How's filipino nurses in germany? help me please

tiger lily · Jul 27, 2010

Hi everyone..
Im a filipino nurse here in the philippines, I am 20 years old and just graduated last april 2010, i'll be taking the board exam this coming december and be a registered nurse (hopefully). I have a german boyfriend, filipino by blood but german in papers, he is now 26 years old and wants to settle, he has a permanent job and living on his own. He asked me to marry him and i said yes but it will be a long time engagement, we are planning to get married by the year 2012 after passing the board, be a registered midwife too and learning a german language.
Can somebody give me an advice and answer my questions..please..
How's filipino nurses in germany?
How's the salary and benefits there?
How's Finding a job as a nurse in germany?
What's the requirements? exam or what so ever to work there as a nurse?
SEnd me your reply. please help me..

My Advices to you are.... First, Learn the Language, It‘s really important. Passing the Goethe A1 Prüfung is not enough. I‘m also a nurse I graduated years ago, been here for a year. and still processing my papers. Second, have your School Documents be translated in German at the German Embassy, because it‘s really expensive if you have your documents (Gardeschool, High School and the most important of all...College Diploma, T.O.R) be translated here in Germany. They don‘t care if you speak Fluent English. Their School System is Different. Studying Nursing here would be better..they pay you while you study! you earn like 400-500 euro a month on the first year. Good luck to you =) and congrats for being engaged

pinay nurse ako · Jul 28, 2010

hi.. thanks, your advices really helps. Are you a filipino nurse? married to a german? hhmmm... do i have to study in germany as a nursing student? how long would it takes? if you dont mind, may i know your story? you are working as a nurse there? sorry... im really confuse about the things i should do.. and im just making sure that everything will be fine..

your response would be a big big help...thanks a lot..

rogue2578 · Jul 29, 2010

@ pinay nurse ako,

I have a cousin in Germany and she is studying full time to become a nurse. First of all Tiger Lily is right, learn the language by heart. You can start as early as now. There is the Goethe-Institute here in Manila, you can find it on the Manila German embassy. Since you are still young, it should be best to re-take nursing for a couple of years in Germany for your smooth transition. Good luck

Mangosteen_Fruit · Sep 21, 2010

thanks for this post... This is really helpful... congrats for your engagement pinay_nurse_ako... and good luck with the board examinations and with life in general. :) :)

bettyboop22 · Mar 31, 2011

Hi everyone..
Im a filipino nurse here in the philippines, I am 20 years old and just graduated last april 2010, i'll be taking the board exam this coming december and be a registered nurse (hopefully). I have a german boyfriend, filipino by blood but german in papers, he is now 26 years old and wants to settle, he has a permanent job and living on his own. He asked me to marry him and i said yes but it will be a long time engagement, we are planning to get married by the year 2012 after passing the board, be a registered midwife too and learning a german language.
Can somebody give me an advice and answer my questions..please..
How's filipino nurses in germany?
How's the salary and benefits there?
How's Finding a job as a nurse in germany?
What's the requirements? exam or what so ever to work there as a nurse?
SEnd me your reply. please help me..

Hi Pinay Nurse,

I am currently in the same situation as you are. I was wondering if you have found out the steps to be able to work in Germany as a nurse coming from the Philippines? I've tried to do a lot of research but to no avail so far. It's all just gray areas for me...I haven't found one single site that gives me an overview of the requirements and the things that I need to undergo should I process for work in Germany.

I hope to hear some input from you.

Thanks!

saging · May 18, 2011

Im planning to work in Germany as a nurse. I just passed the nursing board exam last december and now Im a registered nurse in the Philippines. do I need to study nursing in germany again?? and am I going to take a board exam in germany??

iring0621 · Jan 30, 2013

hi everyone,

been also a nurse in the philippines and married to a german national and moved here almost 3 years ago.it´s not easy to find a job even if you have experiences as a nurse in the philippines.1st you need the recognition of your profession(which is just normal even in other parts of europe) and your no. 1 problem which you will encounter is bureaucracy.i´ve filed my papers since 2010 but until now it´s not recognized for some reason that they want more and more documents from your school even if you can´t provide anymore.i´ve already spoken to a lot of people here, from the German Red Cross to Caritas and to Diakonie but their answers were all the same.i´ve also done a few volunteer jobs at these institutions.it´s very common here to do volunteer jobs.if you want togo back to school just to make things easier,first you have to do 1 year Practicum which is also very common here before being admitted to a nursing school. i did 3 weeks Practicum in a hospital but did not do 1 year bec. i didn´t like the work assignments.my assignment was to care for old patients daily like bathing, washing, feeding( work in nursing homes) and so little work in medical care and here you are an all around worker, from transport,bringing specimens to the lab etc.

so for nurses in the philippines who are planning to work here in germany, do a lot of research.maybe go to norway or denmark.

as for me, i still don´t have a job and it´s very frustrating.

Bern Ging · Feb 3, 2013

Hi fellow Pinays. I will share my story to you not to discourage you rather to encourage. Until this date I am working here in Germany as a nurse...25 years. In my time when I started to find a nursing job it was easy, thanks God! Now things here in Germany had changed a lot. Ok, you are still in the Phil. Right? I am advicing you to come to Germany already married. Unfortunately the process to get married needs Paper Works. Tell your future husband to go to Ortsamt where he is residing and ask necessary papers how to bring you here in Germany. Let him go to the Web Site of the German Embassy in the Phil. And there find the necessary requirements what he needs before he will go to the Phil. To marry you. While you in the Phil. Gather all needed papers go to NSO to get needed certifications, what you Need you can See them also from the requirements posted by the .German Embassy to marry a German Citizen. At the Same time you have to enroll immediately to Goethe German Language School this is a must for you (when you are in German you will again study the German Language for Integration). Granting you are now here in Germany through marriage, you automatically get this so called Arbeitserlaubnis (at the Arbeitsamt here in Germany). Before you can work here as a nurse unfortunately you have to Study here in Germany again for 1 Year. Make sure all Educational credentials you have Must Be translated to German and to Be authenticated by the .German Embassy in the Phil. Again, the Situation had changed a Lot. Nursing System here in Germany is far different from the Phil. We have what we call Zimmer Pflege. Bed side care, I.V. Medications, admission, discharge everything is your responsibility to about 15 patients. You are Lucky if you get only 10 patients. You will earn about 1,500€ monthly netto with 3 shifting (Morning, afternoon and evening). You are young take this as a Challenge. Don't ever take Things so light on your shoulders because you are Coming here abroad. Remember you are married and maybe wanted a family....and your Family in the Phil. For sure are waiting for your help financially. Dear Pinay Nurse I wish you all the Best and good luck. I Hope this One will help you facilitate Things.

Lunalove · Jan 3

I would like to share my experience as a Filipino nurse in Germany. I know many of the Filipinos has been romanticizing their lives in Germany on social media but in reality, it is quite the opposite here. It's more cons for me than pros. I was a UK RN in London and I have moved to Germany since a year now because my husband is German. He didn't want to move to UK so I just gave up waiting for his decision since we have been long distance relationship for years already. Trust me, moving to Germany is both my biggest decision and my biggest mistake. All these stories that Germany is modern, futuristic, organized, efficient etc. - these are all just myths. The public transportation alone is extremely inconvenient and costly and always late! They are still using fax machines, post mails and cash payment. They just refuse to accept changes in anything for decades now. I can compare it now since I have worked in Singapore and in UK as well. Working in Germany doesn't feel like working in a first world country, they are already left far behind by other European countries. Now I will start talking about the life here as a Filipino nurse. I moved here thinking that they will acknowledge my UK credentials but I was wrong. They still wanted me to do another 8-9 month long APQ training to be a nurse here. I was supposed to do just 4 months since my situation is a grey area for them because the rule for UKRNs moving to Germany doesn't exist yet and NOBODY is really stupid enough to move from UK to Germany so they didn't have a law or policy for this so they just asked me to do the same process like everybody else who are coming from Philippines, Turkey and those are refugees. I just swallowed my pride and accepted their decision since it is what it is. So I did the APQ-course which is totally unrelated to my area of work in the hospital, which is Anesthesia. It did not really help me at all. In APQ, they teach you how to be be a nurse/maid doing all the dirty jobs for their patients. I'm sorry for the term but working in the wards in Germany is like being a maid. That's why I complained and refused to work in the Intensive Care Unit and requested to be moved to Operating Theatre. At least they have accepted my Anesthesia Course which I obtained in a University in London. In Germany, you cannot just work as an Intensive Care or Anesthesia Nurse unless you have an experienced in this area or you did a course for this. The German colleagues at work (in any area wards, OP etc) will expect you to speak German like a local even though it is just your first day in the hospital. You will get frustrated and annoyed reactions from them. If you ask them to translate for you, they just couldn't because most of them don't really speak English. A colleague even shouted at me in front of the patient when I couldn't understand what she was saying. These are just one of those countless events of racism and discrimination I have experienced here in Germany. In the OP, the colleagues didn't even speak to me. They just pretended I didn't exist. I had to ask every morning who would be my mentor for the day and a lot of them would just refuse if you are a foreigner. Obviously, they would choose the German students first over you. I am a person with a very strong personality so this was quite an adjustment for me to just let people bullied me like this. I know that there is racism everywhere but in 3 countries I have worked, only here in Germany I really knew and felt the true meaning of racism. You would think that these people have moved on from the mistakes of the world wars but apparently not, there are still a lot of them who does not accept foreigners. My other Filipino batchmates from the APQ course have cried so many times when they told their stories of racism and discrimination at work, that's when I realized that I wasn't the only one. I have heard so many stories of bullying and it angers me so much how they begged for nurses and skilled workers and yet when we come here, they would treat us badly. I have completed the APQ, passed all the exams and still waiting for the official certificate. The Sozialbehörde who has been dealing with these process is just one example of inefficiency here in Germany. I have sent so many emails asking for the status of my recognition but no answer from them. Until I haven't gotten my official certificate, the HR of my hospital refuses to pay me the right salary as my title is still Pflegehelper and even though my certificate hasn't arrived, they are asking me to work alone and take the task of an official registered nurse but they will not pay it. It means I am working extra for free. This is just an overview of the experiences of Filipino nurses here in Germany. If you are still in the Philippines, my advise for you is to just go to UK, US, NZ or Australia. I was treated and paid better in UK and most importantly, I was accepted & valued by the Brits. You will not get the same feeling in Germany, they will act like you owe them. Trust me, it's not worth it. It's a lot easier to adjust in the UK, the Asian community there is just so big especially in London you won't even feel homesick. There is more work-life-balance there as well as you are working less hours and you have more off days. You could also use these off days to work extra hours which will be paid double and triple in private hospitals. It is also easier to get promoted in the UK because there is less politics and more performance-based. Also, if you are a registered nurse in the UK, you could also apply to NZ and Aussie since they accept these registration. I don't see any advantages in having a registration in Germany, I think the only advantage is that you can work in Austria or Switzerland since these two countries are also German-speaking. But "Bachelor of Science in Nursing" does not really exist here in Germany. Nursing is just more like a vocation here. So it is not valid in english-speaking countries. I am already planning to move back to UK since I still have my registration there and I will never ever look back. Germany is for people who are too scared to take the IELTS or English test. English is a LOT easier than German. You just need to pass the English exam for UK and US, but they don't really expect you to speak like a local once you are there. As long as you can communicate safely at work, then they are happy. So don't be scared, just take the IELTS and go to a better place.

Mangosteen_Fruit · Jan 3

Thank you very much for your very informative post. I almost moved there because my sister lives there but I guess I dodged the bullet. I agree with you. Based on my sister's experience as well, she had to navigate through a myriad of process, it's ridiculous. I've been there several times but the last time I was there to visit in 2023. I experienced racism, not once, but twice and sometimes it catches you off-guard because we think racism doesn't exist anymore specially at this day and age. There are nice people here and there but their system is still very archaic. I hope you stay strong and good luck with your career, I hope you find a place where they deserve your hard work.