Questions about International Nursing Programs

timtams · Feb 17, 2015

Hi crisscrosscat,

*How many years is the nursing degree, and what kind of degree do you receive?

-I live in the Philippines and the Nursing Program here is for 4 years, you can't finish it in less than 4 years, two semesters per year. If completed all those 8 semesters without failing grades, I'm going to get a Bachelors of Science in Nursing.

*When do you start clinical placements and what are the specialties?

-Since we have a lot of minor subjects and a lot of those minor subjects doesn't have anything to do with nursing, our clinical placements starts in our second year - first semester. The specialties are the same as yours.

*Is there a particular health care focus in your education or country?

-I don't think there's a particular health care focus here in the Philippines, yes we do discuss each specialty in this course, we do return demonstrations for the step by step for this and that. Though we have a poor primary health care or atleast on where I live.

*How about care plans? Is there a big focus on completing care plans in clinical practice?

-Yes! Sometimes we're assigned to a one patient(or three patients for each student! yikes!) and the clinical instructors gives us their current clinical history. We do care plans for every problem that they have, I remember one of my patients have a hyperthermia, pain and hypertension, I had three patients so you're not the only one!

*Is the patient approach medical or holistic?

-Both but more on the holistic side. Some patients do really engage with their student nurses, I think that is a good way of having a great nurse:patient relationship.

*Do you find there may be a huge gap in the way they teach in school and how the real nursing world actually is?

-Oh yes. I do think we are unprepared since sometimes some nursing students wants to have their instructors beside them when they're doing this or that just to be sure that they'ree doing the right thing only if you don't really know what you're doing. But if you're really confident on yourself, you don't have to worry about anything.

*Is there a focus on learning about diversity and other cultures?

-Yes. We did just that on our community nursing thought I'm not sure about the other culture part.

I hope this kinda helps! :)

Crisscrosscat · Feb 17, 2015

Hi Timtams!

Thank you very much for your response, definitely helps! The last hospital placement I had, I would say one third of the RNs, RPNs, and personal support workers were from the Philippines. They were the most approachable, helpful and caring people on that unit, very hard working, too!

It's nice to know care plans are part of nursing across the world. As much as they are time consuming, I do realize their importance and usefulness!

I have two more questions, if you don't mind: What kind of healthcare system do you have in the Philippines? Here in Canada, public system with no privatization, access to family doctors and health clinics, and then hospitals (with long wait-times!). And, if you lack primary health care, do people go to the hospital or do they have general family doctors? Thanks for your time, I find it very informative :)

timtams · Feb 18, 2015

I'm glad that I'm able to help! :)

To answer your first question, I think our system is flawed. There's no access to quality care when you're in the lower class. I've seen a lot of my patients who couldn't leave the public hospitals because they couldn't settle the bill, leading them in debt really. Without money you're going to die. I think the government thought of this situation but never really paid attention, or maybe money going to their pockets is the priority(lol), so meaning more burden to the people. Some hospitals won't even accept you if you're dying unless you have their desired money for down payment, well I don't know if this is true but I've read an facebook post about not admitting the patient because they parents were unable to produce 10,000 pesos for the hospital to admit the child, and the child was dying. If you want to be admitted to a private hospital, again money's going to make everything move, and have to expect that its going to be expensive.

Nurses in private and public hospitals are different too, some nurses that work in private hospitals are super nice, I see them always smiling, but in public hospitals well it's a different story (I'm not saying all of the public nurses, I encountered a lot), especially when they're busy, some are ill-tempered or irritated, no signs of smile and all, I do remember when two of the nurses asked me to go to that certain room and get something, I couldn't find it (cause trust me they're not all in place! and of course it's like i take things in that room everyday to know where everything is) so I returned to those nurses empty handed and told them I don't know where it is and they laughed at me like thinking I'm so incapable. After that I never greeted them whenever we're in that rotation, they just lost my respect for them.

Yes we lack in primary health system, first of all in our health clinics doesn't really have a doctor in it, just a midwife, some may have but the one I went to doesn't. I guess they give the midwife a go signal to give meds. You don't have to worry if its a simple cold or cough, vitamins or sometimes give TB meds (prescribed by the doctor from the hospital) if they have it in stock usually they don't last.So the sometimes there's no point in going to a health clinic. Only the middle class to upper class have family doctors.

Sorry for that lengthy response! haha

Crisscrosscat · Feb 18, 2015

Thank you very much for your response :)

Wow, that is very unfortunate, I didn't realize health care accessibility was that bad in your country. As much as we can complain about the flaws in our system, we are very lucky for our health care here in Canada.

As for nurses, I think that it's like that everywhere, you'll have the awesome nurses who you can look up to as models and then there are some that "eat their young", it might be the strain of huge patient loads due to low staff and stressful demands of the job. I'm sorry you were treated like that.

I really appreciate you taking the time to discuss nursing in the Philippines with me! I would have two more questions if you have a chance: Would you say that nurses have somewhat of autonomy in providing care to their patients (like advance directives or need for catheterization/labs/meds) or mainly doctors are the ones who have authority in everything? And, does your culture have any traditions or specific cultural needs that might be important for nurses here in Canada to know about if we were caring for someone from the Philippines?

(Also, good luck on getting the info you need for moving back to the US!)

timtams · Feb 18, 2015

It is! Money is a big deal here, even when you simply enter a appliance store or furniture store, there were times that no salesman approached us since we looked like we didn't have money to buy something in the store, but whenever a foreigner enters the store, well, they all wanted to assist the foreigner. Lol

On your first question well, from what I've seen, no not really but they do know if their patient needs this or that and prepare it then ask the doctor or wait for the doctor to give a go sign for them to do it.

We have a lot of religions or groups here, as for Christians, they rely on God when someone is ill, Mormons are almost the same, they do pray a lot. Jehovahs witnesses believe that blood transfusions are prohibited by the bible, people here are somewhat devoted, so I guess they rather die than to receive a blood transfusion. That's all I know, I have no idea for the rest.

Thank you! I'm hoping it'll go a smoothly as possible! Haha. Since I wasn't the brightest kid in class and I have to admit, I've been very lazy for the past three years in Nursing when it comes to lectures, but not in clinical rotations. I must ask, what's your favorite clinical rotation? :)

Crisscrosscat · Feb 19, 2015

Thank you again very much for your information Timtams, this will definitely help me with my course, I truly appreciate it!

My favourite clinical rotation was my medical floor experience and I quite enjoyed working in nurse practitioner clinic, it was nice seeing nurses having autonomy in their care! I'm thinking of doing my pregaduate placement in the ER. How about you?

I wish you luck in all your future endeavors, if you want it, you can get it!

timtams · Feb 19, 2015

You're welcome! If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask :)

When I was in my second year - second semester, we were given the chance to be exposed in the operating room without any idea what to expect, or going to do cause our rotation for the operating room is in our third year, I forgot what semester. It was pretty fun! and pretty busy too! We learned the do's and don'ts on the spot, I was pretty nervous since I was paired with a friend who pissed off our clinical instructor, but I got the hang of it, I assisted the OR nurse, they we're all pretty chill, listening to a song and singing. After that, Operating room was my favorite rotation. It's not too stressful but can be very tiring at the same time cause of standing.

Goodluck on your journey to success!