How are filipino nurses treated in a foreign country?

Nurses General Nursing

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:balloons: Hi! I'd like to know how filipino nurses are treated in foreign countries...do some patients choose who they want to take care of them?...is there racial discrimination? what about when it comes to promotion..is the management bias or fair? like for example, a nurse is given a promotion even though you worked harder and your much better than that nurse...and that's because he/she's from that country. please share your experiences.

thank you for reading this.:balloons:

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Specializes in LDRP.

We have one nurse and one nursing assistant on our unit who are filipino. They are not treated any differently. We also have a Chinese, Pakistani, and South Korean nurses, too. I've yet to see any racial discrimination.

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HappyNurse2005,

thank you for your reply... that really helped a lot

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We have a lot of Filipino nurses at our hospital. They work in all depts on both shifts. We're a teaching hospital, so we really are a cultural mixing bowl, and they fit right in. I do think they kind of 'click' together, which is understandable, since we all search out common ground, but I do wish they'd speak English when us non-Tagalog speaking folks around. Even though I'm 40, I still have that highschool fear of "they're talking about me". Anyhow, I think the Filipino nurses are treated the same as the rest of us.

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Specializes in ICU.

I am in Toronto and I don't see any racial discrimination and have many filipino coworkers.

In the countries that do not have the same employee/human rights as we do in North America , you may want to do some research. I know that my friend has worked in Saudi Arabia for 6 yrs now, and she says that the filipino nurses are discriminated against and they even get paid less than north american nurses. :o

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Nurses are judged by their ability, not the color of their skin or where they're from. If management were biased they would be risking a HUGE lawsuit and fines. Pts, on the other hand....some are biased but it wouldn't be because you're Filipino, but because you're not white. Thank goodness those pts are few and far between.

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Specializes in gerontology.

I have been around a lot of nurses. I am nurse's son and am a nurse myself. I have not personally experienced any overt acts of racism at work. Nevertheless, when Filipino nurses are among themselves you occasionally hear them talk about it. The complaints range from getting a slightly lower pay to getting bullied. For the most part I think it can be attributed to the new arrivals' lack of assertiveness. Being new to the country make them prone to accept whatever is assigned to them without much discussion. I think it is part of the culture, too. As for the second complaint, bullying has always been a part of nursing. The old or experienced nurses prey on the new, the natives on the newly arrived. It's not supposed to be but it exists just the same.

It does not take that long before the newly arrived Filipinos adjust. Pretty soon they learn how things are done here in the US. In fact they adjust so well that a lot of them end up becoming the bullies themselves.

One thing that bugs me is the lack of appreciation for the difficult process the Filipino nurses have to go through to work in the United States. I did not go through it myself as I became a nurse here. Nevertheless, I have seen what my mom, her friends and former students had to go through. To come here, a Filipino nurse has to pass the Philippine board exam, the CGFNS, the NCLEX, TEOFL and the TSE. How many Americans have to pass 3 nursing competency exams to ply their trade? I wonder if this knowledge would garner more respect for the Filipino nurse.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

anaknisupernurse wrote:

The old or experienced nurses prey on the new, the natives on the newly arrived.

Please stop perpetuating the myth that experienced nurses are bullies. There are mean people of all ages and all professions. I personally could feel bullied by all of the new nurses who post here about how horrible experienced nurses like me are.

People should be judged on an individual basis, not on age/race/ethnicity/religion/etc.

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Thank you all for your help. I guess I don't have to worry anything about working abroad. I just passed the NLE last February's result. Congratulations to all new nurses!

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Specializes in Home Care, Primary care NP, QI, Nsg Adm.

I work in Saudi and my best staff, and the smallest number are Filipino.

Filipinos make up a very large number of nurses in Saudi Arabia and are recruited for their strong nursing education (same as the States), adaptability and skills. Although, like any group of people, there are those who are highly competent and others that hover near the bottom, with many in between.

My staff are excellent and if not for them I would likely be found babbling at times due to 'professional starvation.'

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