Course details

Dutch for Nurses: Professional Communication for Safe Healthcare Practice (Big-toets aligned)

What you will learn

  • Communicate safely and effectively with patients and colleagues in Dutch.
  • Be prepared for BIG-related language assessment and workplace expectations.
  • Understand the Dutch healthcare system and know Dutch healthcare regulations.
  • Reach CEFR B1 or B2 level in Dutch, with a focus on healthcare vocabulary and everyday situations in nursing practice.

Who is this course for?

  • Internationally trained nurses (MBO or HBO level) who want to work in a Dutch-speaking healthcare environment.
  • Nurses preparing for BIG registration or recognition procedures who need to meet Dutch language requirements.
  • EU and non-EU professionals needing to pass language or professional integration requirements
  • Healthcare professionals with A2+ level Dutch aiming to reach CEFR B1 or B2 for safe workplace communication (when starting from A1, we include in your course our A1 syllabus).
  • Nurses seeking to improve patient communication, team interaction, and professional writing in Dutch healthcare settings.
  • Hospitals and clinics seeking effective Dutch language training for their nursing staff.

This course in short

  • You are prepared to work as a nurse with Dutch patients and colleagues.
  • You learn with a combination of a learning portal and conversation classes (private teacher).
  • You learn with real content for Dutch clinics and nursing, but adapted to your CEFR level.
  • The most effective Dutch course to prepare for the BIG-toets, flexible in price and schedule.

Pricing

How do you want to learn?

Learning method

8 weeks. 15 minutes per day.

Self-study

Learn from home, at your own pace.

Learning portal

Ebook and PDF downloads

Video and audio

AI corrections

Conversation classes

  • Practice conversation
  • Stay motivated
  • Personalize your classes
  • Guidance

One class per week (8 in total).

Intensive: two classes per week (16).

Michel B. €35/h Nancy C. €25/h Ana M. €25/h Liesbet L. €35/h

See all teachers

Curriculum

Profession-specific modules to combine with any level course (A1–B2).

Learning objectives

  • Describe your education level
  • Describe your workplace and its departments
  • Explain hospital equipment and how to find your way around
  • Vocabulary: Departments, hospital furniture and rooms, equipment, workwear and footwear

Learning objectives

  • Describe your daily tasks, responsibilities and schedule
  • Explain shift work and teamwork
  • Describe organisation and scheduling in a hospital
  • Glossary: planning and rostering shifts

Learning objectives

  • Observe changes in condition and behaviour
  • Measure and record vital signs accurately
  • Report any unusual observations to your line manager.
  • Vocabulary: observation terminology (colour, consistency, temperature, quantity), vital signs, documentation terms, breathing, pulse, level of consciousness

Learning objectives

  • Read and write short care notes
  • Ask about a patient’s status
  • Use clear, factual language in your reports
  • Vocabulary: report structures, administrative vocabulary, reporting terms, patient status terms

Learning objectives

  • Taking part in multidisciplinary meetings
  • Give your opinion
  • Understand other professionals’ roles
  • Vocabulary: healthcare job titles and hierarchy, roles in multidisciplinary teams

Learning objectives

  • Follow hygiene and safety procedures
  • Description of infection prevention measures
  • Explain your responsibilities during an epidemic or pandemic
  • Vocabulary: hygiene, infection prevention, PPE, hand hygiene, cleaning routines, waste segregation and recycling in healthcare

Learning objectives

  • Describe skin conditions, wounds and hygiene
  • Recognise signs of pressure ulcers (bedsores) and report them
  • Vocabulary: Skin condition, wounds, pressure ulcers, risk factors, pressure points and skin assessment terminology

Learning objectives

  • Recognise conditions such as diabetes, COPD, dementia and Parkinson’s disease
  • Adapt care to symptoms and treatment plans
  • Recognise the symptoms of left- or right-sided heart failure (decompensation) and rheumatic diseases
  • Chronic conditions, flare-ups versus stable conditions, heart failure (left- or right-sided decompensation), rheumatic conditions

Learning objectives

  • Ask about daily routines (sleep, eating habits, and getting around)
  • Encourage patients to do gentle exercise
  • Provide mobility support
  • Vocabulary: Personal care, daily routines, bodily functions, fall prevention

Learning objectives

  • Recognise the symptoms of a stroke or injury
  • Describe a rehabilitation plan.
  • Taking part in evaluation meetings
  • Support safe repositioning, transferring and the use of mobility aids
  • Rehabilitation, physiotherapy, mobility, assistive devices, stroke symptoms, recovery goals, assessment language, repositioning, bed mobility, transfer techniques

Learning objectives

  • Recognising incidents and aggressive behaviour
  • Report and document them correctly.
  • Use de-escalation strategies
  • Respond safely to basic medical emergencies such as hypoglycaemia, seizures, allergic reactions and shock
  • Aggression, incident reporting, de-escalation strategies, conflict management, safety terminology, hypoglycaemia/hyperglycaemia, seizures, allergic reactions, shock, AED awareness

Learning objectives

  • Discuss the patient’s wishes for end-of-life care
  • Offering condolences and giving emotional support
  • Respect cultural and religious differences
  • Palliative care, hospices, death and religion, emotions, empathy, condolence wording

Learning objectives

  • Explain prescription and over-the-counter medication
  • Give clear dosage instructions
  • Read and interpret medication lists
  • Dosage, basic pharmacology, packaging symbols, waste disposal, administration instructions

Learning objectives

  • Recognising eating and swallowing difficulties
  • Complete fluid or food intake logs
  • Monitor hydration and understand the basics of fluid balance (intake/output).
  • Healthy diet, aspiration prevention, eating aids, dietary restrictions, dysphagia vocabulary, fluid balance, intake/output (I/O), signs of dehydration, hydration monitoring

Learning objectives

  • Describe meals and dietary options
  • Discuss preferences and adapt menus to suit special dietary requirements
  • Vocabulary: meals and drinks in care settings, diabetes-related diet vocabulary, nutrition for chronic illnesses, menu adjustments

Learning objectives

  • Help with urination and bowel movements (using a urinal or bedpan)
  • Providing hygienic incontinence care
  • Report the colour, consistency and amount of urine or faeces.
  • Excretions, urinating/bowel movements, continence care, bedpans and urinals, hygiene care, describing colour/consistency/amount

Learning objectives

  • Organising activities with local residents
  • Public holidays and social events
  • Joining in with small talk and family gatherings
  • Social events, public holidays, small talk, family gatherings, celebrations

Learning objectives

  • Talk about informal care and family roles
  • How to support volunteers
  • Fill in home care paperwork
  • Vocabulary: family roles, relationships, informal care, volunteer support, home care documentation

Learning objectives

  • Recognising symptoms of schizophrenia, psychotic disorders and severe mental health conditions
  • Communicate effectively with clients experiencing hallucinations, delusions or confusion
  • Support clients with intellectual disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. Rett syndrome)
  • Anger, psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, learning disability, Rett syndrome, crisis warning signs

Learning objectives

  • Use the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and other pain assessment tools, including non-verbal pain indicators.
  • Describe the WHO classification system and Gordon’s functional health patterns.
  • Explain Machteld Huber’s “Positive Health” model and the Content–Process–Interaction–Existence levels.
  • Use the SBARR method to communicate clearly and consistently
  • Glossary: NRS, pain assessment tools, WHO system, Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns, Positive Health, SBARR, assessment terminology, non-verbal pain indicators

Learning objectives

  • Identify common medication classes, such as beta-blockers, and explain their effects and risks.
  • Choose the right intramuscular (IM) injection site based on age, muscle mass and safety
  • Recognising signs of malnutrition and supporting clients who struggle to stick to their diet
  • Vocabulary: beta blockers, IM injection sites (deltoid, ventrogluteal, vastus lateralis), signs of malnutrition, diet adherence

Learning objectives

  • Prepare clients for surgery, including fasting, hygiene and transport guidelines
  • Providing clients with emotional and physical support before, during and after surgery
  • Explain the difference between sedation, anaesthesia and palliative sedation.
  • Pre-operative checklist, anaesthesia, palliative sedation, sterile field, post-operative care terminology

Learning objectives

  • Get to know healthcare providers and referral pathways
  • Distinguish between inpatient and outpatient care
  • Explain what outreach and community care services are
  • Healthcare services (GPs, care homes), referrals, hospital and community care, outreach services, insurance

Learning objectives

  • Learn how to use new hygiene materials and technologies
  • Use ergonomic techniques safely
  • Describe preventive nursing interventions (fall prevention, thrombosis).
  • Healthcare equipment, ergonomic techniques, personal care aids, preventative care, mobility belts and non-slip materials

Learning objectives

  • Communicating with customers from different cultures
  • Support residents with hearing or memory difficulties
  • Cultural differences, communication styles, hearing and memory difficulties, supportive communication strategies

Learning objectives

  • Handling ethical dilemmas in day-to-day nursing practice
  • Apply the principles of privacy, autonomy and respect when working with patients
  • Follow professional standards, values and legal regulations
  • Privacy, autonomy, respect, professional standards and values, legal requirements, quality of care

All levels

Includes access to all levels

Dutch A1
Dutch A1
Dutch A2
Dutch A2
Dutch B1
Dutch B1

Why +10k learners have chosen already coLanguage?

Feature coLanguage Informal tutoring Learning apps
Personalized tasks and hand-ins

Your teacher sets personalized tasks—and the app adapts exercises to your level and the areas you find hardest.

Learning portal

Study online or offline with PDF downloads, interactive exercises, audio, video, and AI-powered writing feedback.

Structured learning paths

Follow clear paths from A1 to C1, plus professional courses tailored to your goals.

Conversation classes

Every teacher is personally screened and trained to teach with our learning portal—so your classes match your course and progress.

Offline worksheets (PDF, translated)

Download the full e-book as PDF, or print any lesson as a translated worksheet.

Quality guarantee

We partner with universities and align every course with official learning programs—for reliable, recognized learning.

Learn with real content (news, podcasts…)

Practice with real news articles and podcasts—immersive content that prepares you for everyday language.

Full-skill training: listening, reading, writing, speaking

Train all four skills: listening and pronunciation with audio, reading with authentic texts, writing with AI feedback, and speaking in your classes.

Course materials trusted by official libraries and bookshops

Our books are sold in bookshops across Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, and beyond—and approved by public libraries.

Academic collaboration with universities

Course plans are co-developed from our Valencian office with multiple European universities.

Student reviews of our Dutch lessons

  • 4.6/5
4.6 out of 5 based on 12 ratings

Colleagues recommended coLanguage for professional Dutch. Blended mode: book at home, portal for writing practice.

Rachel E.
Helsinki, Finland
Self-study
  • 4.9/5

Our HR team liked the activity reports. I study Dutch self-paced and add conversation classes when travel allows.

Claire D.
Lyon, France
Blended learning
  • 4.7/5

Clear structure from A1 upward. AI corrections in the portal save time; I still work through the printed units.

David R.
Berlin, Germany
Blended learning
  • 4.4/5

Our partners

We thank our partners for the support we receive for developing our online school.

We proudly work with Lanzadera, a Spanish accelerator program in Valencia.

The university of Siegen helps us to develop and design our education systems and programs.

Our IT systems are powered and supported by the Google Cloud team

We collaborate with universities all across the European Union to develop our course materials, thanks to the Erasmus+ Program.

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