Superlost1984

Hi everyone, Thought I'd bare it all here because I feel like I've reached the end of my tether and I feel hopelessly lost in my career. I do hope you won't judge me. I have been a nomadic nurse for 13 years now. By nomadic I mean I have not stayed in one department or struck to a specialty for more than 3 years. I don't seem to have found my place/niche. A bit of background: graduated 2005 in my hometown, small province, only 4 bigger hospitals with not so above average standards. Volunteered in General nursing for 3 years, went on a hiatus for 5 years to take care of my mum with terminal cancer and then went on a teaching job as there were no paid nursing jobs around. Pursued greener pastures in Australia in 2013. Start up here is pretty tough. Hospitals were pretty specific about experience, and Aged Care wasn't my cup of tea. So we did agency nursing for a bit. On call status, all hospitals in town. I ended up with panic attacks and severe anxiety I have never felt before. Then I also hurt my back. I started liking General Practice Clinic job but later on became very disillusioned by it. Found two jobs I liked: Wound Clinic and Outpatients Nurse. Sadly, they can only give me part time hours. So despite my disappointment with GP clinics, I stayed. Then I received a huge shocker when they booted me out after probationary period was over. Said they found me unable to cope with the pace. Now I am left with my two other jobs that couldn't give me more hours. I am just lost and feeling like the most incompetent, dumbest person on earth. My other manager has opened up to me once as well that I was too timid at work and lacked the confidence and initiative. I agreed on the first two remarks but not the one without initiative. She based it on mere personal impression of me. But she was right, I am a very insecure, lacking in confidence, and passive. I try to be proactive but I don't think I'm doing enough. My friends tell me I am very weak-spirited. That , Had I taken risks to work in Aged Care/Acute Hospitals I would have been raking in cash by now. I've submitted applications everywhere and although they said I was a strong candidate, somebody better came along and got the position. I have fallen out of love with nursing. In fact, I don't think I was ever in love with it. Parents wanted me to be a nurse. But I can't turn back now. This is the only thing I know. But now I don't even know if I'm fit to be a nurse if I am this type of person. Shall I seek a career counsellor now?

hi miasat! i'm currently in the philippines. i've already read and did my research concerning integration program for internationally educated professional nurses. my application packet and documents are now complete. everything is ready to be mailed back to oiiq. however, i asked my school, prc and my employer that i will be the one to send all the attestation forms in their original sealed envelopes together with my comparative form and all other supporting documents. i thought i could save money if i will send them all to oiiq in one mail. i understand that its on their directives that it must be sent directly by the institution/organization who are completing the forms. in your case you brought them to quebec and personally submitted the attestation forms in their orig. envelopes. but, will oiiq accept the attestation forms which are all in sealed envelopes as valid and genuine, if i mail them myself together my application for comparative and all other documents? you prompt reply will be greatly appreciated. :) thank you! --------- hi howard, my agency also instructed me to gather all the attestations and send them as one. i believe this has been done by applicants before me and prc even asked me to claim the processed document so it means that they are not sending the document directly.

I wouldn't really try to call them lies but self preservation mechanisms. Some people come to the ER with all sorts of stories to cover up the true yet embarrassing circumstances by which the events occurred. What they need is privacy and sense of trust. In my experience though, withholding information is common among teenagers who do not want their parents or other people to find out that they are sexually involved or active. Too late though because the tests came back positive for either pregnancy or STD.

Honestly, I always feel like backing out everytime I read your response. That means that I am not taking your responses for granted. The last thing I wanna do is be stubborn when someone who has far more experience than I would speak about the reality. It's just that right now, this Quebec opportunity is the only thing that seems feasible in my situation. There will always be other options and I am not closing any doors on any either. That is why I am trying to learn as much as I can. However, I must look into both the negative and positive and not be one-sided. Quite frankly, this agency I am talking about have their inconsistencies. You can probably tell by the way I was surprised by the details that I am getting which are different from what they are telling me. I wouldn't say I am 100% confident with them but per track record, they have sent off many people to Canada more than any other agencies I've known so far. They do ask for around 1,300 dollars for the processing fee which is not cheap. That is why even though I have paid half that amount I am still going around, hunting for other opportunities. But due to the employment situation of nurses here in my dear country, plus the retrogression happening in the US, sometimes, most of us just grab anything that comes our way even if it means sacrificing and risking so much. I hope I didn't make you feel like I am not hearing you out. Don't get me the wrong way.

I take it I'd have to look for an employer first, right? But without a PR I doubt it would be easy for me.

@janfrn: I also don't think and expect to get my PR visa from my consultancy but from whatever council or legal office assigned for that purpose. I am aware that consultancy or agency only offers assistance when it comes to processing. How do we obtain an LMO?

My consultancy will (that's what they promised). But surely, I will not be passive when it comes to the processing. I will have to try my best to be hands-on with everything. As promised, they will find a school for us to assure that we land in a school which speaks English.

Hi miasat, Our entry is either as student or tourist depending on the assessment of OIIQ. According to our consultancy, we would have to undergo this so called SPECIAL INTEGRATION PROGRAM where we undergo either a 5-month study OR 40-day training. Our consultancy can only process our PR visa IF we pass the board exam and the french exam after the integration program. And as what they told us, we can only move to other province if we have the PR already. By the way, forgve me for my ignorance but what does LMO stand for? Thanks

does this apply even to non-Canadian nurses? I am from the Philippines and have only started my application with OIIQ just recently. I was informed that one needs to be a PR first, meaning, has passed both board ad french exam, to be able to move to other province. I wanna know if i have been misinformed. Thanks

One thing isn't clear to me miasat. Did you take the french exam? Or did you not? And if you did not? How were you able to move to another province without a PR visa? According to what my source said which is a consultancy office, one needs to pass both the board exam AND the french exam to be able to attain the PR status. Only then can you also move to another province. I would appreciate any clarification in this regard. Thank You! :)

Thank You, janfrn! At least I am informed now of the downsides. I did some surfing and came across hospitals in Montreal that do not necessarily require one to speak French. What can you say about that? Do you think I may land a job there? Lastly, are you aware of some of the living conditions of Filipino nurses and how are they holding up?

This is just a bit baffling. If Quebec does not welcome non-French speakers, how come OIIQ has already accommodated fellow Filipinos? Shouldn't they have refused these applications at the start?

I agree that, to an extent, most of us can speak and understand English, but proficiency is a different issue. It is so sad that performance of fellow Filipino nurses as well as their "professionalism" have been questioned and criticized based on the proficiency "deficiency". I wish, that to a certain degree, they be given credit for the hard work and the pains they went through just to enter your land. If things were better off back home, why would we ever have the need to speak in foreign tongues when we can always use the language that we are most comfortable in and which, if we turn the tables, people from other places can barely even enunciate right without sounding desperate? I'm just saying that nobody deserves the kind of mockery that non-English speakers are getting. And please, Filipinos, let us all try to find ways to improve ourselves. Exams are only exams. Not to mention the adrenaline that seems to smarten us up during those times. We should accept corrections, and use criticisms to our own advantage. And, shall we leave the Cubans out of this?

truly discouraging! But I appreciate the information you give me. Before I signed up for my agency, I had been trying hard to find forums like this to aid me in my research and since my agency had been promising that in a few month's time, I will be fluent in French which of course I had doubts, I guess I just jumped in and decided to go with my Quebec plans. I have already paid a certain amount and now I am starting to regret it. It is not too late though.I may have to rethink my plan

Hello everyone, I am aiza from the Philippines and am currently trying to apply for Quebec as well. I am very happy to stumble upon this discussion because there hardly is any other forum regarding this concern in the internet. This first question goes out to Filipinos who have already gone to Quebec. What are the odds of me landing in the training instead of the 5-month study? I graduated in 2005 and had at least 2 to 3 years work experience in a hospital setting. The rest of the 1 and a half years, I was connected with a review center for nurses and a caregiver school so I pretty much had a taste of the teaching world. Second, how much money are we going to bring as pocket money? Third, how easy or difficult is it to land in a job? I would prefer in Montreal because being a city, most people can understand English. Fourth. Has anyone taken the french exam? How was it? If you were to grade its difficulty from 0 to 10, how much would you give? Can we, non-French, even fare in that sort of exam? My questions may have been answered somewhere here but seeing how long this forum already has gone, I decided to just post my question hoping that I get the answers I am looking for. I'm sorry the discussion's just too long for me to read everything. I am pretty much just running my eyes over the ones that could catch my attention

how about second coursers who still studied nursing for 4 years?

i really wanted to relax, but being a constantly anxious person, I couldn't seem to tone my nerves down.

Hi everyone, I took my NCLEX (State of Vermont) last Feb 26 here in Makati City, Philippines. We were told by our agency that the results will be given in 3 days. My third day was yesterday and up to now, there still is no news whether I passed or failed. I was really crying yesterday because according to my agency, scenarios like these usually end up with negative results. For someone who is self-sustaining, I don't think I could afford another retake. My agency said I needed to wait for another agonizing week to finally get my result. Is there really a great possibility that I failed? Passing the nclex means a lot to me as does everyone but I swear it means a lot to me...for so many reasons I didn't have to mention now. I would appreciate your advice.

Oh I won't mind as to where they assign me as long as I do land in a job which I worked for since I enrolled in my nursing education.

hi daytonite, your responses have been really helpful. i do apologize for my mistake of putting it here. i was misled by the word general, and didn't know that there is a general student discussion until i tried to really explore. i am new here and because of my excitement of the information and help that i am getting here, i haven't set aside time to find my paths through this labyrinth and got stuck with the first things that i know. i will learn the ways of this site in no time. thanks

hi fellow nurses, i am reviewing for nclex. my agency has provided me with practice exams without answer keys. i noted some pointers (with permission from my agency) on questions where i had such difficulty deciding as to which is the best answer. i hope you could also share to me your insights that might help me come up with the answer. the following questions are not the exact words from the test. besides, i definitely couldn't probably copy them word for word, and also to avoid violations on copyrights, and these do not come from the actual nclex. as i have said they are only pointers. you may find some questions lacking in details because as i have implied, they are not replica of the questions. so here they are: (i would appreciate it if you would quote the questions for convenience. thanks. the answer in red was my answer to it.) 1.) a pt has bilateral cataracts. what question/statement is most appropriate to ask to assess visual impairment? a. " tell me the things that you can see." b. "tell me the things that you have difficulty seeing" c. how has your visual abilities changed d. .......(i couldn't remember....all i know is that the question was a bit far-out....-shrugs-) * i chose b because of the word "impairment"...gee, really dont know. 2) a patient (already confined in the hospital and is under antibiotics for pneumonia) suddenly presents signs and symptoms of mi. what should the nurse do first? a. administer o2 at 4l via nasal cannula (is 4l enough?i was tempted to choose this though because of the pneumonia thing. idk) b. 12 lead ecg (it seems to always be the first thing to do in cases of mi. right? or wrong?) c. cardiac enzymes (i think this comes later. idk) d. ensure patent iv (i think this comes later too because even if this ensures route for administration of mi meds, mi has to be confirmed first) 3) a patient, after learning of his diagnosis of lung cancer becomes extremely agitated, violent and starts throwing objects at the nurses and staff. what is the most important thing to do? a. tell the patient that hurting the staff is an unacceptable behavior (i don't know if this is appropriate. it just seems like the best answer. again, i don;t know) b. send the staff out of the room (although it ensures safety for others, it doesn't address the client's problem) c. give the pt an anti anxiety drug with a full glass of water (won't the glass with water in it also get airborne? i don't think the pt is cooperative enough at this point to succumb to any interventions especially po meds. idk. however gving water does seem to have a calming effect on some people.) d. notify the physician of the cllients signs and symptoms (the md can probably have a better suggestion what to do.)

what is exercise? i dunno what that is. see, i think i have lived such a sedentary lifestyle for....all my life? at 25, i realized that i haven't really been moving much for 2 decades and a half. that's too bad because we all know that exercise helps in preventing many diseases. and my ticket to good health? i just threw it out my window. at present my paranoia is killing me. everytime i feel some spasms here, or some strange numbness or pain there, a little bloated feeling at some point, or some stiffness somewhere, i just can't help feeling scared that i might be breeding some form of disease or diseases already from all that sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy food that i have been ingesting since birth. at 25, do you think, it's too late for me? am i doomed?:uhoh21:

Thanks for the idea. I think so too. I haven't actually seen any order for SCL either.

Have to be honest, I am quite discouraged but Im not gonna quit yet. I will finish and pass my NCLEX and after that I'll wait or find other means too while waiting. Thanks for all your input.

sorry....