Philippines News August 30-Sept5 issue

[suzanne4]

For those of you that have not seen it, there is a full article on the front page written by the Dean of the University of the Philippines School of Nursing stating: (the version that is in print in the US)

Don't hire new grads, dean tells US Nurses.

Also included is the fact that Arkansas has refused to issue a licence to any nurse that took the NLE exam in June, 2006.

For all of you that told me that I had no idea of what I was talking about and I am sure calling me every name in the book, there it is in black and white.

[Rep]

hello everyone.. i saw that news.. she said that not to degrade or even pressure those june 2006 passers but because she wants the newly grads to stay in the country to have some "at least 2 years" of experience before leaving the country because some students didn't have enough exposure to hospitals and this dean just want to build each of them the confidence.. but, given the situation that after 6 months of training as a staff nurse they still don't have salary.. some even call this exploitation because they are working as one of the hospital's staff already.

Stay two years for what? Exploitation is the word for that.

[lawrence01]

Philippines does not require an instructor to be a US licensed nurse. Only a Philippine license will do, even these review centers will conduct reviews for the NLE and later the CGFNS or NCLEX. If one requires a Us licensed instructor then you won't find any becasue every one of them are already in the US. The salary of an instructor is not that much.

In the city where I live before the review centers are staff by only Phil licensed nurses and I know some of them because they are my classmates.

Way back in my time when I took the CGFNS, our instructors were only Philippine licensed except the one who taught us Mental Health who worked for a time in the US as a psychiatric nurse.

Although it would be nice to have US licensed instructors but the thing is there are not any. And the government does not care a bit. They only care are the remittances we send back.

The issue of leakages is an old story and it happened in every professional exams like engineering and medicine way back in 1990's where one medical school was suspected to have informations before the conduct of the exams that being conducted there but the thing is the issue died immediately. Investigations were done on that school but nothing came out because nobody wants to talk. The only thing happened is that school is remembered for that incident ever since.

It is only the nursing leakage that brought so much attention for a fact that we Filipinos were known for importing nurses abroad and the mentally at home that Filipino nurses are known for their kindness and dedication towards the nursing profession which I do not agree because nationality has nothing to do with nursing care.

I still thing that it is better for schools to provide the review themselves for the NLE and leave the CGFNS and NCLEX to others who can provide the instructors. And you are right that many review centers for the CGFNS/NCLEX have tie ups with agencies and that creates pressures for them to have their nurses pass these two exams regardless for what it takes.

Even to the point of having the nurses memorized 3 or 4 questions from the CGFNS and NCLEX. These are just rumors I heard when I was in the Philippines and not a new thing to me.

In my opinion, it is easy to cheat in the NLE considering that PRC are run by a few people who are greedy for money but for the CGFNS and NCLEX, it is not that easy.

Yes, very true Rep. The most these so-called Review Centers for NCLEX or CGFNS exam should do is hire instructors or in my point a "review facilitator" to conduct reviews for NCLEX or CGFNS should be NCLEX and/or CGFNS passers themselves and aware of the application process and the basics in the immigration requirement process.

What I'm finding out lately is that most really do not know the process itself and when their students ask (and they surely ask queries) is that they keep pulling off things from the air just to answer the student's queries. In short, they base it on hearsays also. Some may not even be NCLEX/CGFNS passers themselves.

For me, it does not matter if you get high scores in the NLE or if you have a M.A.N. or have a medical degree or how many years they have been teaching nursing in the Phil. or reviewers for the NLE If you haven't applied for any of the foreign qualifying exams and passed it then how can you teach something you haven't done or passed.

But I do agree that the best ones to teach foreign qualifying exams would be a licensed US nurse. It should really be that way. Unfortunately, for what I'm finding out lately is that majority aren't even US licensed (not nclex passers) and some are US licensed but their licensed revoked in the US. This is a shame.

[suzanne4, RN]

Philippines does not require an instructor to be a US licensed nurse. Only a Philippine license will do, even these review centers will conduct reviews for the NLE and later the CGFNS or NCLEX. If one requires a Us licensed instructor then you won't find any becasue every one of them are already in the US. The salary of an instructor is not that much.

In the city where I live before the review centers are staff by only Phil licensed nurses and I know some of them because they are my classmates.

Way back in my time when I took the CGFNS, our instructors were only Philippine licensed except the one who taught us Mental Health who worked for a time in the US as a psychiatric nurse.

Although it would be nice to have US licensed instructors but the thing is there are not any. And the government does not care a bit. They only care are the remittances we send back.

The issue of leakages is an old story and it happened in every professional exams like engineering and medicine way back in 1990's where one medical school was suspected to have informations before the conduct of the exams that being conducted there but the thing is the issue died immediately. Investigations were done on that school but nothing came out because nobody wants to talk. The only thing happened is that school is remembered for that incident ever since.

It is only the nursing leakage that brought so much attention for a fact that we Filipinos were known for importing nurses abroad and the mentally at home that Filipino nurses are known for their kindness and dedication towards the nursing profession which I do not agree because nationality has nothing to do with nursing care.

I still thing that it is better for schools to provide the review themselves for the NLE and leave the CGFNS and NCLEX to others who can provide the instructors. And you are right that many review centers for the CGFNS/NCLEX have tie ups with agencies and that creates pressures for them to have their nurses pass these two exams regardless for what it takes.

Even to the point of having the nurses memorized 3 or 4 questions from the CGFNS and NCLEX. These are just rumors I heard when I was in the Philippines and not a new thing to me.

In my opinion, it is easy to cheat in the NLE considering that PRC are run by a few people who are greedy for money but for the CGFNS and NCLEX, it is not that easy.

Unfortunately, there are some very unscrupulous people opening review centers over there now, and not with the goal of even really teaching, but selling the nurses' names to an agency to get a kickback from them. And the worst part is that they know absolutely nothing even about the agency, but have just heard their name before.

They definitely do not have the nurses' best interest in place. Any review center needs to be strictly that, they should not have contracts with agencies.

Some may not agree with that, but if you have seen the number of nurses that have contacted me to get out of contracts that were worse than what you see done to illegal aliens, you would be horrified.

There is absolutely no reason that a nurse needs to atend a review center, it can easily be done on their own. I help students from all over the world, where they do not even have review centers and they pass.

Adn then you throw in the issues with a couple of the more prominent review centers there, that are now being investigated for the leak with the NLE exam, there is nothing else to say on the matter.

[mayflower2000, RN]

yes, its true. there is no need for one to attend a review center. you can do it on your own and still pass nclex. you will just have to do it religiously and understand what you have reviewed. it worked for me.

[pinoy_guy]

should be NCLEX and/or CGFNS passers themselves and aware of the application process and the basics in the immigration requirement process.

What I'm finding out lately is that most really do not know the process itself and when their students ask (and they surely ask queries) is that they keep pulling off things from the air just to answer the student's queries. In short, they base it on hearsays also. Some may not even be NCLEX/CGFNS passers themselves.

amazing, huh?

I attended an "Immigration Seminar" last year somewhere along Espaňa.

after a few minutes of "you're gonna get filthy rich quick without breaking a sweat" speeches, they turned the talk towards the CGFNS & NCLEX reviews.

it soon became apparent that the organizers had no intention of giving information on the Immigration process...but to have the people there sign up for their review courses.

when the participants asked about Immigration specifics on what to do next, the organizers obviously did not know anything about the process.

2 of the reviewers claimed to have US licenses: 1 in California & 1 in New York. when we checked online later, we couldn't find their names in the official rosters.

another thing: when somebody asked about the IELTS, one of the organizers flashed a computer-printed transparency showing a grade of 8.5, which was what the speaker allegedly got. he claimed that the IELTS was "very difficult" but he breezed through it.

he claimed that IELTS was composed of 4 exams, which were 4 hours EACH. & that he finished late at night.

since I had taken the IELTS at that time, I knew he was blatantly lying.

& yes, he also advertised his agency recruiting for the US. he said that it was only fair for his agency to get an hourly cut from salaries of RNs they deploy to the US because they helped send them there.

since most of the participants in that "seminar" were regular nursing graduates, they accepted everything at face value.

[kalayaan]

i had a similar experience. my class went to a popular recruitment agency 3 years ago to find out the process. the agency gave us the long way - that one has to go through numerous steps, like you have to file applications after you passed one, that it really takes 2-3 years before you can leave, etc. they said that what they were saying was the only way. of course i didnt believe anything they said. but at least i found out for myself that agencies are not all trustworthy. so dont be surprised why it takes so long for a foreign nurse to come to the us. the immigration process takes a while but the agencies make you wait so much longer.

and im not sure, but if i remember correctly, nursing review centers are also under the prc/bon.

the world is full of money grabbers and advantage takers. folks, just remember that if you have any questions, go through the official website of the agency/office in mind and make a search there. if the answers are not there, call them. otherwise, ask help here.

[asianrn]

this is way getting too loooong..page 8!