[NRSKarenRN]

28,924 Passed Board Exam for Nurses

A total of 28,924 out of 67,728 examinees passed the licensure examinations for nurses given last December, 2007 in the following cities: Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga.

The figure represents a 43.42 percent passing rate. The number of passers consists of first timers, repeaters, removals and voluntary retakers of all subjects.

• 66% NOT PASSING initial Philippine licensing exam (compared to 2008 US educated 87% pass rate)
• Too many nursing graduates so nurses have to volunteer to get actual experience post graduation

These quality issues must be addressed and rectified ASAP in order to preserve the recognition and respect our profession has acheived.

[shodobe]

This has been a subject for many years. There are alot of filipino nurses here where I work. I hope no one bashes me for this opinion, but it seems the only reason people go to nursing school in the Phillipines is the chance they will get to work here in the states. The proficiency tests here are not as stringent as they should be for foreign trained nurses. English is not at the top of the list as quite a few of them do not speak or understand English as needed. The "warm body" mentality comes to mind. Hospitals should be allowed to dismiss nurses who have problems understanding common sense English terms. I get a liitle tired of hand-holding nurses who can't spell or understand terms that US trained nurses take as common terms. I don't think this country is so desperate for nurses we have to compromise the safety of our patients just to fill a spot. I would love to be on the board who grants or denies foreign trained nurses due to their lack of the English language. Before I go I wanted to let people know I work with some great nurses from other countries and have every confidence in them to take care of their patients with great skills. Most of the PACU nurses we have are filipinas and are very good at what they do. Tighten the qualifications and we will get the best and not just the overfill.

[raemon]

It would be really interesting to hear a Filipino nurses point of view on this one. I know they work really hard, and are understaffed.

So would it be because they train lots of nurses, but only hire a small amount due to financial reasons?

What is the role of the student in the hospitals there? There must be alot for an article like that to be written. Does this mean that the hospitals are taking advantage of them while they are doing their training?

Doesn't really seem fair; to do a degree for up to five years, and then not be able to work...

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yeah....
funny but true, newly registered nurses here are struggling to land on a nursing job, its very sad that after all the suffering and sacrifices during college years, giving all your effort to meet the expensive tuition fees of nursing schools, reviewing for the nurse licensure examination, after passing the board exams, english proficiency exams, staying late at night doing nursing staff, forgetting your social life, not having that much time to meet new friends just to finish your nursing degree, then you'll still be ending up facing another sacrifices.
99.9% of hospitals here were running with volunteer nurses, they hire them for free, no allowances nor compensation at all, and also most of the government and private hospitals hires applicants because they know someone in that hospital (the backer system) and some hospital were collecting 250 US dollars from volunteer nurse applicants for them to be hired and work as a volunteer nurse for three months. Really shocking but true. The situation of nurse's here was seriously turned up side down.

Then if your lucky enough after a year of being volunteer in a hospital (maybe average time before nurse's were hired as staff/regular nurse or payed nurse) compensation of around 195 - 200 US dollars a month (minimum). With this, some nurses( some because there are lot of newly RN were not yet landed on any job and still hoping that something will happen) are looking forward to land on call center, casino jobs, office work and many other underemployment job category (job which are less than the quality of your degree). adn also looking for an occupational/company nurse work is as hard as finding a hospital job, 1423 nurses applied for 3 vacant nurse positions isn't it hard to land on a nursing job?

If i could just turn back the time when i was in college and knew that this will be the future life of a nursing graduate, but i cannot blame my self of taking this course, because as i start caring, learning to handle patients and doing all the nursing stuff i was mesmerized with
the total package of being a nurse. I learned to be passionate. the self fulfillment in everyday duty that this career has been offering since the day i started to care people, being an instrument of their wellness is a very rewarding feeling.

Nursing Life... where are you?.....
i miss being a college student where i am able to do all these nursing stuff...
hope to find you soon.....

[NRSKarenRN]

The first hospital I worked at in Philadelphia in 1977 had about 25 foreign RN staff due to nursing shortage. 4 worked on my unit from Ireland, Philippines, India while night shift supervisor was from Thailand. They were fantastic about taking this greenhorn LPN and turning me into a skilled professional, coaching me back to school for RN degree. They were tough and passionate about the highest level of care in this teaching hospital and helped educate many nursing students rotating through the unit. They were aghast whenever ran across a sloppy nurse. They talked about standards being loosened and were upset with grads in the late 80's not meeting their standards..... yet alone students reports of current education and hospital training.

[dudie]

yes it is true in the USA, at least where i live. too many new grads, not enough positions. which by the way was very plainly explained to me by a recruiter. some places have 6 positions and 160 applicants. i have been looking for work for 7 months since getting my license and the competition is fierce.

[Mijourney]

It's scary to think that as patient care is getting more complex, nursing education seems as though it is becoming increasingly lax and overly tolerant. Or, in an effort to financially support the nursing school, educators are apt to take on more than is needed. Just my opinion.