griffon

Hi tomcam, Congrats on passing nursing school. Now it's time to consolidate the last few years of tears, frustration and sacrificing sleep, for one last push to passing the NLE. I think you first have to decide what type of learning best describes you. Are you better listening to lecture after lecture and taking a big exam afterwords (pentagon review)? Or would you like to take a quiz/exam after each lecture section to shift your brain from listening to analyzing mode (Balita Review)? Or are you more an independent type who doesn't need a review school, since you are motivated enough to stick with a study plan (self study)? Either choice you choose I would eliminate any independent study groups. Because I've noticed most times these study groups becomes an excuse to party. Trust me there will be enough partying after you pass the exam. You need to prepare yourself for the hardships ahead. You will be mentally and physically exhausted after the 8 hours of review x5 days a week. Leave at least 2 days a week to workout and treat yourself to a movie or something fun. The Saunders is an excellent book to review med/surg and somewhat the pathophysiology. But the NLE also has US and Filipino theories, research, adult, OB, pediatric and geriatric care, ADPIE, community, IMCI, drugs, fundamentals and clinical procedures. I would add the Balita, Udan and baby Perry Potter book to the lineup and memorize the Handy Notes (med/surg, OB and fundamentals). When I took the NLE the scope of the exam was huge, but the analysis wasn't that deep compared to the NCLEX. The NLE will only be a hard/difficult exam to those who don't prepare for it properly. The feeling you never want is to fail the exam. You will end up blaming everyone; your school, your friends and eventually yourself for not studying hard enough. To live with this self-doubt for the next 6 months until the next exam in June 2010 is horrible. I saw it in my friends who didn't pass. You've gone this far in your education. It's now time to prove to everyone that those 4 long years weren't wasted. Good luck.

Ranking the applicants through their board ratings is just one tool the managers use to help thin out the list. They do they same thing in the US. I was asked to supply my transcripts, since the NCLEX doesn't have a board ratings, with my application. Some hospitals will even post on their website a minimum GPA is required to even apply. There are too many new grad nurses fighting over too few new grad nursing slots in the US as well. So don't think the process is unfair. It's just a simple supply/demand problem. Too many nurses, too few open positions. If you don't believe there is an over supply of new nurses across the USA. Please check out the different states under the "Region" tab above. You will read about the heartache American nurses are going through after several months of not even receiving an interview, much more a job offer. So do the best you can on your NLE. Remember to study and brush up on your readings and skill set. Because you are always selling yourself in every interaction.

It's great that your agency has this program. I would really look into the fine print and make sure you are not charged a huge cancellation fee if you, the hiring company, the US govt, or the agency could not place you. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for everyone to get ahead and make something with their lives. I just believe that to be successful you need to be able to have a back up plan that is viable. Just in case Plan A doesn't work. At this point, both AUS and Saudi are open to new grads. Why don't you pursue one of those countries in the mean time. The US may not lift retrogression in 1 year, 2 years or even 10 years. In either case your paperwork for the US will be waiting in line for you and you will be making money in another country and getting real world nursing experience. So when you do step foot on US soil you will be there not as a inexperienced nurse, but as a veteran nurse with general knowledge as well as a specialty under her belt. Good luck with your career.

Please keep the racial overtones to a minimum. I, just like you, can read and write and can come to my own conclusions. Where did I say or even imply "US will be hiring an endless supply of foreign nurses"? How? The US has known about the nursing shortage for years. Was there not a line when you applied for nursing school? Has that line suddenly disappeared to get into nursing school? Members of this board state we are in a recession, hence the need to make more money, work more overtime. Despite that they argue nurses will take a 2/3 pay cut from bedside nursing to teach. For the nurses who don't have a masters/doctorate degree they will somehow find the strength to go back to school and then teach in their retirement years. They realize they will be making less money even before they spend the next few years getting their advanced degree. The question remains will there be enough of these altruistic individuals? When you factor the influx of new teachers will be producing more nurses then why is there NOT a labor report stating there will be a SURPLUS of nurses sometime in the future? You have nursing schools at full capacity and turning away students, US schools will need to expand, costing millions nationwide on a yearly basis. Also the lag time of 3 to 4 years before a student can become a nurse. Who will fill the nursing gap until then? Do you think America will spend the millions to do this in their current economic crisis? Or do you think they will simply add more visas? Which do you think is more feasible? Neither you nor I know the definitive answer to that question. But it gives us something to ponder about. Don't confuse TOTAL unemployment with the nursing unemployment. Foreign nurses are not taking away jobs, but are filling the vacancies. The family members coming over with the nurse are not allowed to work. So they aren't taking away the American jobs either. Even when you employ every able bodied nurse and hire every nursing graduate the labor stats still show America will need up to an ADDITIONAL 1 MILLION NEW nurses by 2020. How's that for a reality check!!

So I don't reinvent the wheel. I'll just direct you to a huge thread concerning Australia. You will find people who have actually gone through the process and can give you a 1st hand account of their struggle to get to there. I hope you keep us posted so we can live vicariously through you, as well as learn from your real world experience so it can help others. Good luck. "Newly grad Filipino nurse wanting to work in Australia/New Zealand" https://allnurses.com/forums/f75/newly-grad-filipino-nurse-wanting-work-australia-new-zealand-287930.html

first point: i'm afraid you might not have a full grasp of how bonds function. the u.s. puts out bonds for individuals/corporations/countries to buy to keep the economy churning - to say the least. if let's say china buys those bonds from the u.s. then two things happen. one, the u.s. economy churns and is kept afloat because china puts in money into the u.s. in place of the bond, and two, china earns from the interest paid by the u.s. to get those bonds back. in layman's terms, this bond now sort of becomes an iou that earns interest for anyone who buys it. they are the ones who have helped the economy stay afloat. without the foreign inflow of money, america would be a different place. the fact foreigners have slowed down in funding our debt and the extending credit crisis is a big theme to the solvency of the usa. second point: i applaud anyone who does missionary work. i've had my share of humanitarian missions during my time here in the philippines and it wasn't easy. you went into the matter of missionary work, which of course is done by most because they are called to do so, their personal calling. so it goes without saying that the amount of money they can make is not the issue. philippine republic act 9173 section 21 (b) provides for a venue in which foreigners are allowed to practice their nursing profession as: "licensed nurses from foreign countries/states on medical mission whose services shall be free in a particular hospital, center or clinic" so being missionaries, they are free to work in the philippines as they please. if you are suggesting the symbolic gesture of granting a us nurse an rn status in the philippines by passing the philippine nle then i agree with you. a tit-for-tat gesture as you may. but it rings hollow. much like how congress finally voted for offshore drilling for oil, but drilling has to be beyond 100 miles offshore. unfortunately the oil is less than 50 miles, which makes it economically unwise. it seems futile to me in both respects. if a us rn would work in the philippines for 40 hrs a week for a mere $40. that would leave little time to do the humanitarian missions you described. what you made in 40hrs here you could have made in 1 hour in the us. this is also beside the point, since there are very limited jobs for an rn in the philippines. third and last point: i don't recall saying, much less insinuating, for americans to stop spending. it goes against the very principles of economic logic. having graduated with an economics degree from an american university in the united states as an american citizen, it would be a great injustice for me to suggest so. please read my post again. i feel this is not the right thread to go in depth about the perils that brought america, economically, to where it is today and to discuss how to bring it back to where it used to be. we would stray too far off topic. i am, delightedly, open to economic discussions in another thread about the matter if need be. hushdawg says he can live happily at $500 which is roughly p25,000 a month. my research shows (from within this forum, and personal interviews of hospital nurses throughout a 3 year span) an average of p7000 monthly earnings for a registered nurse in manila. the p25,000 lies at the managerial level/masteral/specialist nursing positions. my point is that under r.a. 9173, there is a provision for specialist foreign nurses to work here as well. so if you can land a job at that level of nursing, the laws will allow you to work in the philippines. so the question wasn't at the $500, but at the $150 level. i have no doubt there are thousands of nurses who would jump at the chance to make p25,000/month. but if there are only a few jobs at the p7,000. there are far less positions opened at the p25,000/month level. so filipino rns don't lose hope. as long as there is a demand for nurses in america you have a chance to make it there. just keep your skill levels up-to-date. if that means leaving for other countries while your petition is working its way through the us visa program then so be it. your petition number will come up. america's own employment numbers sees the profession growing over the next 20 years. some say your employer may back out. some say it's cheaper to hire us rn's. that's something you have no control over. but there are things on your side. america has too few nurse educators. the demand is to stay in the hospitals then make only 1/3 of their salary at the university level. coupled with the retirement factor of these highly valued nurses, all this means is fewer educators mean fewer nurses will be graduating in the us. hospitals/ltc/dialysis centers that petition you are legally locking you into a contract for 2-3 years at a set rate. this is an edge for you. since us rn's are allowed to leave anytime they want, which makes keeping a stable workforce harder. if companies know they can lock the foreigner in for a long term contract this will diminish the upfront costs of getting you to the us and educating you to their standards. i only see the us educated population of nurses diminishing in the future. the only way i see it getting better is to pour 100's of millions of dollars into more education facilities and matching the hospital pay rates thereby making it more attractive to high level nurses to teach. but as we all know the us is in a recession and the cheaper way out is to hire foreigners. with president obama coming into power he is more lenient and vocal when it comes to foreigners. he clearly states that he will open the doors to skilled workers. where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should" -- barack obama, statement on u.s. senate floor, may 23, 2007

Hi sheenahRN, Your goal is to stay in the nursing field you may have to look outside the Philippines. Please look at the other threads concerning other countries for insight. The countries that stand out are Australia and Saudi. From what I gathered Australia will require you to finish a 3 month bridging program, but it's expensive. You lack the 2 years experience to bypass the bridging program. Saudi Arabia can help fill that requirement. You only need to meet very few requirements passing the NLE, female and over 22 to be accepted (for the most part). Take a look at the thread for more information. https://allnurses.com/forums/f235/saudi-moh-237578.html

It's good you passed your first course in biology. You will be one step ahead of the non-science majors. Take a look at the schools listed here. They all offer the similar package of finishing your program in an accelerated format. I'm bias toward PWU since I am a product of that university. They treat 2nd coursers as professionals, so you feel a stronger connection to the faculty. You don't feel like a student drone. The PWU nursing program is time tested and is over 60 years old. I had no problem with my 2nd course BSN being accepted by the California board of nursing to sit for the NCLEX. It's good your boyfriend is a US citizen. If your relationship progresses towards marriage, he can apply for a fiancée visa for you and you can marry in the USA between 6 months to 1 year. A spouse visa actually takes 2-3 years if you were to be married in the Philippines. As for nursing jobs, just look at online job posts like yahoo jobs or monster jobs and you will see the availability of open slots in a given area. While I couldn't find an open new graduate position in the San Francisco area I had no problem locating one in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. So available jobs will depend on the area you want to live in. Welcome to the wonderful world of nursing.

Hi dorkyalmonds, There is a thread you can look at below. It has the information you requested as well as opinions of schools. Good luck in your choice and your career. https://allnurses.com/forums/f235/good-nursing-school-philippines-151626.html

This looks like a simple problem of supply and demand. Only a few areas are saturated with too many nurses. Ex. Northern CA and north eastern part of the states. So there is a clear demand for more RNs. The problem is there are not enough teachers and too many students. This is due to the pay scale for educators being too low compared to the hospitals. So US nurses are not becoming educators. Solution: hire more foreign educated nurses who are more than happy being teachers. By hiring more educators will mean more nurses, but to see an increase in the nursing ranks will take time. A nursing student will take at least 2 to 4 years before they are able to practice. So it begs the question "What do we do with the current need of nurses now?" Do we rely on the standard method of just forcing OT on the current overworked nursing staff? This method just hastens the departure from the profession and provides less than optimal quality care. I see limited options to cover the nurse/patient ratio in the interim before more US trained nurses will eventually get hired. I see the hiring of foreign educated nurses as a way to fill the void to maintain quality medical care. If not foreigners to help out, who is left to fill the void? I thought the family members that come over on the HB-1 visas are not allowed to work. Only the primary person listed can work. I hope someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong. To answer your question on the US debt. I believe the majority of the bonds are being bought up by Saudi Arabia, China and Canada. We buy the Middle East's oil to run our industries and fuel our large SUV's. We indulge in the cheap labor practices of China so we can buy cheaper goods. They in turn take the money and reinvest in the US debt. If this cycle continues, who knows what else will happen. The US debt issue is a big problem. To put it in a nutshell, America will have to change its lifestyle. We can't rely on cheap foreign oil. We must rebuild an energy industry to make it more earth friendly and renewable. We have to start buying more US made goods. Not just US brands, but goods actually made in the US. We have to limit our own personnel credit card and some long term debt. We can't rely on our credit lines to buy things, but on simple cash (this doesn't mean cash for houses or cars). When we don't have the cash to pay the full credit card bill at the end of the month. The debt is being financed by foreigners who get rich off our 18% interest payments. Will that mean more money out of our pockets? The answer is "Yes". Bottom line is we need to keep the money we spent on foreign oil, foreign goods and foreign backed interest payments in the US. This is a start to helping the country. Now as for the reciprocity question. There is a program in the Philippines that will allow foreigners to work here on a short term basis, but not for the long term. You have to look at the reality of working in the Philippines. Given a chance would you honestly work in the Philippines on a long term basis? If you think you can't find US nurses to teach nursing students for $5,000/month. Do you honestly see a US nurse accepting a Philippine job offer for $150/month?

fyi - to all rns thinking about canada. i hold no interest in whichever country you will choose to work. but i do believe in making an informed decision. good luck to you all. ----------------------------------------------------- pinoy nurses: canada's program 'exploitative' kimberly jane tan, gmanews.tv manila, philippines - a group of filipino nurses has asked canada to scrap its live-in caregiver program (lcp), saying it is exploitative and oppressive. the filipino nurses support group (fnsg), an organization of over 800 nurses in canada's provinces of british columbia and quebec, said the program has resulted in filipino nurses being made to work as domestic workers and 24-hour home support workers. "the lcp imports filipino nurses into a program of modern-day slavery, economic marginalization, de-skilling, and stalled development," it said in a statement on monday. since the 1990s, filipino nurses have come to canada not to work as registered nurses but as caregivers. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/128435/pinoy-nurses-canadas-program-exploitative

just wanted to add the definition to what is the "age of majority" it's now considered 18 years old. as a result of too many hours studying for the nle (which by the way had only 1 question about ra's) ..... republic act no. 6809 . an act lowering the age of majority from twenty-one to eighteen years. section 1. article 234 of executive order no. 209, the family code of the philippines, is hereby amended to read as follows: "art. 234.emancipation takes place by the attainment of majority. unless otherwise provided, majority commences at the age of eighteen years.

markEmark, The board will look at your application after you pass because it will need to be paired up with your criminal background check from the Federal/state bureaus. Beyond the BRN noting that you passed the exam and that you are not a criminal, it's at their discretion as to the depth of their "re-evaluation". Clear your head of these thoughts of whether you'll be receiving your license or not. The situation is you received eligibility by the BRN and you can sit for the NCLEX. If they question your "eligibility" after the NCLEX or if they don't, it doesn't matter at this point. The best thing to do is pass the exam. You will know if CA has a problem with issuing your license. They will send you a letter. The facts are you are physically in the USA. It's too late to get back to the Philippines and gather the necessary documents or signatures for NLE. It's almost Oct. I'm guessing the deadline for filing for the NLE for Nov has probably already passed. So stop worrying. One step at a time. Good luck.

Victimized? You make it sound like people intentionally mislead others into applying with a list of "wrong" requirements. I don't think that was anyone's motive. This is a forum to exchange ideas and information. People talk about what they experienced or the experience of others we know. Several classmates did not believe in the NLE requirement and left for the USA to take the NCLEX. They were denied by the CA BRN and have since returned to Manila to take the November NLE. Unfortunately they are at least 6 months behind the rest of us. If others would like to take the chance and submit their application to the US BRN without the NLE then so be it. Some will get through and others may not. The worse case will be a delay in their application process and a delay in that USA nursing job.

Hey! I was just wondering if the provincial hospitals can be an alternative to volunteering. I know that some have gone that route. I doubt their small salary would even cover your monthly expenses, but it beats volunteering where all of your money is coming out of your pocket. Not to mention the "training fee". And not to mention too, the bad treatment one endures from the stories we've heard. This isn't the best choice after graduating, but it's the best alternative given the circumstances. You get experience working in a hospital and you are paid (more or less). Isn't that what the foreign hospitals are looking for - paid experience? Anyway, I think cyberfanatic is simply putting to words what the nursing profession actually goes through. He is sharing his experience as they happened (getting treated poorly, being abused and being overworked and not paid and not recognized) which we can only hope doesn't happen to us as well. While we wish for things to get better for new nursing graduates, we also have to be proactive in trying to find solutions. If there are horrible scenes in the nursing profession in the bigger cities like Manila, San Juan, Makati, Mandaluyong, Cebu, Davao and so on, I think it could be a real alternative to go back to our hometowns and our provinces and work honestly and professionally, get treated with dignity and get paid as well. If worse comes to worst and our own provinces are as bad, then I guess we have to go deeper into the jungles and boondocks of the Philippines. Good luck to us all.