– We are newly trained nurses, and we enter a profession that is underpaid, with evening shifts, holidays and weekends. Then this is experienced as a bit of a joke. That’s what Sturla Hveding (26) says. He has just finished three years of nursing education. He is annoyed by the fee he was told to pay. – Congratulations on the day, sort of. “You have chosen to become a nurse, now you are done. We will have 1700 kroner. ” To work as a health professional in Norway, you need an authorization or license. It costs 1665 kroner. As many as 32 different professions must apply for approval from the Norwegian Directorate of Health. Without authorization, a nurse, optician or radiographer cannot call himself just that. It also tells employers who has approved education, and is fit to work with patients and users. Hveding says with a smile that Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol is happy to tip him money if she wants another nurse. No way – What we do not understand is why the nursing students themselves have to pay for their own authorization. This is what Sigrid Husøy Larsen, student leader in the Norwegian Nurses’ Association (NSF) says. The organization has worked for several years to remove the fee, so far without much happening. – The last student grant is paid out in June, and the summer money does not come until the end of the summer. Then it’s about who has saved 1665 kroner to pay this, says Larsen. Sigrid Husøy Larsen believes it is unreasonable to order students to pay a fee to practice. Photo: Kristin Henriksen / NSF She receives support from Bjørn Harald Iversen in the Nurses’ Association. He says society needs more people in the health professions. – And then to be able to start in the profession, the same society requires money for us to be able to start. There is something inconsistent about that. Both unions emphasize that it is very important that we have a system for authorization in Norway. Automatic approval Anne Farseth is department director in the Norwegian Directorate of Health. In total, her department processes around 27,000 cases a year. She says that everyone who should have authorization pays the same. – The fee has been unchanged since 2015, so here there is a pretty good predictability, she says. For the past seven years, case processing has also been virtually automated for most 13,000 Norwegian-educated students. This means that it only takes minutes from the fee is paid until the authorization is in place. Sturla Hveding received the censorship on the last exam from the university on a Monday in June. The next day, he received an e-mail that he could apply for approval from the directorate. For the Norwegian schools, lists of who has received a diploma are sent directly to the register. Photo: Sverre Lilleeng / news – I was only sent the bill, he says. Now he is at home in pappaperm until the end of August. He has not paid the fee yet. Fee for consultation Farseth says that the fee that the students pay does not cover what the directorate spends in total on case processing. Among other things, it takes a lot of time to manually process all the applications from people who have taken their education abroad. In addition, there are Norwegian-educated students who are not registered by the schools. – Neither development nor management of large technical subject systems is free, nor does it do itself, says Farseth. Anne Farseth says the Norwegian Directorate of Health collects around NOK 33 million in fees from recent graduates and others who want authorization. Photo: Rebecca Ravneberg / The Norwegian Directorate of Health It is the politicians who have decided the hill this should be. But the Ministry of Health and Care Services will not say why the students themselves have to pay for the authorization. The Minister of Health is on holiday, and the ministry is not responding to Sturla’s request to raise money.
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– Perceived as a joke – news Trøndelag
