Libby_09

With the rapid increase in Nursing students in the last few years, schools are forced to hire clinical instructors (CI's) and lecturers even though they have zero work experience. While a lot of them are likely very competent and versed in Nursing theory, I can't help but wonder if ill-prepared lecturers are part of the reason why Nursing in our country has deteriorated. The salary is part of the allure while a lot of nurses, especially newly licensed ones, want to be a CI. In our economy right now, 20,000 - 40,000 pesos is a big amount but unless they want to be a CI forever, these new CI's are doing a disservice to their career buy not looking for work in a hospital. What's the hospital employment prospects of someone who graduated say, 5-10 years ago and has worked as a CI since then? Probably no better than someone who just earned their RN.

If you have saved money or if your parents/relatives etc can shoulder your bills for the next 2-3 years then I guess it's acceptable to resign and re-pursue your Nursing career. But if you want to be practical then I suggest that you resign when you've found a satisfactory paying job. If that means a job as a staff nurse or call center agent, well that's your decision based on the opportunities available to you. As an aside, I see more and more newly licensed nurses taking MAN since they can't find a job right now. While I don't doubt that it doesn't hurt and is far better than being idle, I sincerely doubt that a nurse with a MAN but no hospital experience will have a significant advantage over someone with actual staff nurse experience or even against nurses with various volunteers and trainings under their belt. Just my 2 cents. :)

My brother's license has expired but he now needs license verification in the PRC. I would assume that he needs to renew it first, right? Does he still need the other requirements such as photocopy of license ID, passport size pictures even if he's outside the country and would authorize me to renew it for him?

Honestly, the irrational bashing of Philippine Nurses in this forum has to stop. No one is claiming that Philippine Nursing right now is perfect but that doesn't mean that we can instantly assume that the majority of nurses right now is sub-par. The only thing lacking is experience and when given a chance to enhance and improve their skills, I believe that we can perform just as well, if not better, than the nurses in other countries especially USA. Just because some of you got there first or graduated when there were fewer nursing students doesn't necessarily mean that the later graduates are inferior. That's crab mentality right there. A trait, sadly, that's all too common to Filipinos and displayed widely around here. A lot of you already in the USA were given a great opportunity to work there and it's great that you have taken advantage of it. Why not give the rest of us the benefit of the doubt? There is no perfect screening but there are enough exams to, in theory, weed out most of the so-called unskilled workers.

How about trying Niner Review? I can't vouch for it personally but my girlfriend reviewed there and it seemed to help her improve her band score.

Hi. Here's directions on going to the PNA. Short answer? Just ride the LRT to Pedro Gil and ride a Sta. Ana or Paco (I think) jeepney beside PCU. You'll be in the PNA street after about 5 blocks. Just walk right and you'll see the PNA building.

Watching and reading about it is totally different from actually experiencing the situation here. News reports, conversations etc can often be sensationalized and filled with biases that can lead people outside the country to make rash generalizations on the situation here. Yes, there are a lot more nurses and nursing students right now. But is the percentage of so-called unskilled or unprepared nurses any higher than what it was before? Is there a study to prove this hypothesis? There will always be bad apples and ill-prepared persons from any course or profession and even with the vast number of Filipinos enrolled in Nursing, is the ratio of skillful graduates any less than it was before? We can look at stats like student to nurse ratio etc all we want but it's not definitive proof at all. Most universities and colleges are getting stricter with regards to admission and retention. It only needs a few individuals and a few schools for the others to follow. No doubt a lot of change needs to be done beginning with closing low-performing schools and other drastic measures. But maybe from time to time we should look at the positive side for a change. Instead of spending all our time watching negative news about the state of the Philippines and criticizing the Philippine agencies and the government, just once maybe we should look at the positive things for a change.

Maybe we should give them these new nurses/ nursing students the benefit of the doubt before assuming that they are improperly trained or lack the skill. Granted, there are more diploma mills sprouting but a lot of these so-called substandard students are weeded out by the time they graduate and pass the licensure exam. Recounting anecdotal accounts on seeing this so-called decrease in skill is hardly evidence to conclusively say that that the Philippine BSN program doesn't prepare its students to work as nurses. It is far too easy for someone outside the Philippines to read about the nursing situation in the Philippines through articles, to look at the stats on the number of Nursing students and the passing rate on the board exams etc and spout irresponsible and baseless assumptions but unless they are in the Philippines and dealing with nurses and nursing students here every single day then they don't have the authority to comment on the situation. The Nursing program in our country might need a lot of work in order to improve. Improvement takes time and we've already seen a lot of schools becoming stricter on student selectivity and striving to enhance their curriculum and faculty pool among other things. These efforts are being done through the blood, sweat and tears of the nurses, clinical instructors and deans in our country. Not with the help of armchair experts.

Quick question. I've been looking at the previous Visa Bulletins. On July 2007, priority date for EB3 for the Philippines was Current then became Unavailable for August 2007 then moved back to August 2002 for the Sept 2007 Visa Bulletin. What exactly happened for the 1 month that EB3 priority date was current? What priority dates were being processed? For example if the PD was say, January 2003, what's the status if his PD was current for a month then became unavailable for the next month?

Most nurses taking the MAN here want to pursue a career in the academe. This is the Philippine Nursing Forum after all so let's not assume that every question is somehow related to working in the US. There are a lot of issues that someone outside the country will never hope to understand or appreciate.

Guys, how long is the waiting list for the NCLEX exam once you got confirmation from the state that you're applying and paid the fee at Pearson Vue? How many sessions and examinees are there per month? And is there a cheap NCLEX application agency around? Applying by myself is a bit of a hassle and some agencies charge around 4000-5000 pesos as service fee.