education abroad

Physiotherapists trained in Denmark do not have to do rotation service in Norway before they can get authorisation.

Brussels (Khrono): The Directorate of Health is making a complete reversal of physiotherapists trained in Denmark. They can now apply for authorization to work in Norway after they have finished their studies, without completing the rotation service first.

The journal reports The physiotherapist.

Khrono has previously told about the frustration of Norwegian physiotherapist students trained in Denmark.

— You get support from the Lånekassen, you travel abroad, start the education, then the new requirement comes along the way. When you get home, no one is there to support you, you have to fend for yourself.

One of them, Helene Bårdsen, said so Chrono about a year ago. After her studies in Denmark, she traveled home to Norway to start working as a physiotherapist.

It wasn’t supposed to be that simple.

Terminated Nordic agreement

When Bårdsen and other Norwegian students travel out, they secured a Nordic agreement, the Arjeplog agreement, that newly qualified physiotherapists in Denmark were authorized in Norway. But during Bårdsen’s studies, in February 2020, the agreement was terminated. The education now had to be assessed against the vocational qualifications directive in the EEA agreement.

This education is not harmonized through EEA agreements. When the students came home to Norway, they were told that they first had to do a year’s rotation service, similar to those who had studied in Norway. But as the Physiotherapist points out, it is an important difference: Those who took the training in Norway had demanded a place on the shift or salary in the shift service.

For Bårdsen, this meant that she had to work without pay, with DKK 8,500 a month from NAV.

New rules did not apply to everyone

This is one of several cases where Norwegian students have had problems when they come home to Norway after studying in the country.

Last year, Bårdsen saw a glimmer of hope. At the same time that for various things around the approval of healthcare education was on its way to the Supreme Court, notified the Directorate of Health of the changed practice.

“Persons with health education from an EEA country can now apply for authorization even if they do not have the full right to practice the profession in the country of education and even if they do not have the right to professional approval according to the EU’s professional qualification directive,” the directorate reported. But that didn’t apply to everyone.

About those who studied physiotherapy in Denmark, department director Cathrine Marie Sedeniussen in the Directorate of Health wrote this in an e-mail to Khrono:

— This change in practice applies to EEA education which does not have full professional rights in the country of education, such that the EEA regulations cannot be used when applying for authorization in Norway. We cannot see that this will cause any separate changes in the processing of applications from Danish-trained physiotherapists.

So they changed the practice

But now the Directorate of Health is turning around, after having gone into the matter more closely. They must according to the Norwegian Physiotherapist Association have asked for professional advice from OsloMet. According to the association, the conclusion from the council is that the Danish physiotherapy education is on a par with the Norwegian education, including the rotation service.

Senior advisor Cathrine Lien Jensen in the Directorate of Health writes this in a letter the association reproduces on its websites:

– Based on this assessment, we find no basis for the applicable regulations to impose a trial period.

The practice has thus changed, those who trained in Denmark no longer have to go through a rotation period in Norway to obtain authorization.