Filipina (US citizen) .. Going back to Philippines for BSN

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I posted this in another forum, which I now realize was the wrong forum for this question ... so I am reposting it here.

My wife (age 32) was born in the Philippines (where she spent most of her life), but is now a US citizen. We are currently living in Florida. She has a BS degree in Computer Science from a school in the Philippines, but now wants to be an RN.

Do to the many people that are trying to get into the BSN program at Florida Southwestern State College here in Fort Myers, Florida, my wife was told by the school that it might be very difficult for her to get accepted into the 4-year RN program since there are so few seats available.

So, my wife is thinking about going back to the Philippines and enter into the RN program at De La Salle University in Bacolod.

Once she graduates with a BSN from the Philippines, she wants to return to Florida and take her NCLEX-RN and obviously try to find a job as a nurse.

1. Is this scenario sound like a good approach to becoming an RN here in the US / Florida?

I ask this because my wife has talked to some other Filipinos that went to nursing school in the Philippines that are now nurses here in the US ... but things might have changed since these Filipinos became nurses here in the US.

Thanks,

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She would have to apply for an RN license in the same manner as any other person who obtains their education from out of the country, with the same constraints and the same inconvenience involved. It would be in her best interests to find a school in the US to save herself the trouble.

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Thanks 'caliotter3' for the input.

Is applying for an RN license different for persons graduating from a school in the Philippines vs a person graduating from a school in the US?

They both have to pass the NCLEX-RN exam, but what more would be involved for a new graduate from a credited Filipino college vs a US graduate?

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Like I mentioned above, my wife was told that she may not get accepted into the BSN program at the college here where we live because you have 200 students trying to get in a program with only 35 available openings.

So, you take all the extra pre-requisite classes first, just to find out later that you were not accepted into the nursing program ... big waste of time and money.

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There is an entire forum dedicated to the process of internationally trained nurses applying for licensure in the US. You will find plenty of helpful information there.

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Thanks ... I had no idea.

I will try looking for that forum

Any idea what the forum is titled?

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Seems like the requirements to work as an RN are all different from state to state for nurses that have graduated from nursing schools outside of the US.

My wife was born in the Philippines, but is now a US citizen. We live in Florida.

She wants to go back the Philippines and get her BSN degree there.

Once she returns to Florida with her Filipino BSN, I believe she has to have her Philippines college transcripts evaluated before the state of Florida will allow her to take the NCLEX-RN test.

Do you know if the state of Florida requires anything else from an RN that graduated out of country before they are allowed to be licensed as an RN in Florida?

Thanks,

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Your questions are best directed to the Florida Board of Registered Nursing. Look on their website.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

THis is on the FLorida BON website

http://floridasnursing.gov/forms/licensure-info-edu-outside-us.pdf

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

threads merged

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

You need to do a search on here for threads about the difficulties faced by nurses educated in the Philippines trying to get a US nursing license. It is not going to save her time or money to get a degree from another country.She will have to jump through m,any hoops as her education will not meet the requirements of many states.

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You need to do a search on here for threads about the difficulties faced by nurses educated in the Philippines trying to get a US nursing license.

May have problems in some states, but it don't seem to be a big problem here in Florida.

My wife would be happy to attend the University here in Florida for the purpose of getting her BSN, but the problem is that at any given date, there are 250 students trying to get accepted into the nursing program that has only 50 vacancies .... not easy

So, the student takes all the various prerequisite courses first, just to find out later that she was not picked for the few available seats in the BSN course ... Bad odds

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

She'll have a much easier time if she's able to attend a US program, even if she has to reapply a few times than she would by going overseas. If she wants to be an RN relatively quickly, she could also apply to ADN programs and then go for an ADN-BSN program pretty much anywhere.

One of the "hardships" that foreign educated nurses have is that they'll need their transcripts to be re-evaluated by pretty much every licensing authority they apply to. While this is true for other US licensees, other steps may be required along the way for foreign educated nurses to be licensed. If either of you have any desire to move to California, unless she's very lucky in getting her theory and clinical experiences to match up in every semester, she won't meet California requirements. There are 12 other states that have similar "concurrency" requirements, but California is the most strict.

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