Nursing in Bali, for a student nurse, means a supervised clinical placement at a Balinese hospital that you complete as part of your nursing degree or on top of it. With travel4med, nursing in Bali takes place at RSU Bangli Hospital, an academic teaching hospital affiliated with Udayana University. Placements start on Mondays, prices start at 1,720 EUR, and enrolled students should book at least three months and one week ahead.
Researched and editorially reviewed by Celina Köhsl, medical student and member of the travel4med team. The health and clinical sections were reviewed by MUDr. Amandeep Grewal, a doctor on the travel4med team.
A nursing placement is time on a real ward that counts toward your nursing education, or that you add to gain experience. Nursing in Bali is that block done at a hospital on the Indonesian island. Your school might call it a clinical placement, a nursing elective or an international placement. The idea stays the same: you join a nursing team, follow its routine and see how care works in a health system unlike your own.
Here's the part many students skip. Your own school decides whether nursing in Bali counts, how long it must be and which forms you bring home. The host hospital doesn't decide that, and neither do we. So talk to your placement or clinical office before you pick dates. Our nursing internship abroad planning guide lists the questions to ask.
Not a nursing student? If you study medicine, our overview of medical electives in Asia compares Bali with Sri Lanka and Nepal from a medical student's point of view. This post is written for student nurses.
Secure your spot for your internship abroad now.
Most students give three reasons. The first is the hospital: a university teaching hospital where you see everyday care for local patients, not a clinic built for visitors. The second is the island itself, with rice terraces, temples and volcano hikes for your free weekends. The third reason is bigger than one hospital. Nursing looks different when there are fewer nurses for each patient.
The World Bank puts a number on that gap. In its data for nurses and midwives per 1,000 people, Indonesia records 3.24 (2023). The United Kingdom records 9.55 (2023), the United States 13.38 (2022) and Australia 13.45 (2022). These are national figures that count nurses and midwives together, so they say nothing about one ward in Bangli. They do explain why teamwork and clear handovers matter so much on an Indonesian ward.
The global picture points the same way. WHO's nursing fact sheet of 11 August 2026 counts an estimated 29.8 million nurses worldwide in 2023 and a global shortage of 5.8 million. It adds that around 78% of the world's nurses work in countries with only 49% of the world's population.
That lesson comes with a limit. A busy ward is never a reason to do more than you are trained and allowed to do. Our guide to an ethical medical elective abroad explains how to be useful while staying inside your competence, and it applies to student nurses too.
Your placement is at RSU Bangli Hospital in Bangli, Bali. Our Bali page describes it as an academic teaching hospital affiliated with Udayana University, and the university's own Faculty of Medicine lists "Bangli Hospital" among the 14 hospitals it collaborates with. That affiliation is what schools tend to look at when they assess a placement.
| What you get | Details from our Bali page (read 21 October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Hospital | RSU Bangli Hospital, an academic teaching hospital affiliated with Udayana University |
| Departments listed | Neurosurgery, trauma surgery and orthopaedics, general and visceral surgery, vascular and transplant surgery, plastic surgery, gynaecology, nephrology, paediatric cardiology, psychiatry and more |
| Start dates | Always on a Monday |
| Housing | Shared travel4med accommodation with the other interns: pool, laundry service, three meals a day, Wi-Fi, yoga and air conditioning |
| Paperwork | Complete documents within 2 weeks of booking; your place is confirmed once your acceptance letter and visa are available |
| Support | A personal contact for a free consultation before you book, and our team for the formalities afterwards |
Which department you join is agreed with you before you travel and then with the hospital. Tell us early if your school needs a specific area, for example surgical or women's health nursing. The full destination page is Bali, Indonesia, and the format itself is described on our nursing placement abroad page.
When you go nursing in Bali, you become part of the daily routine of a ward, under the supervision of qualified staff. What you may do depends on two things: your year of training and your own school's rules. A first-year student will mostly observe and help with basic care. A final-year student can usually take on more, but only what their school allows and their supervisor agrees to.
In practice that often means handover, observations, helping patients with mobility and hygiene, watching wound care and medication rounds, and asking a lot of questions. How you are registered matters too. Our Bali page says medical students are registered as elective students and premedical students as observers. Ask us in your consultation how your status as a nursing student is set out in the acceptance letter, so your school gets exactly what it expects.
Language is part of the job. Many patients won't speak English, and even a few words help. Learn greetings, "pain", "water" and "thank you" in Bahasa Indonesia before you go. Our post on language barriers on a clinical internship abroad has practical tips, and a short learning plan helps your supervisor help you. Our guide to elective learning objectives shows how to write one.
You need an entry permit for Indonesia, and the right one depends on the purpose of your stay, not only its length. Indonesia's Directorate General of Immigration lists the C22A visa for internships at an educational institution, a company or another place that meet the academic requirements of an education abroad (our summary of the Indonesian text). A hospital placement that your school requires fits that description, which is why sightseeing rules are the wrong starting point.
| C22A academic internship visa | What the immigration page states (read 21 October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Who applies | An Indonesian sponsor with an account on evisa.imigrasi.go.id, not you |
| Stay | Single entry, first stay up to 180 days from arrival; extensions of 180 days each, total no more than 12 months |
| Fees (PNBP) | 60 day stay Rp 3,000,000; 180 day stay Rp 4,000,000 |
| Documents | Application and sponsor statement, passport valid at least 6 months, last 3 months of bank statements, recent colour photo, internship agreement or letter from the host |
| Validity | The visa must be used within 90 days of issue |
| Processing | Five working days after payment is received |
| Work | No selling goods or services and no wages or payment from anyone in Indonesia |
You won't have to work this out alone. Our team goes through the formalities with you after booking and sends a step by step guide that tells you what you need and when. German speaking readers will find the same C22A route explained in our sister site's German guide to visas for Bali and Zanzibar. Check your cover as well: a clinical placement needs more than standard travel insurance, and our medical elective insurance guide explains what to look for.
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In Bali, timing can catch you out. Our Bali page explains that an official deadline applies, so the paperwork has to be complete earlier than elsewhere. If you are currently enrolled, as almost every student nurse is, that deadline falls 3 months before arrival. Book at least 3 months and one week ahead so we can process everything in time.
If you come before or after your degree, the deadline is one month, so about one month and one week is enough. The booking calendar only shows dates that are still feasible, which means you can't accidentally pick one that is too late. Our guide to the best time for a medical elective abroad helps you weigh seasons and term dates.
Start your health planning for nursing in Bali early, ideally six to eight weeks before you fly, because some vaccine courses need several doses. Our Bali page sets the rules for taking part. Required: hepatitis A, hepatitis B, measles, mumps and rubella, plus tetanus, diphtheria, polio and pertussis. Recommended but optional: rabies prophylaxis, typhoid, Japanese encephalitis and dengue, with dengue vaccination only advisable if you have already had dengue.
The CDC's Indonesia page (last reviewed 25 August 2026) recommends hepatitis A and hepatitis B for unvaccinated travellers, typhoid for most travellers and measles vaccination for all international travellers. It reports no malaria transmission in the resort areas of Bali or in Ubud, and it warns that dogs infected with rabies are commonly found in Indonesia. Your own doctor or a travel medicine service decides what is right for you and your exact route.
Two more things matter for nurses. Know what to do after a sharps injury before your first shift, so read our guide on what to do after a needlestick injury. And because of the dog bite risk, read about rabies on a medical elective before you decide on pre-exposure vaccination. Our guide to vaccinations for a medical elective abroad explains the timeline in more detail.
Nursing in Bali with us starts from 1,720 EUR (read on our destination page on 21 October 2026). That price includes the shared accommodation with pool, three meals a day, laundry, Wi-Fi, yoga and air conditioning. The final price depends on how long you stay, so ask us for the exact figure for your dates.
Budget separately for flights, the visa, vaccines, insurance and spending money. We quote in euros; your own currency and local costs will differ. Our budget guide for a clinical placement abroad helps you build a full plan.
How does Bali compare with our other destinations? Here are the starting prices on our destination pages on 21 October 2026.
| Destination | Starting price |
|---|---|
| Bali, Indonesia | from 1,720 EUR |
| Zanzibar, Tanzania | from 1,640 EUR |
| Galle, Sri Lanka | from 1,499 EUR |
| Pokhara, Nepal | from 1,490 EUR |
Still deciding? Read about a nursing placement in Nepal, a nursing internship in Sri Lanka or nursing and clinical placements in Zanzibar. German speaking readers can find a German guide to hospitals in Bali on our sister site travel4med.de.
Ready to plan nursing in Bali? We organise nursing placements, clinical placements, medical electives, final-year placements, physician assistant placements and observerships at RSU Bangli Hospital in Bali, and the same formats in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Zanzibar, with housing, meals and local support. Book a free consultation or compare all destinations. travel4med is part of the futuredoctor group ecosystem, which supports students from application to graduation.
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