13th stranger

thanks for the replies guys. sofia*26, can you tell me more about Oz accepting nurses even with minimal experience? I'm keeping my eyes open, reading the classifieds of the best dailies for related stuff, but it seems i can't find what i'm searching for. hehe please PM me what, when, where, how you did it, and how much it cost. thanks a lot. and again, thanks guys. yeah, God has other plans. better get that through my thick skull. hehe.

is it practical to keep on hoping, or should i accept that it is not my fate now? ever since i graduated 4 years ago, everything i did was for my overseas career fulfillment. of course, you all know what hindrances there are. so here i am, a USRN finished with packet 2 in the immigration process, still in the Phils, thankfully working as a nurse, although not in a hospital...my US papers are tied up, as with thousands of others. i'm opening my eyes to NZ, but unfortunately, i lack the funds.. tried searching for jobs in SP or Oz, but i lack the hospital experience..tried looking at the rest of the countries in Asia or ME, lack of vacancies...hehe. When i passed my exams one after the other, i did feel blessed, like it was somehow my fate to go abroad, and that this dream was somehow within reach. That was years ago. now, i'm not so sure. i feel so dispirited. okay, that's it. i just wanted to vent. thanks.

hmmm...sacrifices, sacrifices.. for my foreign exams, since i wasn't receiving much help from my parents financially, i had to save up for the finances myself. so yeah, my sacrifices include not going out during paydays, not going along with outings, not spending too much for my little perk-me-ups, all to finance my exams. yeah, i passed all of them, so it was worth it. but then, i'm still stuck here, so sometimes i wonder what would have happened if i opted to "enjoy" my money for fun instead of being so scrooge-like with it all the time. hehe

here's what i understand of it. GWA is your average grade when you graduated. Add up all your averages for each semester in college, then divide the total by the number of semesters you had. some hospitals are requiring it, because, (in my opinion) , with the sheer number of nurses applying for them, they can afford to be picky and choose to entertain only the cream of the crop, those with higher GWAs than the rest. of course, this makes sense, since GWA reflects your grades in college, and thus the kind of student you were, and the kind of nurse you will be. as to the acceptable GWA..hmmm..it depends. in my school, 1 is the highest grade, and 5 is the failing mark, so obviously, the closer to 1 my GWA is, the higher average i had. however, i know of some schools who have it the other way around, with 5 as the highest mark. you can ask for your GWA from your school for a fee. they'll give you this official document stating your gwa and its equivalent meaning, if it falls under "failed", "good", "excellent", etc. hope this helped.

what an ignorant comment from someone who supposedly knows the state of nurses. it's bordering on ridiculous. what a shame. tsk tsk. he should sign up to be a member of this online comunity so he could read and be updated by the real situation of real nurses.

to all those venting out, i sympathize and i understand and i strongly agree! yes, i'm a nurse, yes, i'm supposed to be compassionate and everything and make service the reason why i took up this course and everything..but hey.. i spent years of my life taking up this course so that in the future, i could be EMPLOYED, not EXPLOITED. and by employed, i actually mean a job that is somehow appropriate for a licensed professional...with the appropriate benefits, working conditions, etc. otherwise, i'd just have stayed home and trained to be a house helper. yes, no one forced me to take up nursing, and no one is forcing me to be a volunteer now. but just because no one is forcing me doesnt mean that i can't have an opinion on what's happening to us nurses here. yeah, just also venting. thanks. :)

i see. the general consensus seems to be that attaining an immigrant visa would take around 5 years. would that be for those who start the filing now? what about those who started a year or two ago? thankies.

i keep seeing on the news the downward trend of the US economy, or if i misinterpreted that, then the bankruptcy of some of America's largest investment banks/ insurance companies, etc..(Lehman Bros., AIG, etc) anyway, i would just like to know what impact this has on the visas, if any? will this also affect the availability of health care jobs in the US? thanks.

hello! i'm curious if there is a licensure exam for working as a nurse in qatar? i tried searching, but the threads were quite old and i'm not sure if it's still the same today... much thanks.

ah okay..when you say "specialised" does it mean your hospital experience has to be in a special unit, like ER/ OR/ ICU/ etc? what do you mean "have a bachelor's"? i assume that is a bachelor's degree in nursing? all RNs here have bachelor degrees in nursing..once we graduate college it is stated there in each diploma that each is a "bachelor of science in nursing". but perhaps you may have meant another thing.. ? :wink2:

i see....so in the event that i actually know someone who is in that position right now, let's say, a friend whose US hospital employer had already petitioned an immigrant visa for her, and in fact she's already for packet 3, but again, there's the retro, so the US hospital decided to sponsor a working visa for her now...is there something wrong with the way that case is handled? is it legal and possible for the US hospital to do the "switch"?

hey everyone! there are some visa issues which confuse me and i would appreciate any clarifications. the US is in retrogression, so this affects the granting of immigrant visas, right? would it be possible to "switch" from an immigrant visa to a working visa? like say, for example, if i am a nurse with an employer already sponsoring my immigrant visa, but because of the retro, i am "stuck" here in the Philippines for a few more years.. so in order for me to enter the US faster and work there sooner, my employers file for a working visa instead.. and if it is possible, then why not use working visas for all nurses? unlike PTs, OTs, and workers in other fields, why do RNs have to use immigrant visas? thanks.

hey guys. working as a nurse in the UAE, specifically in ras al-kaimah, is one of my options right now. can anyone who has ever worked there tell me what the working conditions are like? or the culture? i am a roman catholic, by the way, so does this raise an issue with the UAE being a Muslim country? please help. or even if you haven't worked there, what do you know about the country? thank you so much.

hello. can anyone please help me out with this? i know its true that the IELTS and CGFNS will expire if you don't take one within two years of the other, but is it true that the IELTS will expire if you are not granted a visa screen certificate within two years, and you have to take it again? i have tried browsing through their site, but i can't seem to find the answer.

hello everyone.. im an RN based in the philippines. is there a site where i can download all the forms and other requirements needed in applying for the nclex exams? to save some funds, i've decided not to pay a center to do this for me. i have already downloaded the application forms, evaluation forms, etc from the respective website of my desired state. my biggest problem to date is the fingerprint card. short of actually flying to manila to get this from the embassy, what else can i do? can i order this somewhere? any help would be much appreciated. thank you.