Badly need your advice..

The original post for this thread was from last May, of 2006.

Now for the questions from today: The MAN program in the Philippines does not have quite as many science hours as the programs have in the US. The nurse from there coming to the US to work in a hospital and being petitioned, will not get paid more for that degree. Most MSN nurses in the US use that degree for the NP or the Clinical Nurse Specialist role and to be able to work in those areas here require additional clinical hours to be able to do so as they also require additional licensure requirements.

Work in the Philipines is quite different from the US and even more so with the new second coursers that are now graduating from there. Due to the large number of students there are not enough patients for them to see. Which translates into not having much in the way of clinical skills. The curriculum may be the same or similar to that in the US, but the clinical training is definitely no longer the same.

Please check out the Filipino forum for specifics on the differences in the schooling now.

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Degree titles are also dependent on what the school wishes to issue.

I think your degree will be recognized if you finish/earn it and get CHED approval. If your purpose would be to continue further studies in the US(say doctoral degree), it has to undergo FULL CES. I think this full ces report might even be required if you plan to be an NP or CNS or any specialty that requires a degree beyond BSN. When they do CES, they evaluate and compare your records to US standards of education. If there are things lacking, you'd simply have to enrol in completing these subjects(I think it would only be a handful). It would be best to wait for their determination/evaluation after you've submitted your documents as evaluation is a case-to-case basis.

Experience as instructor might be credited to teaching experience, so, if you plan to work in the US as a CI, then it might be credited. However, if you plan to work in a hospital, CI experience might not be credited. You'll need hospital experience if you want "extra points". Matching like with like as they say.

Any university in the US will not offer a degree from there if only a couple of classes are required. You have to have so many hours in residence to be able to get the degree from there. And it is not to standards of education, but the actual number of hours that were completed in both clinical and theory hours. That is what the CES does. It does not compare anything, only gives a breakdown of the hours.

Experience as an instructor does not give you any credit in terms of schooling, as it does not show up on your transcript.

Right now, the master's programs in the Philippines do not have the same clinical component as they have in the US. For any of the advanced practice programs in the US, they actually require the MSN degree. Specifically that degree. As well as all of the associated courses that would be required for it. Advanced Practice nurses in the US must also hold special licensure as well, in addition to the RN license in a state.

There are some posts about this on the Philippine Forum. And it is discussed in more detail there.

Click on the edit button on the lower right hand corner of the post and you can delete it from there.

And to make myself clearer: If the nurse has a degree in nursing, but is short a class or two, they can just attend as a guest student. This you see when going for the intial licensure in the US as an RN.

But the Master's prepared nurse is completely another story. They require a certain number of hours here to be able to qualify for the additional certifications. And without those, and employer is not going to pay any difference in the salary. And that is what most are going for.