Pinktabby

Have you found a CRRT course in LA?

I was advised very early on in my career to get my own insurance because there are cases that the hospital may not back you up. The cost of malpractice insurance is not much and is paid annually. Although I never had to use it yet, I feel better knowing that I'm still covered in case the hospital decides not to cover me. Each case of law suit is different, and I don't want to take a chance. Good luck to you... though this may be an old post of yours that no longer applies to present.

When I was a brand new grad nurse at Med/surg (as I was told to do at least one year of med/surg to get the basic nursing down), even the Filipino unit clerk felt the right to slam thick papers so hard on the station I was sitting at almost injuring my eardrums. I let that go at the time not knowing what the hostility was about, and all I thought about was to be a good nurse and learn as much as I could then.

Canadian Nurses In USA: "Gone South: Why Canadian Nurses Migrate to the United States" http://www.longwoods.com/content/20821

Canada, apparently, is another new destination for Filipino nurses seeking jobs. See what they have to say about Canadian policies for them: Filipino Nurses in Canada Vulnerable to Exploitation, Misleading and Abusive Policies

Good question. I happen to be one of the so-called minorities myself, and I am sharing real actual experience of present & past >10 years of nursing in USA.

Yes, the Filipino nurses, with their large population in nursing, have become difficult to work with. They not only speak their native language in clinical setting and cause barrier to nurse-nurse communication and put patients in danger, they isolate rest of the non-Filipino nurses and often known to gang-up on a particular non-Filipino nurse or other healthcare workers as they see fit. Most, if not all, nurses that are not Filipinos hate the working environment full of Filipino foodfests in nurses' breakroom and everyone around them constantly speaking in Filipino language and quickly move out of the night shift that consists of >90% Filipino nurses. As soon as the night shift Filipino nurses learn that another new non-Filipino nurse left the night shift, they knowingly nod to each other and clap. Their behavior negative and arrogant: "Either you confirm to our Filipino ways or you are out." I've watched this type of unacceptable scenario many times. Having heard of "Speak English Only in clinical setting" rule beginning to be enforced in some of the areas and states, the Filipino nurses at work are now expressing anger, resentment, and purposely & provocatively speak even more Filipino language in front of non-Filipino nurses. There is a thick tension at work, and the nurses are divided between non-Filipinos and Filipinos. Most non-Filipino nurses generally just want to work in peace especially during this recession, but get frustrated from lack of nurse-nurse communication, not understanding what the majority of co-workers that are Filipinos are talking about, not always wanting to have ethnic Filipino foodfest in nurses' breakroom, get tired of frequently contributing their hard earned money into yet another Filipino nurse's cause; be it retirement, their kids' graduation, etc, and getting complaints from patients about their nurses speaking Filipino language in the patients' rooms, etc. Some of the nurses are discussing a law that can be applied for "Hostile Working Environment." I personally have not looked into this particular law, but it is an option for those that are being harassed because they do not confirm to Filipino culture that seems to be predominately practiced in clinical setting.

Not "labeling" as you seem to view it as. There are many so-called "imported" Filipino nurses in this nation, and the Filipino nurses happen to make up a large foreign-born nurse population, thus, yes, the issue of foreign nurses speaking in their native tongue in clinical setting does apply to Filipinos. Just a fact. Socioeconomically, the Filipinos may be "inferior" or so many of them would not be coming to USA to practice. Would they? Race happens to be part of the group of nurses in question. It is a form of description used to identify a group of people, not necessarily "racial profiling." Please excuse some of us for our poor English skills. Why would the Philipino nurses so proficient in English language be so insensitive to those that do not understand Philipino language spoken in the clinical setting?

Most of my coworkers are, and have been, Filipinos and majority of them were brought into US because of nurse shortage. Despite their fluency in English language (the only Asian country that have fluency in English language), they choose to speak Tagalong around the clinical setting as well. As most of the posts here state, I do not have a problem with people speaking in their ethnic language among themselves (especially since I am a bilingual myself), but since the filipino nurses make up the majority of nurses at work, the non-filipino nurses like myself often feel isolated and most importantly, miss out on crucial nurse-nurse communication involving patient care. This is a serious issue that is affecting health care and nursing throughout the USA as the posts from various states across the country show. I would agree with enforcing the rule of one common language to be spoken in the clinical environment.