by Northern nephron

Good afternoon. I am a nurse educator in a hospital in Manitoba. I am expecting 20 - 24 new Filipino nurse recruits anywhere between April and September My ultimate goal is to make their transition from the Philippine nursing world to our facility as smooth and welcoming as possible.
My hope is that you may offer me some suggestions as to how best orientate them to nursing in Canada. Can you give me any suggestions on specific topics related to health care in canada that I should be addressing as well as any tips/suggestion/pearls of wisdom that I may utilize as I try to ensure that all goes smoothly for them.
THanks

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

I do think this is a great idea but do you do something similar for other Internationally educated nurses? Seems unfair if you don't. Nursing will be different regardless where you are from and some sort of set up would nice for all

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

This is the first big recruitment of nurses that have not nursed in Canada before coming to our facility that I have worked with. All other internationally trained nurses that we have hired and brought into our organization have worked elsewhere in Canada prior to coming to our facility. As this is such a large project with one designated country of origin I am focusing on the Philippine nursing experience. Hope that I am doing the right thing.

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

Have you tried to contact other educators? Like the guys in Regina/Saskatoon in Saskatchewan?
They had allready a group and expecting more. Maybe would be interesting to share experience.

5cats

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

I'm just going by what I've experienced working with nurses that arrived last year in our health region.

Many are too shy or reserved working with the patients. They appear very hesitant and the patients will comment on it to the staff they recognize from previous stays or often they will go to the Unit Manager and complain.

One nurse I helped orient to my unit said he was impressed by how well we managed to talk to and manage patient education in general conversation.

I think a big one to stress is the use of the English language. I don't care what language you talk outside of the hospital but on the floor, in the charting and med room and in the hospital cafeteria, English has to be the norm. We've always had nurses from the Phillipines on our units, but the use of Tagalog has only become an issue in the last six months. Various unions are even stating that it is an English speaking workplace.

Also, have the unions talk with the nurses. They need to know their rights as workers in a unionized situation. Many don't understand that the union is their advocate.

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

Originally Posted by Northern nephron

Good afternoon. I am a nurse educator in a hospital in Manitoba. I am expecting 20 - 24 new Filipino nurse recruits anywhere between April and September My ultimate goal is to make their transition from the Philippine nursing world to our facility as smooth and welcoming as possible.
My hope is that you may offer me some suggestions as to how best orientate them to nursing in Canada. Can you give me any suggestions on specific topics related to health care in canada that I should be addressing as well as any tips/suggestion/pearls of wisdom that I may utilize as I try to ensure that all goes smoothly for them.
THanks

Hi Northern nephron,

Welcome to the Philippine Nursing forum.
Four Health Regions from Manitoba went here last November to recruit Filipino nurses.Total of 131 recruits was selected from numerous applicants and were given conditional offers to work in your wonderful province.http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.htm...1-01&item=4792

I am not sure if you are referring to those Filipino nurse recruited,regardless, below are some concerns that might help you.

Majority of the applicants are having a hard time to secure the CRNE review materials here, unlike NCLEX reviewers which are everywhere.Hopefully once in Manitoba they could immediately purchase reviewers for the exam.

An excellent orientation regarding the health care system in Canada particularly in Manitoba, since we will be adjusting with many things like hospital policies,SOP,documentations,equipments including the common medications used and given.

Suggests also to have a sort of open forum,where in Nurses in the Institution regardless of nationality or position could have a brief talk to give them ideas and advices that might help in their transition.

Thanks for your concern NN,I can see your dedication to your work.

Godbless,
Mcgyver

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

[quote=Fiona59;3399713]I'm just going by what I've experienced working with nurses that arrived last year in our health region.

Many are too shy or reserved working with the patients. They appear very hesitant and the patients will comment on it to the staff they recognize from previous stays or often they will go to the Unit Manager and complain.

this sounds like more of a training issue rather than a cultural one...if a new recruit is not confident of what they are doing,they would obviously be hesistant in going about their jobs.

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

Thanks to all for the information. I will attempt to touch base with Saskatchewan. I was hoping to get the perspective of a Filipino nurse that has maybe just arrived in Canada and has some thoughts from that perspective. I appreciate any/all advice or words of wisdom that I can get.

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

Originally Posted by Fiona59

I think a big one to stress is the use of the English language. I don't care what language you talk outside of the hospital but on the floor, in the charting and med room and in the hospital cafeteria, English has to be the norm. We've always had nurses from the Phillipines on our units, but the use of Tagalog has only become an issue in the last six months. Various unions are even stating that it is an English speaking workplace.

I am glad someone brought this up, because it seems to be a problem in many facilities. You need to really emphasize right from the start that English is to be spoken, or the Tagalog will quickly get out of control!
In my own workplace, the Filipinos routinely disregard the English-only rule, and numerous patients, family members, and staff have complained.
They speak English fluently, they understand the rule...they just don't think they have to abide by it.

Re: New Filipino nursing Recruits coming and I want to assist

Unfortunatly they kinda dropped off the board, the last one we heard of was Sknurse, she was in Regina, but that was a few months ago, maybe you can pm her.

5cats