Course details

French for Nurses: Language Training for Professional Nursing Practice in France

What you will learn

  • Prepare for language requirements linked to nursing recognition with the Ordre National des Infirmiers and employment in French healthcare institutions, including preparation for the DELF B1 or B2 language certificate.
  • Become familiar with the organisation of the French healthcare system and professional communication standards.
  • Achieve CEFR B1 or B2 level in French, with a focus on medical vocabulary and everyday nursing situations.

Who is this course for?

  • Nurses trained outside France who want to work in French hospitals, clinics, or care facilities.
  • Nurses applying for professional registration with the Ordre National des Infirmiers.
  • EU healthcare professionals who need to provide official proof of French language competence.
  • Healthcare professionals with A2-level French aiming to reach CEFR B1 or B2, the levels commonly requested by employers and authorities (when starting from A1, the course includes a full A1 foundation programme).
  • Nurses who want to improve professional speaking, listening, and writing in French healthcare contexts.
  • Healthcare institutions supporting international nursing staff in meeting French language requirements.

This course in short

  • You develop the French language skills required for nursing practice and professional recognition in France.
  • You train for official French language certification (DELF B1–B2) and real workplace communication.
  • Learning combines a structured online learning platform with individual conversation classes led by a private teacher.
  • Course content is based on authentic French healthcare situations, adapted to your CEFR level.
  • A practical and flexible course designed for exam preparation, professional integration, and safe nursing practice.

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).

Natalia L. €18/h Elodie O. €23/h Ivan E. €25/h Nancy C. €25/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 the services you offer
  • Explaining medical equipment and finding your way around a hospital
  • Vocabulary: departments, hospital rooms and furniture, equipment, workwear and footwear

Learning objectives

  • Describe your everyday tasks, responsibilities and schedule
  • Explain teamwork and shift work
  • Describe hospital organisation and scheduling
  • Vocabulary: Shift planning and rota scheduling

Learning objectives

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

Learning objectives

  • Read and write short care reports
  • Ask about the patient’s condition
  • Use clear, factual language in your reports
  • Vocabulary: reporting structures, administrative vocabulary, report-writing language, terminology for a patient’s condition

Learning objectives

  • Take part in multidisciplinary meetings
  • Share your feedback
  • Understanding other professionals’ roles
  • Vocabulary: healthcare job titles and hierarchy, roles in multidisciplinary teams

Learning objectives

  • Follow hygiene and safety procedures
  • Describe infection prevention measures
  • Explain your responsibilities during an outbreak or pandemic
  • Vocabulary: hygiene, infection prevention, protective clothing, hand hygiene, cleaning protocols, healthcare waste segregation and recycling

Learning objectives

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

Learning objectives

  • Recognising conditions such as diabetes, COPD, dementia and Parkinson’s disease
  • Tailor care to symptoms and treatment plans
  • Recognise the symptoms of left- and right-sided heart failure (decompensation) and rheumatic disease
  • Chronic conditions, flare-ups vs stable state, heart failure (left/right decompensation), rheumatic conditions

Learning objectives

  • Ask about daily routines (sleep, diet, mobility)
  • Encourage patients to do gentle exercises
  • Support mobility
  • Personal care, daily routines, bodily functions and fall prevention

Learning objectives

  • Recognising symptoms after a stroke or injury
  • Describe a rehabilitation plan
  • Participate in appraisal meetings
  • Supporting safe repositioning, transfers and use of mobility aids
  • Rehabilitation, physiotherapy, mobility, assistive devices, stroke symptoms, recovery goals, assessment terminology, repositioning, bed mobility, transfer techniques

Learning objectives

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

Learning objectives

  • Discussing the patient’s wishes for end-of-life care
  • Offering condolences and emotional support
  • Respect cultural and religious differences
  • Palliative care, hospice care, death and religion, emotions, empathy, and condolences language

Learning objectives

  • Explaining prescribed and over-the-counter medication
  • Give clear dosage instructions
  • Read and interpret medicine information leaflets
  • Dosage, pharmacology basics, packaging symbols, waste disposal, administration instructions

Learning objectives

  • Recognising eating and swallowing problems
  • Complete lists of drinks and food
  • Monitor hydration status and understand basic fluid balance (intake and output)
  • Healthy eating, aspiration prevention (prophylaxis), feeding support, dietary restrictions, dysphagia vocabulary, fluid balance, input/output (I/O), signs of dehydration, hydration monitoring

Learning objectives

  • Explaining meals and dietary requirements
  • Discuss preferences and tailor menus to suit specific needs
  • Vocabulary: meals and drinks in care settings; food-related vocabulary for diabetes; nutrition for chronic conditions; adapting menus

Learning objectives

  • Helping with urination and bowel movements (using bedpans and urine bottles)
  • Providing hygienic care for incontinence
  • Report the colour, consistency and amount of urine and stool.
  • Excretions; urination/defecation; incontinence care; bedpans and urine bottles; personal hygiene care; describing colour/consistency/quantity

Learning objectives

  • Organising activities for residents
  • Holidays and social events
  • Join in informal conversations and family gatherings
  • Vocabulary for social events and parties, informal conversation, family get-togethers and celebrations

Learning objectives

  • Describe informal care and family responsibilities
  • How to Support Volunteers
  • Fill in the home care paperwork
  • Family roles, relationships, informal care, volunteering, home care records

Learning objectives

  • Recognising the symptoms of schizophrenia, psychotic disorders and severe mental illness
  • Communicating effectively with clients who are experiencing hallucinations, delusions or confusion
  • Supporting clients with intellectual disabilities and neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. Rett syndrome)
  • Schizophrenia, psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, learning disabilities, Rett syndrome, crisis warning signs

Learning objectives

  • Use the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and other pain assessment tools, including non-verbal indicators of pain.
  • Describe the WHO classification system and Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns.
  • Explain Machteld Huber’s “Positive Health” model, including the Content–Process–Interaction–Subsistence levels.
  • Use the SBARR method for clear, structured communication
  • Vocabulary: NRS, pain assessment tools, WHO system, Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns, Positive Health, SBARR, assessment vocabulary, non-verbal indicators of pain

Learning objectives

  • Identify common groups of medicines, such as beta-blockers, and explain their effects and risks.
  • Choose the correct intramuscular (IM) injection site based on the patient’s age, muscle mass and safety considerations.
  • Recognise the signs of malnutrition and support patients who are struggling to stick to their dietary plan.
  • Vocabulary: beta-blockers, intramuscular injection sites (deltoid, ventrogluteal, vastus lateralis), signs of malnutrition, dietary adherence

Learning objectives

  • Preparing patients for surgery, including fasting instructions, hygiene and transport arrangements
  • Supporting patients emotionally and physically before, during and after surgery
  • Explain the difference between sedation, anaesthesia and palliative sedation.
  • Vocabulary: pre-operative checklist, anaesthesia, palliative sedation, sterile field, post-operative care terminology

Learning objectives

  • Getting to know healthcare services and referral pathways
  • Distinguish between inpatient and outpatient care
  • Explain community care and outreach services.
  • Healthcare settings (GPs, care homes), referrals, in-hospital/out-of-hospital care, outpatient care, community care, insurance

Learning objectives

  • Learn to use new hygiene materials and technologies
  • Apply ergonomic techniques safely
  • Describe preventive nursing measures (falls, thrombosis)
  • Care equipment, ergonomic techniques, personal care tools, infection prevention, mobility belts, non-slip materials

Learning objectives

  • Communicating with clients from different cultural backgrounds
  • Supporting residents with hearing or memory difficulties
  • Cultural differences, communication styles, hearing or memory difficulties, and supportive communication strategies

Learning objectives

  • Handling ethical dilemmas in everyday nursing practice
  • Apply the principles of confidentiality, autonomy and respect when interacting with patients
  • Comply with professional standards, ethical values and legal requirements
  • Privacy, autonomy, respect, professional values and standards, legal requirements, quality of care

All levels

Includes access to all levels

French A1
French A1
French A2
French A2
French B1
French 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 French lessons

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

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

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

Moving to Belgium for work: the same levels in book and portal helped me join a class at the right stage.

Claire D.
Lyon, France
Blended learning
  • 4.8/5

Studying offline with the book, online for corrections. Works for EU adults who cannot attend fixed classroom hours.

David R.
Berlin, Germany
Blended learning
  • 4.5/5

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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