New grad Filipino nurse wanting to work in Australia/New Zealand

pastasana · Sep 3, 2008

To Aelith, thank you for that helpful suggestion. I guess I really have to wait. Yeah I already reviewed for IELTS just recently and maybe I'll take the exam before the year ends. So for now i have to put up with my being an all-day bum haha.

shish · Sep 3, 2008

Hi Shish, Do you already have your license card? Because this is where my problem lies. I went to PRC last week to ask them fill out the verification form that goes with the QNC1 Application form. The registrar said she needs my license card before she could fill it out for me. So I guess I have to wait until November to get this started. I emailed QNC if I could send the rest of the requirements but no reply yet.

Hi Pastasana! Sorry to hear, I thought it is easy for PRC to do such request.

Yea, you can focus on your IELTS (as Aelith has adviced) and/or I suggest enroll to some hospital 'training' because such is very important to pass Test B. Test B is really tough since it delves on real clinical setting:nurse:. Here I realized ,maybe we should really be in no rush ......:wink2:

Aelith · Sep 3, 2008

@ gingerbreadman0214: :yeah:

@ pastasana: Don't feel so bad. I've been bum for like a year and half If only this was known before, I would've enrolled a long time ago. Now, I feel so old lol. But anyway, like what shish said, you can go for training so you can practice. However, I heard even training is hard to get into nowadays as there are really so many nursing grads who are going for this option too. But you can start reading books on clinical skills. That might help a bit. I think they're using lippincot and mosby.

If I'm there by the time you're all going to take your clinical placements, I'll be happy to accommodate you. Or at least tour you around or help you out. IF I'm there lol.

gingerbreadman0214 · Sep 3, 2008

Vanessa81 · Sep 4, 2008

Hi Aelith! I'm also interested in enrolling in a pre-registered nursing degree and have a several questions regarding taking up those degrees:

1. How much do they normally cost?

2. Where do most Pinoys taking up the degrees live?

3. What is the schedule of classes like? Would the schedule / work load in school permit me to work while studying?

Thank you so much for being so helpful regarding this topic. Hope you don't mind answering my questions. I'm just REALLY clueless. :confused:

maeriz · Sep 4, 2008

i am also planning to apply in QNC.. sigh....

to those who knew the agency or review center. pls do pm me.. tnx in advance.

to aelith, how much will the pre-enrollment cost? the one that you are planning for? because if this is much convenient for me, then i will probably opt to go through it.

hope we could succeed in what we want to do.

see you in australia soon

:yeah: :up:

shish · Sep 5, 2008

i am also planning to apply in QNC.. sigh....
to those who knew the agency or review center. pls do pm me.. tnx in advance.
to aelith, how much will the pre-enrollment cost? the one that you are planning for? because if this is much convenient for me, then i will probably opt to go through it.
hope we could succeed in what we want to do.
see you in australia soon

will PM you as soon as i am allowed to

Aelith · Sep 5, 2008

To maeriz & Vanessa81:

Pre-registration Nursing degrees' costs varies from state to state. Yearly tuition ranges from 18k-23k AUD. That is tuition alone - books and all other materials and uniforms are not yet included. And then you need approximately 15k AUD per year for your accommodation, food, transpo, school materials (including photocopies, books, uniform, etc.), and other miscellaneous things.

A lot of the Universities have accommodation for students. You can choose to stay in their accommodation or you can live out with others. If someone else you know is going to study in the same uni, I suggest you just rent outside. Some accommodation of Unis are catered (meaning you don't have to worry about food, they'll provide it). Sydney accos are pretty much on the high end, Brisbane though is way more cheaper. I'm pretty much familiar with the unis and accommodation prices and stuff in both Sydney and Brisbane as those are my target. I'm not so familiar with Melbourne though.

Workload in the Uni? I'm not quite sure but to me it seems that their workload is much lighter compared to that in the Philippines. I based this on my workload in my previous Uni. They have 4-5 subjects per sem, we had 6-7 per sem. :) They are only required to go to classes 12-15 hours per week, we were required at least 25++ hours per week worth of lectures alone (haha ). Add the duty hours per week which is 16-24 hours so yea you get the picture. I'm not sure if their clinical placements need you to complete certain cases like what we had to do which added more load to our normal schedule! Remember the completion days? Oh my... my schedule became 7 days a week and many sleepless nights just to finish reports and thesis lol. The assignments are mostly paperworks like essays and reports. I really think Filipinos will be okay, especially nursing in the Philippines is really hard. We had a quota grade in my uni before but in Australia there's none - I mean you just need to get a pass unlike in some unis in the Philippines, you have to get a really good grade for you to stay in the program. You also don't get kicked out of the program if you fail one subject, unlike in my uni if you fail one subject, goodbye to you . So yea, I'm sure we'll make it there. :) We just have to work hard for it.

When you are on a student visa, you are permitted to work for 20 hours per week only. You can only start working upon commencement of classes. The 20 hours apply only when you are having your classes. During summer or semestral breaks or holidays, you can work unlimited hours.

There are two types of pre-registration courses: a 1 year and 2 years program. If you take the 2 years course, you will be eligible to apply for a skilled independent visa (resident) after you graduate and receive your registration from the nurses board. If however, you don't meet the other criteria in the visa (e.g. the 1 year related experience while you were in Australia), you can apply for the graduate visa which will allow you to stay for another 18 months to comply with the requirements for the Skilled Independent Visa. The Independent visa doesn't need an agency to sponsor you, you apply for it yourself. This is also a resident visa not a business type visa. Resident visas are good for 5 years. You can apply for citizenship after 3-4 years. This however, doesn't apply to the 1 year program as the minimum requirement for both visas is finishing a course for 2 years.

I hope that helps. If there's anything else you need, just ask me. :)

Trion08 · Sep 5, 2008

Hi Aelith. Just want to ask if there's other course provider in Queensland for the CAS other than the CQU distance modules? I learned that the modules will take a year for me finished, uggh, thats too long.

Thanks again

Aelith · Sep 5, 2008

Sad to say, I only know of CQU. I think it is the only one too. It wouldn't really need to take a year. Remember each module is to be finished in 12 weeks. However, you can take as many modules as you can at a time. Meaning, you can finish the modules in 3 months or so depending on how many modules you will be taking at a time. 2 modules at a time should be okay. By doing this, you will be finished in 6 months. If you take one module at a time, you will definitely finish in a year or so.

Trion08 · Sep 5, 2008

Thank you very much Aelith.How about the review for the Challenge Test? How many months would that be before I can take their test?

Aelith · Sep 5, 2008

As far as I know, the only review is that from a certain agency in manila. They will give you review materials for that. So, if you're not going to avail of that particular agency's services, you will have to find your own materials and review on your own.

Going for the agency is a bit expensive, especially when I found out that they won't be paying for the modules. But it is entirely up to you. I can give you an estimate of how much you will be spending if you will go on your own and you will see the big difference with the agency rate. As for the review materials, you can try contacting QNC. Maybe they can give you details where you can get the books needed for the topics included in the exam.