A nursing placement in Nepal is a supervised clinical block that student nurses complete at a Nepali hospital, as part of or alongside their nursing degree. With travel4med, your nursing placement in Nepal takes place at Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara, an academic teaching hospital at the foot of the Himalayas. Placements start every Monday, and prices start at 1,490 EUR.
Researched and editorially reviewed by Nils-Andre Stritt, travel4med. 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 on top of it to gain experience. A nursing placement in Nepal is simply that block done at a hospital in Nepal. Your school might call it a clinical placement, a nursing elective or an international placement. The idea doesn't change: you join a nursing team, follow its routine and learn how care works in a health system unlike your own.
Here's the part many students skip. Your own school decides whether a nursing placement in Nepal 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 first, ideally before you pick dates. Our nursing internship abroad planning guide walks through the questions to ask.
If you are a medical student rather than a nursing student, our medical elective in Nepal guide is the better starting point. This post is written for student nurses.
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Most students give three reasons. The first is the hospital itself: a teaching hospital with a broad mix of departments, where you see everyday care for local patients. The second is the setting. Pokhara sits beside Phewa Lake with the Annapurna range behind it, and weekends are free for trips. The third reason is bigger than one hospital: nursing looks different when staff are stretched.
The World Health Organization put numbers on that in its nursing fact sheet of 11 August 2026. There were an estimated 29.8 million nurses worldwide in 2023, up from 27.9 million in 2018. The global shortage fell from 6.2 million in 2020 to 5.8 million in 2023, and WHO projects 4.1 million by 2030. These are global figures, not figures for Nepal or for one hospital.
WHO adds that around 78% of the world's nurses work in countries with only 49% of the world's population. In other words, many patients live where nurses are fewest. A nursing placement in Nepal won't fix that, of course. What it gives you is a close look at how nurses prioritise, delegate and communicate when the ratio of patients to staff is not what you are used to.
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 nursing students just as much.
Your nursing placement in Nepal is based in Pokhara, Nepal's lakeside city and the starting point for treks into the Annapurna region. The hospital is Manipal Teaching Hospital, which our Nepal page describes as an academic teaching hospital where the university affiliation is what counts toward recognition of your stay.
| What you get | Details from our Nepal page (read 20 October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Hospital | Manipal Teaching Hospital, an academic teaching hospital in Pokhara |
| Departments listed | Emergency medicine, cardiology, general and visceral surgery, orthopaedics and trauma surgery, neurosurgery, gynaecology, nephrology, urology and more |
| Start dates | Every Monday |
| Housing | Shared travel4med accommodation with mountain views, three meals a day cooked by our own chef, laundry service and Wi-Fi |
| Getting to work | Airport pickup, then transport to and from the hospital every day |
| Support | Fixed contacts on site and at the hospital for your whole stay |
| Language | Nepali is the official language; English is widely understood, especially in towns |
Which departments you join is agreed with you before you travel and then confirmed with the hospital. Tell us early if your school needs a specific area, for example surgical nursing or emergency care. The full destination page is Pokhara, Nepal, and the format itself is described on our nursing placement abroad page.
On a nursing placement in Nepal you are 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. Our Nepal page also mentions lectures at the medical college attached to the hospital, alongside local students.
Language is part of the job. English is widely understood among staff, but many patients speak Nepali. Learn greetings, "pain", "water" and "thank you" 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.
Who regulates nursing in Nepal? The Nepal Nursing Council, set up under the Nepal Nursing Council Act 2052 (1996), recognises nursing qualifications, accredits nursing schools, runs the Nursing Licensing Exam and keeps the register of nurses in Nepal. As a visiting student you work under supervision and are not a registered nurse there, so never act as one.
Start your health planning for a nursing placement in Nepal well ahead, ideally several weeks before you fly, because some vaccine courses need several doses. The CDC's Nepal page (last reviewed 25 August 2026) recommends hepatitis A, hepatitis B for unvaccinated travellers under 60, typhoid for most travellers and measles vaccination for all international travellers. It reports no malaria transmission in Kathmandu, Pokhara or on typical Himalayan treks, so malaria tablets are recommended only for low areas in Sudurpashchim and Karnali provinces.
Our Nepal 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 had dengue before. Your own doctor or a travel medicine service decides what is right for you.
Two more things matter for nurses. Know what to do after a sharps injury before your first shift, and read our guide on what to do after a needlestick injury. And if you plan a trek on your free weekends, read about altitude sickness on a medical elective. Our guide to vaccinations for a medical elective abroad explains the vaccine timeline in more detail.
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Yes, you need an entry permit for Nepal. The rules depend on your nationality and on the purpose of your stay, and a hospital placement is not ordinary sightseeing even when it is unpaid. So don't assume that a tourist entry covers it. Clarify it in writing before you travel.
You won't have to work it out alone. After booking, our team goes through the formalities with you and sends a step by step guide that tells you what you need and when. Our visa guide for Sri Lanka and Nepal gives more background. Check your cover as well, because a clinical placement needs more than standard travel insurance; our medical elective insurance guide explains what to look for.
A nursing placement in Nepal with us starts from 1,490 EUR (read on our destination page on 20 October 2026). That price includes the shared accommodation, three meals a day, laundry, Wi-Fi, airport pickup and daily transport to the hospital. The final price depends on how long you stay, so ask us for the exact figure for your dates.
Budget separately for flights, the entry permit, 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 Nepal compare with our other destinations? Here are the starting prices on our destination pages on 20 October 2026.
| Destination | Starting price |
|---|---|
| Pokhara, Nepal | from 1,490 EUR |
| Galle, Sri Lanka | from 1,499 EUR |
| Zanzibar, Tanzania | from 1,640 EUR |
| Bali, Indonesia | from 1,720 EUR |
If you are deciding between South Asian destinations, read the story of a nursing internship in Sri Lanka and our comparison of medical electives in Asia. German speaking readers can find a German guide to placements in Nepal on our sister site travel4med.de, written for students in Germany.
Ready to plan your nursing placement in Nepal? We organise nursing placements, clinical placements, medical electives, final-year placements, physician assistant placements and observerships at Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara, and the same formats in Sri Lanka, Bali 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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