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,

No desire to ever live in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia.

As far as having her foreign transcripts evaluated, she has gone through this before. She has a BS in Computer Science from a school in the Philippines. She once had to send the transcripts to a company in Miami (Josef Silny) to have evaluated at the request of another school here in Florida ... She was lucky in that they evaluated her degree as equal to a BS in Computer Science from an accredited US university.

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Specializes in Oncology.

It sounds like your mind is made up. I would recommend you read through the threads upon threads of people having difficulty becoming licensed because their nursing program in the Phillipines does not meet U.S. requirements. Everyone is trying to tell you how it is, but you seem determined to ignore their advice.

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Apart from your wife's burning desire to become an RN at degree level, how do you feel about having a long distance marriage for upto four years?

I've done the long distance thing and it is very, very hard.

Hang, on, I've just had a look at the OPs posting history. He's been asking this question since 2010. She could have done a degree and returned to the US in this time.

A better question is what has been happening over the last four years!

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I tend to agree with CTW. You seem to be well set in your way. Unlike your wife's CS degree where she can show that someone has determined that the degree she earned is equivalent to a degree from a US University, she would have to go through that same process every time she wants to endorse her license to another state because each state will have to determine on their own whether or not she meets their standards. There are something like 13 states that have concurrent theory/clinical requirements (California is the most strict of those) and getting a license in those states is not a "done deal." I'm not suggesting that you want to move to California, just that you and your wife need to realize that if she can't get a job in Florida, relocation may be necessary and that's where thinking about US vs Philippine education may become an issue.

Since your wife has a prior Bachelor's degree, she may be able to get her prerequisites done and then go for an ABSN and get that done pretty darned quickly.

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Specializes in ED, NICU, OB, PEDS.

It might be the easiest way for her to get accepted to a nursing school if she will go to the Philippines but requirements do evolve and change..i am a graduate in the philippines with my bsn and msn degree and was evaluated for my nursing education here. My nursing education is very much similar to the education here according to ierf. No problems with any requirements but that was 2 yrs ago. As i have said, requirements change. Long distance relationship plus nursing school ain't quite a good idea.

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Yup ... Looking at my history, you can see that I was asking a similar question about nursing school when I first joined this forum back in 2010.

She put the whole idea on hold since then, but has made up her mind that she want's to pursue this nursing deal again.

You know, everyone here thinks that she is making a very bad decision to attend nursing school in the Philippines ... What I don't understand is that there are many many Filipina nurses working at hospitals here in Florida that graduated from nursing schools in the Philippines. Has something changed all that much since all these Filipino nurses started getting jobs in the US?

Again, I will say that I sat right there in the counselor's office at 2 colleges here in Florida and heard the same thing .... That is might be difficult for my wife to get accepted into a nursing program when there are such limited spots available, and there are lots of people trying to get one of those vacancies in the program.

The way they select these people for the nursing program here in Florida is by 3 things ...

1. The student's grade point average from there high school (previous college grades are not considered)

2. Grade point average for these prerequisite classes you have to take [before] you are even considered for the nursing program

3. Overall grade you get on some medical test they give everyone before they select the students that are going to attend the nursing school

So, you spend at least a year or more taking these prerequisite classes, and you may not even get selected for the nursing program once you complete them.

Again, it is a FACT that there are a lot of RNs here in the US that graduated from nursing schools in the Philippines .... Have things changed that much since all these Filipino nurses came to the US for jobs in nursing?

________________________________

[before] my wife actually goes to the Philippines and starts any nursing course, I am going to call the Florida Board of Nursing and tell them of her plan and state what school she plans on going to over there and see if there will be any problems with this idea.

Since it's the Florida Board of Nursing that will determine if my wife can set for the NCLEX-RN test, they certainly should be able to tell me if she is going to have a problem upon her return from the Philippines ... don't you think

You folks don't seem to give any encouragement to any of this ...

And if any of you are in fact nurses that currently have jobs in hospitals here in the US, I will bet that you know of quite a few of your fellow RNs that were trained in the Philippines ... am I right?

_______________________________

I have another question for you .... Do you feel that Philippines trained nurses are sub-standard to US trained nursed?

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

The other option could be to look at a school in another state

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The other option could be to look at a school in another state

That's an idea

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

In some of the state forums I have seen many that have done that and then return home. At least there is less chance of any issues and not always being assessed as a International trained nurse

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I am a US citizen, born and raised in the US, in California. I went to college in Bacolod as well, from 2009-2013. I wouldn't recommend La Salle. The 3 major nursing schools there are Riverside, Colegio San Agustin, and La Salle.

Bad thing about being from California, they broke balls and pulled the concurrency issue in 2011, so I got snagged there, ended up applying NCLEX RN for Texas.

The thing about NCLEX RN, us FENs (Foreign educated nurses) especially from the province area like Bacolod have a hard ass time passing the NCLEX RN. Skills wise, we are good, but up against NCLEX- RN, to be honest, we are lacking, unless you graduated from some hardcore Manila college like UST, UP, St Lukes and stuff. FENs have a 30% passing rate by the way.

With that, I suggest your wife go for a college in Bacolod with a high Philippine board pass rating (Don't skip the local board exam, because whatever review they do there, heavily carries into the NCLEX-RN exam). CSA-B, my school, has a great review program, friendly atmosphere, and is consistently producing top notchers on the board exam, plus highest overall passing rate in Bacolod.

Depends on you guys though on what you do. Just know that she should process the papers herself from PRC and her school, BEFORE she comes back to you in Florida, just to get rid of the hassle of relying on someone else.

I spent 5 years in Bacolod for college, best time of my life. Totally don't regret going there for college, because honestly, I bloomed as a person there, really came out of my shell kind of deal. If you got some questions about the place, I can help you out. (Tips on housing, transportation, schools, paper work).

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Apart from your wife's burning desire to become an RN at degree level, how do you feel about having a long distance marriage for upto four years?

I've done the long distance thing and it is very, very hard.

Hang, on, I've just had a look at the OPs posting history. He's been asking this question since 2010. She could have done a degree and returned to the US in this time.

A better question is what has been happening over the last four years!

Another better question is where are her posts? With all this interest in nursing, you see. One does wonder.

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To the OP: since you're at least focused on making FL your most likely and possible landing spot to have the nursing career begin and possibly start the planting of your roots there is part of the battle.

However, if you read the other earlier posters who are from the PH and their frustrated and disappointed job search in even getting an interview, there's been very little if any successful ones and that's of those who are bringing a minimum of more than 2-3 years of previous paid hospital experience from the PH.

I don't recall any recent posters that were of new grad status (yes, there are the onesies and twosies but no where near the better percentages of years passed) and those that have gotten in they reported to me they were the only ones from the PH amongst the many others hired in. The chances of winning the lottery are better odds.

Just remember that the vast majority of jobs go with the higher priority of those that graduated in their respective states, then to those from outside the particular states then maybe just maybe to those from outside the US borders and the ones in the States have the more inside scoop since they do their clinicals in the possible US hospitals of their choice.

It was mentioned in this thread here, but just in the case, the passing rate of the first-time international NCLEX-RN takers (based on various nursing surveys from states to the national level) is less than 30-35% with the average re-takes percentage dropping even more. there are many who post in the NCLEX forum of some passing on the 2nd, 3rd or more times, but then there are those that post over and over again (5th re-take or more) and never heard of again (assuming that they simply moved on from going after their nursing career).

There's been very little to no demands anymore for foreign nurses, here's some good reads, CLICK on to them:

https://allnurses.com/international-nursing/end-phillipine-nursing-885162.html

https://allnurses.com/nurse-registration/us-labor-market-779683.html

Of course, after reading the above threads, there are still those that might get an offer (some not with hospitals, but nursing homes, private care nurses or LTC or SNF locations) that are the exceptions and no longer the rule that so many PH nurses and grads are getting job offers. There's been actually very little posters that are meeting with the success of years passed (in FL).

With the several thousands of PH nursing applicants unable to penetrate the CA job market (where the CHED reports that over 33% of all PH grads apply into on a yearly basis), those nurses are now flocking into states such as TX, NY and even FL, so the competition just amongst the PH applicants alone are going to make it even tougher in those states as time goes on.

Btw, I'm a pinay myself just for the record.

Proceed with caution with plans to go and make the PH schooling for her needs. It may be "cheapest and the easiest" to get the BSN degree but definitely all bets are off trying to make it work back in the States, many are now in today's world are finding it to be the complete opposite. All those years and tears spent not to mention the precious time invested going to the not so great desired dreams.

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