the american dream: do not lose hope

World Philippines

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there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of posts here pertaining to the current immigration and economic situation of the us. in addition, the situation is also being played out in the media all over the world (i would think). with all of these information out there, i think most, if not all, foreign nurses are already aware of the sad realities of wanting to work in the us.

i got the following lines from the novel the alchemist by paulo coelho:

"... the soul of the world is nourished by people's happiness... to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation...

and, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

so, to all my fellow pinoy rns out there who are still dreaming of one day being able to work in the us as a registered nurse, don't lose hope. do not be discouraged. you will meet a lot of people who get pleasure from splashing water over the smallest ember of hope that you may have. but, no one could/should ever tell you that your dreams are beyond your reach.

in my opinion, we are all brothers/sisters in the world of nursing and we should be benevolent enough to welcome and help our colleagues on their way in as we, ourselves, may be on our way out.

ignis fraternum eterna est

(the flames of our brotherhood will burn forever)

"I guess this must be a difference in belief system. I would not encourage my family or friends to dream the impossible, especially if they were putting financial resources into this dream."

But sir, the American Dream is very much possible. Nurses and others are still arriving. I am one example. I just arrived here 4 months ago. The US government has not stopped issuing visas. Visas are still available. As for the financial costs those dreamers are having, it is more like a calculated gamble or maybe an investment. Nothing in this world is free. If you want something then you will have to really work hard for it.

When my son graduated in elementary last 2005, he asked me and his mom if he could study for high school at Ateneo de Manila. THis school is one of the best in the Philippines and I mean one of the BEST(it is even included in the top 500 HS in the world) but it is also very,very expensive. We said yes and we(including my son) worked hard for it. His mom came here in America last 2006 to work as a nurse while we stayed for a while in the Philippines since I have a job there and also took a 2nd course nursing. My son got a 50% grant-in-aid and studied hard to maintain it.

Now he is graduating from high school and wants to study Medicine. Of all the courses in the world, he chose Medicine.Why could he not just choose Nursing?Why?Why?Why?

(Maybe I was a bad boy in my past life and God is punishing me for it. No, just kidding ;P)

I will not just give up and say to my son that he cannot be a doctor because it is too costly. We(still including him) will work hard so he will be a doctor someday.

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And I agree with you.

Filipino Nurses are very Flexible, and very "Global",they are found in all parts of the world, working, they are considered the present day heroes in the Philippines bec of their remittances, w/c is a big help to the Philippine economy. These Filipino Nurses' average age is 25 yrs old, compared to American Nurses who have an average age of 45 - 50 yrs old. Filipino Nurses can wait 3 -5 yrs, for sure they have options, Filipino Nurses are applying to work in the Middle East, Singapore, Europe, Canada. but their final destination for sure will become a US Immigrant. Throw them those Nclex, CGFNS, English Exams, increase those immigration and application fees, they will still apply and pursue their dreams. Life is very hard in the Philippines compared to what the US is experiencing right now, if life is getting hard in the US, life in the Philippines is much harder. Since birth most of the Filipinos are living life hard. These are veterans of lifes' hardship, and are willing to face it head on. :wink2:

Can I ask you why you're bringing the age factor into this? To me it doesn't matter how old a nurse is, what matters is their passion for nursing and how they handle the profession. I have to agree with the people who are advising against sepnding all this money on exams if some of them will expire. Why are you putting the cart before the horse? With out the horse you're not going to go anywhere. Once you have have been approved for a green card then start with all your exams. Why waste your money? You could use your money elsewhere while you're waiting. What if you don't ever get called for a green card? Then you've just wasted all this money on something that you're never going to get.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

I have to agree with the people who are advising against sepnding all this money on exams if some of them will expire. Why are you putting the cart before the horse? With out the horse you're not going to go anywhere. Once you have have been approved for a green card then start with all your exams. Why waste your money? You could use your money elsewhere while you're waiting. What if you don't ever get called for a green card? Then you've just wasted all this money on something that you're never going to get.

The thing for most is to get a petitioner in the US you need to have passed NCLEX and some even require English exams so have no choice but take the exams. Visa screen is the one that could wait until you know things are moving towards your PD in my opinion

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I agree with the age issue, I much rather have an average of 45 since that population brings experience. Even people who seek nursing as a second degree bring a wealth of life experiences the younger nurses don't have.

My students seem to have a tough life, many do not have cars, cell phones or computer access. When we eat supper many don't have money to buy supper. When they graduate many have to wait for the NCLEX since they don't have the money to apply. They work full time while going to school part time. They are exhausted but motivated.

Many who post here, have access to the internet, money to fly back and forth from their homeland to the USA, and the luxury to not work while studying for their tests. The luxury of not working while waiting to come to the USA, this does not seem as hard as my students. If my students don't work they don't eat. To me that is a very hard life. I realize that this is a generalization and only my observation. But I have never read on the international forums the difficulties of working and going to school, or studying for the NCLEX while you are working a non nursing position.

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Can I ask you why you're bringing the age factor into this? To me it doesn't matter how old a nurse is, what matters is their passion for nursing and how they handle the profession. I have to agree with the people who are advising against sepnding all this money on exams if some of them will expire. Why are you putting the cart before the horse? With out the horse you're not going to go anywhere. Once you have have been approved for a green card then start with all your exams. Why waste your money? You could use your money elsewhere while you're waiting. What if you don't ever get called for a green card? Then you've just wasted all this money on something that you're never going to get.

From what I understand on Silversurfer's post, he is just stating from his knowledge the average age of Filipino nurses and American nurses. No issue is attached to it.

He probably means that Filipinos have years to waste while waiting for their American Dream to be fulfilled and still be young.

Regarding the spending on those exams, they are immigration requirements. No matter how unfair,expensive and time consuming, there is nothing that could be done but to comply. That is how it works. I say again that nothing is for free. You have to take risks and work hard for you to achieve your dream.

Dream on guys and never lose hope. America still welcomes you.:redbeathe:smokin::heartbeat:p

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The thing for most is to get a petitioner in the US you need to have passed NCLEX and some even require English exams so have no choice but take the exams. Visa screen is the one that could wait until you know things are moving towards your PD in my opinion

...and again, you're putting the cart before the horse...There is no way for entry in the US to work unless you have a valid visa...Who decides who gets the visa...it's not the petitioners, it's the US gov that specifically work immigration who decides, the petitioners can petition all they want but they too are in the cart just like you...and as stated many many times it has to be proven that you can't hire somebody local. From a very reliable source I was told that they're cracking down on importing foreign nurses at the moment. The concern is to take care of our own right now regarding nursing jobs, it's not to import foreigners when there are many many unemployed nurses that are living here. They should be hired first.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
...and again, you're putting the cart before the horse...There is no way for entry in the US to work unless you have a valid visa...Who decides who gets the visa...it's not the petitioners, it's the US gov that specifically work immigration who decides, the petitioners can petition all they want but they too are in the cart just like you...and as stated many many times it has to be proven that you can't hire somebody local. From a very reliable source I was told that they're cracking down on importing foreign nurses at the moment. The concern is to take care of our own right now regarding nursing jobs, it's not to import foreigners when there are many many unemployed nurses that are living here. They should be hired first.

Yes it may be hard to find a petitioner at the moment and I know they do not issue the visas but for someone to get into the queue and find a petitioner they have to meet BON requirements and pass NCLEX and if the BON also requires English then that has to be done. A employer will not accept them without it therefore they have to put the cart before the horse as you put it. I never dispute that own citizens must be looked after first but employers can still look for foreign nurses as long as they meet whatever requirements they have to meet to prove they can not find someone locally to do the job

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From what I understand on Silversurfer's post, he is just stating from his knowledge the average age of Filipino nurses and American nurses. No issue is attached to it.

He probably means that Filipinos have years to waste while waiting for their American Dream to be fulfilled and still be young.

Regarding the spending on those exams, they are immigration requirements. No matter how unfair,expensive and time consuming, there is nothing that could be done but to comply. That is how it works. I say again that nothing is for free. You have to take risks and work hard for you to achieve your dream.

Dream on guys and never lose hope. America still welcomes you.:redbeathe:smokin::heartbeat:p

I understood what the poster was saying...I can see that it's better to have the all the ducks in a row, but what I'm saying is that in order for you to move forward you should have your green card already approved before you start with the exams. I'm saying this because it just saves you time and money. Don't spend all this money until you know for sure that you're coming. What if you don't ever get called? Then you spent all this time and money into something that's never going to happen. I'm not saying lose hope, everybody knows here that their chances for a green card are slim to none. There is that slim chance that you're going to get called. If you're one of the lucky ones, then great start the process. Some are looking at years for a chance at a visa and in that time, something is going to expire which means that's more money that you're going to have to fork out later on.

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Yes it may be hard to find a petitioner at the moment and I know they do not issue the visas but for someone to get into the queue and find a petitioner they have to meet BON requirements and pass NCLEX and if the BON also requires English then that has to be done. A employer will not accept them without it therefore they have to put the cart before the horse as you put it. I never dispute that own citizens must be looked after first but employers can still look for foreign nurses as long as they meet whatever requirements they have to meet to prove they can not find someone locally to do the job

I see what you're saying, and I would agree with you if getting a visa were faster than it's moving now. But since immigration is moving slowly at this time, I'd just hate to see someone waste their money if some things do expire and they would have to retake and pay another fee. Or if they don't ever get called for a visa, then time, and money is wasted.

I never said that you were disputing that the own citizens must be looked at first. You never said that, I just made that statement after talking with a very reliable source.

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Can I ask you why you're bringing the age factor into this? To me it doesn't matter how old a nurse is, what matters is their passion for nursing and how they handle the profession.

I agree with the age issue, I much rather have an average of 45 since that population brings experience. Even people who seek nursing as a second degree bring a wealth of life experiences the younger nurses don't have.

I also wondered why that particular poster brought up the age issue. When my mother was hospitalized, I was very relieved to see that the nurse caring for her was a middle-aged nurse with many years of experience. I was glad it wasn't a young nurse who had just graduated!

Unfortunately, the quality of nursing education in the Philippines has gone way, way down in the past several years, and it hasn't gone unnoticed. It's a real shame. I work with many filipino nurses, and the new grads are ill-prepared to work in the US healthcare system. They don't have the skills, and they don't have the sound nursing judgement that comes with experience. They have been brainwashed to believe that the Philippines produces the "best nurses in the world," and that hasn't been true for a long time. Filipino nurses used to be "hand-crafted," and now they are manufactured on an assembly-line!

The "older" filipino nurses--yep, the ones who are in their 50's--are good nurses. They went to nursing school because they actually love nursing, not because they were looking for a quick way out of the Philippines. For anyone to think that importing young, inexperienced, poorly-trained nurses is the solution to replacing retiring, experienced older US nurses is simply foolish. A much better solution is to increase the number of US-educated nurses, and I think that's where the focus needs to be.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
I see what you're saying, and I would agree with you if getting a visa were faster than it's moving now. But since immigration is moving slowly at this time, I'd just hate to see someone waste their money if some things do expire and they would have to retake and pay another fee. Or if they don't ever get called for a visa, then time, and money is wasted.

But many will not get petitioned for GC unless they have passed NCLEX and for some BON's English exam.

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lets not forget that those 40+ yrs old experienced nurses were once a new grad nurse w/ skills that needs to be honed. those great nurses also started from scratch,whom through their dedication & passion were able to be successful in their fields. no one is born to know everything in an instance. knowledge & skills needs to be learned through experience.

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