Studying abroad is tempting for many people. You get an education while learning another language and culture. The number of nurses is limited in most countries.

Therefore, many students think that training as a nurse is smart, and you can work all over the world.

But it’s not that simple.

Ansa does not recommend education outside the EU

If you want to become a nurse, you should not study in a country outside the EU or EEA.

– We generally do not recommend healthcare students to study outside the EU or EEA. The risk of not getting permission from Norway is quite high, said Anne Handal Hellesnes, president of Ansa, which is an association of Norwegian students abroad.

The Norwegian Health Directorate also has additional requirements for nurses who have studied in countries outside the EU or EEA.

– All nurses who have studied in countries outside the EU or EEA must take national subject courses, medicines handling and professional tests in order to be authorized as nurses in Norway. Those courses also have high attrition, Hellesnes said.

That is the reason why Ansa recommends students who wish to study health subjects abroad to do so within the EU.

You can read more on the website Ansa.

Differences between inside and outside the EU

You obtain Norwegian authorization by submitting an application to the Health Directorate. If you have completed your nursing education in an EU or EEA country, you almost automatically receive Norwegian authorization.

Problems arise when you study nursing in a country outside the EU. Then the Norwegian Health Directorate requires that the nursing education you take must be “equally assessed”. In practice, this means the education you take, for example in America or Australia, is compared with the content, namely the framework plan and study plan, in Norwegian education.

Based on what the authorities find after the assessment, you will also have to meet some additional requirements. Some requirements are common to everyone, while others may be specific.

You can read more about uniformity assessment and additional requirements at Norwegian Health Directorate website.

More than half were rejected

Figures Sykepleien received from the Health Directorate show that over the last five years they have received 1,410 applications from nurses who completed their education outside the EEA region.

The Norwegian Health Directorate has assessed uniformity and sent decisions to 720 nurses who have completed their education in countries outside the EEA region in the period 2018 to 2022. 305 were authorized, 415 applications were rejected.

– The Norwegian Health Directorate does not have the opportunity to extract aggregate information about citizenship at application level, said department director Anne Farseth at the Norwegian Nursing Health Directorate by email.