Hello from Finland!

[Tottis]

Hello everyone, I am a 21-year old nurse student from the beautiful country of Finland, far up north.. :houra:

I chose to "join your team" because it would be exciting to meet nurses from other places, but also because I am in desperate need for advide here!

This is the case.

I am very interested in doing a five-week field practise in California during my final year in nursing school. (It´s like the biggest dream I´ve ever had..)Sadly, my school won´t help me since they have no cooperation with any place in CA. (only in Florida, on the Finnish-American Rest Home located there, and you have to stay there for three months!!) This means that I have to arrange everything myself, somewhere to intern, place to live, scholarships a.s.o.

Where do I begin?! *sweating already*


Anyone in here from California? Do you spontaneously know of any place (hospital, rest home...) that is nice and maybe particularly open towards nurse students? What are the U.S. requirements?? Do you need a licence to intern? Do nursing schools pay the hospitals for having students there doing their field practise there? Do nurse students get paid for doing field practise?

And what is the best way? To simply call to any place and say "Hi, this is me..." or should I contact a U.S. nurse school first to get help?


Aaand... tricky question!! Is it even possible to rent an appartment for five weeks only or do you know of any other options?

If anyone can help me.. at all.. I would be thrilled... Sorry if my questions seem simple/naive


Hoping for a response.
Pleased to meet you all.

Tottis

[cougarnurse]

:waving: Welcome to the site, Tottis! I am glad to meet you. I would first say to contact the State Board of Nursing; we have a list of the States and their Boards of Nursing. I would figure you'd need a Visa, of course. Each State is different, so check with them first.

Good luck, keep us updated, and I hope you drop by often!

'Cat'

[Tottis]

Thank you so much for your reply and for the information! I should contact the board of California then. Visacard? Haha, I guess... Sorry about the duplicate posting... I didn´t really know which forum was the most suitable for this topic... so I tried out a few ones. Well, hopefully someone will read this. Help me if you can, people. Like I said, to visit USA is the biggest dream I´ve ever had. Thank you in advance.
"When you wish upon a star..."

[Tottis]

Oh no.. bad day... I guess my big dream is crushed...
This is the answer I got:

"Dear Charlotta, California does not have out of state nursing students, only those approved in nursing programs in California. You would need to apply to an approved nursing program in California and get accepted"

I guess this means that I would have to study in California to be able to intern... gosh... I´m so sad! What do I do now?
*tears of disappointment*