a nurse and learn how to perform the technical aspects of nursing. It's a good fit, I get paid to learn and it's valuable experience that will help me when I'm done with school.
Once I am done with school I can apply for an internship at the hosptial I currently work in. Its about a year long and I can rotate through any department I want to experience and then make a decision which deparment I want to work in. I think the hospital starts new graduates at around $22.00 an hour and then you get a $5.00 increase when you pass the NCLEX, (that's the US national nursing exam we have to pass). The hospital here will also pay for my education so I can get my BSN. So it all works out.

I hope you like the info that I provided......let me know how your program is. Others who are out there I would like to know how nursing school is in other countries as well. Lets all keep in touch!
Mac