Suggestion to Philippine Nurses

I see that many of you have to "Volunteer Nursing" which does not provide any professional experience. Why not try to make a bad situation into a positive one. Ask the hospitals with these programs to restructure these programs to nursing internships. A good nursing internship does look good on a resume. Objectives for the internship with evaluations would be during and after the program. Ask to rotate to areas where school experience is limited.

I'm not sure if this is available in the Philippines but here in the US what programs like that do is ask for money from the government to pay the students...It's called a "grant"....Someone in the higher ups writes the government and makes a formal proposal where they show the structure of the program, a budget and a bunch of other stuff in order to get an approval....You might not get RN pay, but you might gain the experience and also get some money while doing it...paid internship...I know it sounds easier said than done, but it's worth a shot....Good Luck

Actually, I like you idea LativnaVN, but why not the employers and recruiters funding these programs. The could have traveling faculty work with the locals to prepare these nurses for the international climate that the desire to work in.

Actually, I like you idea LativnaVN, but why not the employers and recruiters funding these programs. The could have traveling faculty work with the locals to prepare these nurses for the international climate that the desire to work in.

That's where the grant writing comes in...the employers and recruiters would be the ones to do this...supposedly they don't have the money to hire more nurses so they're requiring them to pay to volunteer at the hospital....This would help everyone all around...I'm not sure how much money the government would be willing to give....but I don't believe that the government is poor in the Philippines, I believe (and with a lot of other countries including the US) is pocketing some money one way or another....

[anakat_evangelista, RN]

that's a good suggestion! actually some hospitals here in the philippines are using the term "nurse training" and "nursing residency" instead of "volunteer nursing"...

That is a start but you should have some clinical objectives and structure our than giving your time away. You should be given learning opportunities for a RN.

And you should be PAID for your work because you're licensed and you're no longer a student....

And you should be PAID for your work because you're licensed and you're no longer a student....

Absolutely! I can't even imagine any new grad in the US agreeing to work for free...or, even worse, to PAY for the chance to work! It would never be acceptable here. Major changes need to be made across the board in the whole nurse-production industry there. The only ones who benefit by maintaining the status quo are the bazillions of nursing schools and the hospitals that get free nurses.

I'm not sure if this is available in the Philippines but here in the US what programs like that do is ask for money from the government to pay the students...It's called a "grant"....Someone in the higher ups writes the government and makes a formal proposal where they show the structure of the program, a budget and a bunch of other stuff in order to get an approval....You might not get RN pay, but you might gain the experience and also get some money while doing it...paid internship...I know it sounds easier said than done, but it's worth a shot....Good Luck

Actually, the difference between the US RN and the Philippine RN is that in US you get an associate degree within two years. But in the Philippines its a BSN and you have to go 4 years, including summers. So its a big difference. The RN internship in the Philippines is done at the 3rd and 4th years of college so basically all nursing graduates in the Philippines had experiences already its just a matter of where you did your internship. Some schools may offer the best internship such as UST and Trinity thats why most of the top notchers in the 2008 belongs to them. I dont belong to this schools but i did my internships in Government hospitals and i did learn alot. Downside with government hospitals is the technological advancements are far different from here in the US. Well, thats a given fact. . . but one thing for sure you'll learn in government hospital is you sure will be one heck of a nurse since most of the times you'll end with atleast a bunch of patients and you have to make the best of what you have. When you start working in hospitals in other countries you dont complain anymore since you are trained not only as a nurse but your used already to hard work. Hope this helps and GodBless to all filipino nurses.

It's Philippine nursing programs now going to be 5 years. It doesn't seem to help going to school in the summer since the pass rate is so low.

Actually, the difference between the US RN and the Philippine RN is that in US you get an associate degree within two years. But in the Philippines its a BSN and you have to go 4 years, including summers. So its a big difference. The RN internship in the Philippines is done at the 3rd and 4th years of college so basically all nursing graduates in the Philippines had experiences already its just a matter of where you did your internship. Some schools may offer the best internship such as UST and Trinity thats why most of the top notchers in the 2008 belongs to them. I dont belong to this schools but i did my internships in Government hospitals and i did learn alot. Downside with government hospitals is the technological advancements are far different from here in the US. Well, thats a given fact. . . but one thing for sure you'll learn in government hospital is you sure will be one heck of a nurse since most of the times you'll end with atleast a bunch of patients and you have to make the best of what you have. When you start working in hospitals in other countries you dont complain anymore since you are trained not only as a nurse but your used already to hard work. Hope this helps and GodBless to all filipino nurses.

i get your point..but you are setting yourself up for a bashing..hope i'm wrong heheheh godbless all nurses:clown:

I think my concept is being mis understood, to be a RN intern, you need to be a RN, not a student, be fully accountable for professional practice. A student can't be a RN Intern.

The sole purpose of the internship should be to get professional experience, not be cheap labor and heaven forbid pay for the experience.

What is happening now, from what I have read, nurses are paying to be slave labor with no programs to promote professional growth or learning. The school has no part of being an intern- the clinical experience you got as student is just that, you were a student and not accountable for professional accountability.

grants aren't possible as the Philippines' budget for health is only 2-3% of the GNP...gov't hospitals can't even afford cottonballs and gloves, so turning new grads into nurse interns are not possible. Private hospital..maybe they can, if they are willing to invest on new grads. But the norm for a medical ward is 40+patients/nurse...and in ICU it's 8-10pts per nurse. Maybe if safer nurse-patient ratios are set by the law, then we'd have some vacancies, therefore employment.

When you start working in hospitals in other countries you dont complain anymore since you are trained not only as a nurse but your used already to hard work. Hope this helps and GodBless to all filipino nurses.

Nurses in the US-- and in other developed countries-- work just as hard as nurses in the Philippines. What you fail to realize is that there is a big difference between "hard work" and being exploited.

And Godbless to all nurses, everywhere!

[juan de la cruz, MSN, RN, NP]

OK, I'm not not gonna bash your post but would just like to clarify. Please be careful with making assumptions. Just as you guys don't want US RN's making false assumptions of nurses in the Philippines, the nurses here don't want the same either.

Actually, the difference between the US RN and the Philippine RN is that in US you get an associate degree within two years. But in the Philippines its a BSN and you have to go 4 years, including summers. So its a big difference.

True, there are 2-year Associate degree programs leading to RN Licensure in the US. But they exist side by side with BSN programs as well. Think of it as having two options. Some students take the Associate degree route and some take the Bachelor's degree route, both are RN's in the end.

Do not assume that just because a program is only 2 years in length that it's not heavy on clinical exposure. There are pre-requisite courses that students take before being formally admitted to a 2-year ADN program. Many students take a year to finish those required courses (or "subjects" as you call it in the Philippines) and this is not factored into the 2 years it takes to finish the ADN.

The clinical rotations start at the very first semester of a 2-year ADN program and continues until the very end of the last semester of the program. As a former clinical instructor in an ADN program here in the US and as a brother of a nurse who is an ADN graduate here in the US, I can tell you that the clinical experiences students get are very intense. Some even say that ADN students get more real life exposure in the clinical setting than those in BSN programs. But let's reserve that debate for another thread. My point is 2-year ADN is not light on clinical exposure.

The RN internship in the Philippines is done at the 3rd and 4th years of college so basically all nursing graduates in the Philippines had experiences already its just a matter of where you did your internship.

Please do not refer to that as internship. I think it's called Related Learning Experiences or RLE in the Philippines and clinical rotations in the United States. An internship is something done after a person has already obtained a degree, like a first year medical resident in a hospital is called an intern.

Some schools may offer the best internship such as UST and Trinity thats why most of the top notchers in the 2008 belongs to them. I dont belong to this schools but i did my internships in Government hospitals and i did learn alot. Downside with government hospitals is the technological advancements are far different from here in the US. Well, thats a given fact. . . but one thing for sure you'll learn in government hospital is you sure will be one heck of a nurse since most of the times you'll end with at least a bunch of patients and you have to make the best of what you have. When you start working in hospitals in other countries you dont complain anymore since you are trained not only as a nurse but your used already to hard work. Hope this helps and GodBless to all filipino nurses.

Right, I worked at PGH in the Philippines and I know what you mean. By the way, somebody mentioned how bad it is for nurse staffing in government hospitals there. I don't remember it to be as bad as somebody else quoted it in this thread. I worked in a neurosurgery charity ward and the most patients I had was 20 which stressed me out to the point that I transferred to ICU after 6 months. I transferred to Neurosurgery ICU and had 3-4 patients. I thought that was already bad then, what happened? did it get worse?

But that's not really my point. There is a distinct difference between working hard and barely taking care of your patients and thus, putting them at risk for unsafe nursing practice. Being a hard-worker and making sure everything that needs to be done for every single patient gets done should be your goal. If nurse to patient ratios, crazy schedules, and high patient acuity is getting in the way of this goal and is compromising safe and excellent nursing care, then working hard as you mentioned it is not worth anything. And trust me, I've heard Filipino nurses here complain when they're made to work hard.

Peace

All of the suggestions here are very good. I just hope that PNA and our government can do something about it. The plight of the nurses is the least of the priority of our government. It is a very difficult situation and since no agency will take action for our condition, as a struggling new nurse you will do everything just to get hired.

I already destroyed 2 pairs of shoes walking from one hospital (just imagine the whole stretch of Taft avenue, Manila)and to my dismay all of these hospitals are asking money for the "Basic Skills Training". It is not even a guarantee that you will be absorb by this hospitals.

I told myself that this is a clear case of exploitation and I won't be victim of it.

Now, its been a year since I refuse to pay these so called training fees. Until now I am not employed. Desperation will eventually sink-in, I volunteered my services at a government hospital for 3 months.

Right now I am helping in the family business, but that doesn't mean that I have stopped applying. I am now imploring all the help that I could get (prayers and people) to be hired.

You have all the brightest ideas here but without political will, nothing will change.

Nursing is a skill. If you remain dormant for some time you will eventually loose everything you learned and start from scratch. If one truly desires not to loose all these skills even in the worst scenario like here in the Philippines, you will do everything in your power: train for a fee, volunteer nursing services or enroll to training schools. This is what we do here.

So far, I really enjoyed my 3 months volunteer job at Caloocan. I am also applying as a medical transcriptionist. Should I be hired as one, I will find time to volunteer so that my nursing skills will not suffer. I rather volunteer my services for free than pay for the training. I don't know if this is the best option but this is what I am facing now.

To all the moderators and experts here, I know that you find most of our posts ridiculous or absurd but this is surviving for us. We want to be the best nurses and I believe most of us here really wanted a career as a nurse. Just like your popular TV show "SURVIVOR", you will do everything to be a nurse. Even if most of you here are discouraging us from going to US, we will not stop. We are taking this long shot towards our dreams and nothing will stop this. This is a game of chance and opportunity so its hard not to be in the arena and loose it all.

To all my fellow kababayan, just stay focused and know what you truly want. If you really want to be a nurse, fight neck and tooth to become one. Have a goal...to most of the US Nurses here working in the US is not possible right now so take other alternatives. But for others who already passed the nclex, ielts and are already petitoned by their employers, let us not stop praying!!! Look what prayers did for Manny Pacquiao!!! HEHEHE

God Bless us all

It's Philippine nursing programs now going to be 5 years. It doesn't seem to help going to school in the summer since the pass rate is so low.

What good is it if they're being instructed by new grads who have no idea about nursing other than what they've been taught? It's a shame because those schools who are good are going to be lumped into the same category as those who aren't so good...IMO it doesn't matter how long you go to school, what matters is the outcome...You have clinical instructors who don't have any clinical experience teaching students...If someone graduates from a school with clinical instructors with no experience shouldn't be allowed to sit for ANY board...They would be a hazard to the students and the patients...It's not the clinical instructors fault, it's the fault of the schools who are money hungry and the government who doesn't seem to give a darn...

I would ask the agencies that are recruiting in the Philippines to provide money for the training.

Ms Powers, I see you have a dream. That is good, I also see you have taken a medically related position, that is also good. You have to understand for the Americans our "dream" is fading away. Unfortunately as our dreams fade so do you dreams. I only hope all our dreams come true.