BSN from Philippines Compared to BSN from USA

lenjoy03, RN · Mar 9, 2008

hmmm.... HOnestly speaking, I dont know the answer if NUrsing here is better than US. Both countries are different. It better to study in US because of the new technology and other new stuff. Its also better to study here specially in a government hospital because you can experience and do almost everything without being afraid of the court unless you've done a very terrible thing!

From my knowledge and experience, A PI person takes their education more serious than a person in USA.

From my very own point of view, I disagree on this. You see, comparing nursing from 80s, 90s, every nursing student I must say are dedicated to their profession, but now..... This is slowly deteriorating due to money involve. You know, taking this course for money. BUt I'm not saying all of nursing students are like that.

You see, no matter your in the Philippines or US, there are people who are serious in taking up nursing as a profession and there are also those who are not. So we really can't conclude that Philippine nurses are more serious when it comes to education and experience than the US.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 9, 2008

A BSN is a BSN and is required to contain specific courses in the training, no matter where it is offered.

A foreign trained nurse has additional requirements that need to be met when they wish to work in other countries.

And not sure where you were observing, but the clinical lessons there are not the same as taught in the US, you can see that by what has been posted by many others here. 15 to 18 students per 1 patient does not give exactly good training and skills.

Moving this thread to the International forum since it is not specific to working in the Philippines.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Mar 9, 2008

The CGFNS already established that the BSN as it is currently taught in the Philippines is an equivalent of the same degree in the US. That is the basis for the fact that graduates from the Philippines are eligible to practice in the US as long as they pass the US licensure exam and have proven that they are proficient in the English language.

However, because the degree in the Philippines was developed to train a Filipino nurse in the Philippine health care setting, there are some differences in how nursing is taught in the Philippines. The law that govern nursing in the Philppines is also quite different. For example, IV therapy is not considered a nursing role and RN's need post-graduate training to practice IV therapy. The BSN curriculum in the Philippines is also heavy on Community Health Nursing and includes training in delivering infants in a normal spontaneous delivery. Students actually need to complete a number of cases in delivery of infants to graduate.

Of course, the Philippine BSN curriculum appears to be well-developed on paper. The actual implementation of the curriculum is problematic in many cases. There is little government oversight in how nursing schools maintain quality in the Philippines so the integrity in reaching the goal of BSN education there can be quite dubious depending on which school the nurse graduated from. Some well-known schools have maintained a high degree of quality instruction while some are substandard and have shown poor passing rates in the National Licensure Examination or NLE, the equivalent of the US NCLEX.

It is therefore hard to say whether the BSN in the US is better than the Philippines BSN. Each one was developed to meet the need for trained nurses in both respective countries. It is hard to compare them and is pointless to do so.

US hospital have hired nurses trained in the Philippines for years and this happened because there have been spurts of shortages in the nursing workforce over the years. It seems that the nursing shortage is still felt in some areas but currently, the mechanism that allows Philippine trained nurses to come to the US to work is at a standstill. This is a change in policy and I think it is a welcome relief for those who feel that the US should invest in training its own nurses rather than to "import" them from foreign countries. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, I feel that this change in policy is not an indication that the US officials feel that Philippine trained nurses are not as good as US-trained nurses.

I also think that it is utterly unfair to claim that students in nursing programs in the Philippines are more serious in their studies than American counterparts. There is no basis for that claim and there is no way anyone can prove that. Consequently, I also think it is wrong to say that Philippine-trained nurses are "more educated" than US counterparts. I don't even know what that statement means.

PS: The above opinions are mine alone. I am not an expert on curriculum development. I have limited experience in teaching nursing from having taught a semester of Med-Surg to ADN students in the US. The above are also not based on any research I have read or done but are mostly from my experience having studied for my BSN in the Philippines, working in the US, and having known many nurses from the Philippines over the years.

redranger · Mar 10, 2008

PinoyNP.

Thank You for your answer, very helpful to me, and you answered my questions in great detail.

Only one to clear up, when I was talking about taking their education more serious, I was talking about all college students in PI, not Nurses in specific, Sorry I didn't make that more clear and I realize this is a Nurse forum.

One thing from my trips to PI I have realized is there are so many college educated people who can't find work in PI.

I think you need a Bachelors Degrees to just be a teller at a bank, or be a flight attendant or hold various other jobs.

Another thing that struck me strange was in the job classified section in PI, You had to be a certain height or a certain age frame in order to be considered for a job.

lawrence01 · Mar 10, 2008

PinoyNP.
Thank You for your answer, very helpful to me, and you answered my questions in great detail.
Only one to clear up, when I was talking about taking their education more serious, I was talking about all college students in PI, not Nurses in specific, Sorry I didn't make that more clear and I realize this is a Nurse forum.
One thing from my trips to PI I have realized is there are so many college educated people who can't find work in PI.
I think you need a Bachelors Degrees to just be a teller at a bank, or be a flight attendant or hold various other jobs.
Another thing that struck me strange was in the job classified section in PI, You had to be a certain height or a certain age frame in order to be considered for a job.

In that aspect, yes I would say majority of College Students in PI "take it seriously". It is more to do with getting out of poverty or improving their lives through education. Another factor is that mostly, parents work hard to be able to pay for their children's education. There are not much Gov't schools that can accommodate everyone who can't afford and there is no equivalent of a US Student Loan here. If one can't get in a State or Gov't school, it is really up to themselves to find other ways (out of pocket expenses).

Middle-income families also try and get their children to better private schools than what they can truly afford as well and their children knows it and so make sure that their parent's hardship and money does not go to waste.

Only problem is, after school there are not much jobs to go through like you said and this one of the reasons why Filipinos go abroad for work. It's one whole industry, in fact. They are called OFWs a.k.a Overseas Foreign Workers.

dizzydean · Mar 10, 2008

PinoyNP.
One thing from my trips to PI I have realized is there are so many college educated people who can't find work in PI.
I think you need a Bachelors Degrees to just be a teller at a bank, or be a flight attendant or hold various other jobs.
Another thing that struck me strange was in the job classified section in PI, You had to be a certain height or a certain age frame in order to be considered for a job.

Here in the Philippines the rich get richer & the poor get poorer. The problem with some Filipinos is that they sometimes are too scared to stand up for their rights & they just go on accepting the measly pay that a certain company gives them.

And it's really bizarre that there seems to be no anti-discrimination law out there (In the Philippines) that I know of that protects people from being discriminated from work because of age, sex, creed, religion or physical appearance.

A job advertisement in Philippine newspapers will ordinarily go like this:

Wanted female secretary, attractive & pleasing personality

B.S. (place course here) graduate

Age 20-35.

Preferably 5'7" & above.

Single

Please attach a colored 2 x 2 picture on your resume

:bugeyes:

lenjoy03, RN · Mar 10, 2008

One thing from my trips to PI I have realized is there are so many college educated people who can't find work in PI.

This is the problem with FIlipinos. They graduate with bachelor's degree. then after taking the board (if the course offers it), they'll look at the newspaper and it says there...

WAnted

Secretary

25-30 yrs old of age, single

at least 5"3'

with at least 1-2 years experience.

What?! The question is, how will graduates find a job if all the vacancy requires an experience? HOw will they obtain an experience if no one will hire them? Filipinos dont like discrimation from other countries, but we ourselves discriminate even we're still in our own country.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 10, 2008

That is a most definite, unless you have an uncle that has a friend. Then all requirements go out the window.

And we are very aware of what is going on in PI right now, and the worst part is that every time that we hear of nurses from there being treated poorl, almost all of the time there is a Filipino in charge of them.

Even look at the agencies that operate out of your country. They sell people to the highest bidder, and would sell their parents if it would get them more money. And they try to place them someplace that an American would not work because of safety issues and they tell you that it is a wonderful place and not to pay attention to what you read about the specific area.

And many of these agencies are also operating illegally there, but everyone turns a blind eye with a pay-off.