Dual Citizen (Fil/Am) Planing to Study Practical Nursing in the Philippines

dishes, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2011

Is your boyfriend aware of the problems associated with the practical nursing programs in the Philippines?

https://allnurses.com/international-nursing/lpn-from-philippines-290760.html

https://allnurses.com/philippine-nursing-forum/say-no-lpn-311473.html

PiRN · Jul 22, 2011

:tinkbll: LPN in the Philippines are not regulated by the Philippine Regulatory Commission unlike an RN, so it will be difficult to say if LPN education in the Philippines is equivalent in the US.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Jul 22, 2011

If the links above didn't convince you enough that this plan is sketchy, let me explain my thoughts on this issue. Your boyfriend is a US citizen and true enough, he's legal as far as finding gainful employment in the US. That's definitely a big deal because he doesn't have to go through immigration issues, visas, and such which is probably the biggest hurdle for most others who are posting in this international forum including the ones who posted in the links above.

In his case, his two big hurdles are getting licensed and finding employment as an LPN/LVN. You will have to look at LPN/LVN licensure on a case to case basis and that in itself worries me because there are no uniform rules across the states. For instance, the State of California will give an LVN license by educational equivalency if your boyfriend could prove that his LPN education in the Philippines meets standards for LPN training in California. However, their website will warn you that this type of LVN licensure may not be accepted for endorsement in other states and some employers in the State of California may prefer their LVN's to have graduated from a state-approved program. This is risky in my opinion, one because of the lack of guarantee that the license is as good as any other LVN if you have to move out of state; and two, the fact that the training may not be recognized by employers within the state even if your boyfriend receives a license.

Other states will have different rules and some may require additional documentation from a third party service other than an official school transcript (such as the credentialing services offered by CGFNS). You'll have to look at the individual LPN/LVN requirements by state for someone educated outside the US. I'm sure there are mechanisms in place in a lot of states for this particular case but the requirements will definitely be more stringent compared to someone who attended their training in the US. The other issue that may come up is whether certain states would require a license in the country where your boyfriend received his education and it has been mentioned in this forum numerous times that there is no government-approved LPN licensure in existence in the Philippines. A quick guide from the CGFNS website points you to a summary of state to state requirements for foreign educated LPN/LVN's and it seems like majority require CES: http://www.cgfns.org/sections/tools/apps/sbonrequirements.shtml. Again, the link provides no specific information whether a license from the country where the education was received is required.

The other concern is employment. I will not answer this question because I'm a nurse practitioner in an ICU and have no recent experience working with LVN's so I do not know what the current job outlook is for these types of nurses. But in my opinion, this is an important issue to consider before embarking on an endeavor that will cost money and a lot of time.