Nursing at Stadia Polytechnic

isaluba · Post by **isaluba** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:34 pm

I am thinking about applying to the nursing program at Stadia Polytechnic. The program takes 3.5 years to complete and I would earn the Finnish equvialent to an RN. The program is in English but I would have to have "basic level 2 finnish skills" and be tested on them during the application process. Furthermore, I would study finnish while earning my degree. Does anyone have any experience with Stadia Nursing? What whas their employment rate of their graduates? Is it one of these fluff schools that just takes anyone ( foreigner) to get their money and then you are still left unemployed? Did you find that your level of Finnish was high enough to be employable? I don't want to complete this program and then be laughed out of recruitment offices or end up with sh**ty bottom of the barrel nursing jobs because of the school I went to. Any advice would help

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Nallis · Post by **Nallis** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:42 pm

Stadia is probably the best nursing school in Helsinki area. On the other hand, there are no university/school rankings in Finland, so it doesn't matter which school you obtained your degree from. Besides, considering that they are starting to import hundreds of philipino nurses to Finland tells something about the job situation here - there are plenty of jobs availaible, Wait a few years and the employee shortage will only get worse.

Amandine.K · Post by **Amandine.K** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:12 pm

I did the nursing program in Stadia so I can give you my take. It is a good program, far superior than let's say Turku Polytechnic (I started there).
But don't count too much on earning the language while studying, the degree is quite demanding and there are a lot of practical trainings.
As for employment rates, if you speak Finnish you'll be offered jobs before you even graduate. If no English then that'll be extremely difficult, especially if you graduated from a Finnish school. And they will expect perfect Finnish. To be honest I don't work as a RN right now just because of that. Not because I haven't been offered work, simply because I will be too scared to make a mistake because of a misunderstanding of a prescription for example.
So all-in-all go for it, prepare the entrance exam well as there are a lot of applicants for the program.

isaluba · Post by **isaluba** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:39 am

This is all good info to know! One more thing, the enterence criteria states:

"Applicants must have a command of Finnish in basic level 2 or higher. Furthermore, a pass in the language test is required."

What is basic level 2? What is the language test like?

Amandine.K · Post by **Amandine.K** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:27 pm

I don't know so much about that as I transfered after one year in Turku AMK so I didn't have to take the language test. But it shouldn't be that difficult as a lot of us didn't speak Finnish at all. If it's anything to go by the 2 Finnish courses we had it's pretty basic : present tense and past tense. But I'm sure if you get in touch with the head of department she'll tell you more about that.

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