Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität in Salzburg Austria established its Institute of Nursing in 2007.  Before the initiation of this program, all nursing programs in Austria were a vocational based training program similar to going through a Diploma program in the U.S. versus a bachelors program.  The Institute of Nursing at PMU now operates its bachelor program based off of a 2-in-1 model of nursing education.  This 2-in-1 model simply means that the program is a combination of both vocational training and a Bachelors of Science in Nursing.  The program is 7 semesters long and is made up of 210 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits.  The fact that this program is a part of the ECTS, allows students the flexibility of having a degree that can be objectively compared to any other European country that is a part of this system.  

Aside from the BSN program, PMU also offers an online RN-BSN program, a Masters program, and university courses to become certified in special areas such as palliative care, wound care, surgical nursing, etc.  The university is currently working on creating a DNP program but this will be a program offered in the future.  Nursing programs in Austria are set up to specialize in a different way than the general nursing degree that is acquired in the U.S.  BSN programs are either catered toward psychiatric nursing, pediatric nursing, or general nursing.  The BSN degree that is offered at PMU in collaboration with the Wagner-Jauregg clinical site in Linz is a psychiatric nursing degree.  Students remain at this one clinical site for the duration of their clinical experiences but have the opportunity to work on specialized units such as neurology, geriatrics, addition and substance abuse, and children/youth psychiatry.