Filipino nurses emigrating to US

[kool-aide, RN]

Is there any reason that there seems to be lots of RNs trained in the Philippines that come to the US to practice?

I just wonder because I never hear of nurses from other countries coming to work in the US as much as I hear of Filipino RNs. Does it have to do with the similarity of their training compared to RNs in the US?

[trishmsn]

You know, some of the hostility that SOME of the nurses feel towards foreign prepared nurses have to do with the perceptions that the foreign nurses themselves create. As someone pointed out above, many of these foreign nurses tend to lean to the ICU's for the respect of it. And I have FIRSTHAND witnessed a group of these nurses come into an ICU that I worked in, REFUSE to speak English when a group of them were together, and generally created a hostile work environment for those of us already working there.s!

This mirrors my experience, with a refusal to speak English, and constant side-comments in Tagalog or Spanish, with eye-rolling and other non-verbals. In addition, many of these nurses feel that they are upper-crust compared to other Asians (and Americans) and are rude and quite exclusive to all others. The inability to pass nursing boards and other tests is also an issue.

For the record, I grew up in the far east, and workers from most other Asian nations have issues with those from the Phiilipines. Whether it is a carryover from colonial times or not, the sense of national pride often leads to rudeness and an inflated self-worth that does not mix well in any marketplace.

[Rnis, BSN, DNP, APRN, NP]

we have 3 nurses that immigrated from the Philippines. They are very good nurses and they know their stuff.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

May I remind everyone that we are ALL immigrants at some point in our history. The only true native Americans are NATIVE AMERICANS who had their land cheated and stolen from them many years ago by a bunch of immigrants.

Allnurses promotes a good debate as long as the comments are polite and respectful.

I get really tired of this argument because there is no solution to it, and it's so often brought up in debates about modern immigration. Most of us are squatters, and we should all go home? Are statements like this done to shame us for wanting the flow of immigration to be properly managed based on need, rather than sympathy for the economic plight of other countries? Countries with high emigration to the US rely on our lax enforcement policies because they know remittances will give their economy a kick in the pants. Mexico's biggest import is remittances from the US, for example. These imaginary lines that create country borders are here NOW, and there are laws within those borders. Why is wanting enforcement of those laws deemed unacceptable, as if there is an infinite amount of money to be doled out for education, social programs and the like.

As for the cheat and steal comment: Historical immigration has happened all around the world since the beginning of time. The British Empire into Australia and New Zealand and Canada and America and Africa, and Southeast Asia. The Roman Empire into all of Europe , some of Africa, and toward the Middle East. The Spanish Empire into Central and South America. The French into the Carribbean. The Portuguese into Brazil. If I knew enough about Asian and Russian and Middle Eastern history, I'm sure I could list a few more. Big open spaces with relatively few inhabitants was prime real estate for the dominant empire at any given time. Fight, lie, and steal...it's called war over land rights. Going allllllll the way back, I suppose we should all go home to Africa, but I'm quite sure the current inhabitants wouldn't be welcoming the entire world with open arms.

I am an American, born and bred here. A true native American, and no statement about how my ancestors got here will change that.

rant over.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I get really tired of this argument because there is no solution to it, and it's so often brought up in debates about modern immigration. Most of us are squatters, and we should all go home? Are statements like this done to shame us for wanting the flow of immigration to be properly managed based on need, rather than sympathy for the economic plight of other countries? Countries with high emigration to the US rely on our lax enforcement policies because they know remittances will give their economy a kick in the pants. Mexico's biggest import is remittances from the US, for example. These imaginary lines that create country borders are here NOW, and there are laws within those borders. Why is wanting enforcement of those laws deemed unacceptable, as if there is an infinite amount of money to be doled out for education, social programs and the like.

As for the cheat and steal comment: Historical immigration has happened all around the world since the beginning of time. The British Empire into Australia and New Zealand and Canada and America and Africa, and Southeast Asia. The Roman Empire into all of Europe , some of Africa, and toward the Middle East. The Spanish Empire into Central and South America. The French into the Carribbean. The Portuguese into Brazil. If I knew enough about Asian and Russian and Middle Eastern history, I'm sure I could list a few more. Big open spaces with relatively few inhabitants was prime real estate for the dominant empire at any given time. Fight, lie, and steal...it's called war over land rights. Going allllllll the way back, I suppose we should all go home to Africa, but I'm quite sure the current inhabitants wouldn't be welcoming the entire world with open arms.

I am an American, born and bred here. A true native American, and no statement about how my ancestors got here will change that.

rant over.

I was trying to redirect the thread. A gentle reminder that we need to moderate our responses and be respectful.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

i work with a very diverse group: Filipino, Kenyan, Jamaican, Trinadian, British, South African, Indian, Pakistani, all religions and atheists. I think it makes for a great working group as were are all respectful and have become very culturally competent. Our residents are just as diverse. i think it is a good thing that we have other cultures to work with.

I agree; but I think the issue here is that importing nurses when there are millions of new grads out of work that are performing at or below the level of new grads is the issue-we REALLY have enough nurses, including imported nurses from the true documented "shortage" from ten years ago; as well as US educated nurses who are immigrants that can't find work-they are shut out too; should foreign educated nurses get a preference? In my opinion, no; US educated nurses should ALWAYS, in my opinion, get top priority; we have a vast number of diverse people here that are being IGNORED and not being invested in nursing future.

It's a hard discussion to have, especially when hospitals may pay for relocation, only to have nurses miss home and eventually go back to the area they are most familiar with; however, we SHOULD be having this discussion and being involved in it due to the effects of the nurses who do have the knowledge and expertise that are having positive and negative experiences associate with it.

[tarotale]

why is it that any time a race or being black, or socioeconomic class is ever mentioned, everyone freak the hell out in this country? as an resident person (green card) who graduated high school and university in US (lonestar state), this is a very weird phenomenon... overly sensitive and way too easily offended just by mentioning one of the above.

as for philipinos and indian nurses, I mostly had good encounters, hard working people and did their jobs, never killed anyone, and that's what matters as far as job is concerned.

Of course, I did meet rude, incompetent nurses from all over the place who didn't give rat's rear about job and just came to collect paychecks. Some were from india, philipines, nigeria, kenya, europe, etc etc you name any country. Yes some were black, some white, some asians, some hispanics, some etc etc. you name it. everyone needs to drop the whole race, gender, color thing. It's not what the person is, but who the individual is and how he/she was brought up.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Actually, the "similarity in training" isn't quite accurate. Keep reading around allnurses, you'll see that there are thousands of Filipino nurses that can't get work here because their education isn't what it is here in the US and they can't get licensed.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

A nurse is a nurse is a nurse where I work. If you hold a nursing license because you passed the NCLEX, your pay is the same no matter where you were born.

The only reason is money. I am pretty sure Filipino nurses work for less than what the average American citizen nurse makes. It drives down our wages and increases dangerous practices and bad ratios, as the Filipino nurses are willing to work under almost any conditions to get to stay here. I find the practice appalling.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

True the first two years of "college" in the Philippines is equivalent to grades 11 & 12 in the US. In addition the large amount of students and limited amount of clinical patients causes a lag between clinical and theory resulting in a lack of concurrency between clinical and theory. Concurrent in clinical and theory is required by most boards of nursing and strictly enforced by some such as CABRN.

The clinical training is very different. Where in the US & CAN it's often 8-10 students per instructor (as per BoN/CoN requirements) so more individualized instruction. I understand in the Philippines it's dozens of students on the floor with a single instructor and at times there are more nursing students than patients (as per some Filipino colleagues) which forces some students to finish their clinical requirements in later semesters. It seems when schools in the Philippines (not unlike the US) heard there was market to produce nurses and export many schools set up shop to cash in on the demand.

[nurse4ever08]

They go all over the world and send money back home. The country is overcrowded and poor so workers are exported. But I think the US needs to start looking after it's own citizens and stop aiding aliens. Help our poor and unemployed/ underemployed before helping foreigners. Do you think the Philippines or Mexico would so graciously give an American a job and government aid? No.

[friggasdistaff]

Actually, the modern state of India is only 67 years old.

[Nurse Medicine Woman, ASN, RN]

Dudette 10

Yes you might be born and bred here and "no statement about how my ancestors got here will change that." BUT you would NOT have been BORN and BRED HERE IF your parents, grandparents or great grandparents did not COME to this country. The ONLY reason you were born her is because SOMEONE somewhere in your bloodline CAME HERE!