Why do so many nurses from the Philippines come to Canada/USA?

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I hope nobody takes offense to this question because I certainly don't mean it in any negative way.

I am just wondering why so many nurses from the Philippines are coming to Canada and the USA? I always thought the Philippines was supposed to be a beautiful place? Why does it seem everyone wants to leave it? It seems to be the most common country to see foreign nurses from here in Canada (west coast). Why don't they want to stay in their home country? I love visiting other countries but I don't think I would want to go through the hassle of permanantly relocating to another country. I know I am probably being really naive here but I have always been curious about this. Here in Vancouver BC I think I work with more Phillipino nurses than fellow Canadians. Frankly its kinda sad considering how many Canadians are out of work...

Specializes in ER.
another input.. before any filipino nurse gets accepted to a nursing job in either canada, UK or US, they undergo and pass all the necessary examinations for practicing the profession legally. it means that filipino nurses are comparable with nurses educated in either canada, UK or US.

Not entirely true : )

Filipino nurse training is actually better in many ways than that of the UK.

UK nurses train in only one area, adult, kids, mental health or maternity.

In order to take the NCLEX or other foreign exam, they have to complete training in the other three areas just to be eligible. Their training also has far less Pharmacology and biochemistry content.

As a UK trained nurse, I can see huge differences in standards between UK and Filipino nurses that I work with.

And its far easier for a Filipino nurse to approach NCLEX than a UK one, their training is pretty much aligned to the US one. When I took NCLEX, I don't know how I would have done it without my wonderful Filipino team all studying with me on the night shift! Thanks guys!!

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Not entirely true : )

Filipino nurse training is actually better in many ways than that of the UK.

UK nurses train in only one area, adult, kids, mental health or maternity.

In order to take the NCLEX or other foreign exam, they have to complete training in the other three areas just to be eligible. Their training also has far less Pharmacology and biochemistry content.

As a UK trained nurse, I can see huge differences in standards between UK and Filipino nurses that I work with.

And its far easier for a Filipino nurse to approach NCLEX than a UK one, their training is pretty much aligned to the US one. When I took NCLEX, I don't know how I would have done it without my wonderful Filipino team all studying with me on the night shift! Thanks guys!!

I would respectfully disagree

UK training is different now to how it was a few years ago, some universities do cover all areas and some nurses have not had to make up any hours to meet US or Canada requirements. Training is different and doesn't mean any other country is better. Each has their own requirements on how they want their nurses trained

Specializes in ER.

You obviously haven't met my current students : )

We have final placemnt students, who are about to qualifiy.

They have never heard of the GLasgow Coma Scale.

OR that there are other antibiotics besides penicillins.

Never heard of supra-pubic catheters.

Or how to measure blood glucose.

What is an arterial blood gas?

One had not even heard of Multiple sclerosis.

Their essay skills are second to none, but nursing is not a creative writing type occupation. Patients want to know that they know about analgesia, not about plagarism and learning styles.

These students are in the greater London area btw.

I'm here until October, come see for yourself: )

Not entirely true : )

Filipino nurse training is actually better in many ways than that of the UK.

UK nurses train in only one area, adult, kids, mental health or maternity.

In order to take the NCLEX or other foreign exam, they have to complete training in the other three areas just to be eligible. Their training also has far less Pharmacology and biochemistry content.

As a UK trained nurse, I can see huge differences in standards between UK and Filipino nurses that I work with.

And its far easier for a Filipino nurse to approach NCLEX than a UK one, their training is pretty much aligned to the US one. When I took NCLEX, I don't know how I would have done it without my wonderful Filipino team all studying with me on the night shift! Thanks guys!!

The fact that the US and UK use different models of nursing education doesn't mean one is better than the other. The fact that Filipino nurses are trained in the US model rather than the UK model doesn't mean that they get "better" education than UK nurses. It just means that they regard the US as a more desirable "export" destination than the UK ...

Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Infection Control.
Wow you have no idea how offshore call centers are viewed here in

Australia.......very poor English skills can never understand them and things are never fixed up y them.

Overseas call centers are the biggest source of complaints for upr phone companies...having call centers is not a recommendation for good English skills, but shows cheap,scab labour with no unions.

If it really cause that much dissatisfaction I think I'll start seeing that industry collapse. Make me believe it.

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
You obviously haven't met my current students : )

We have final placemnt students, who are about to qualifiy.

They have never heard of the GLasgow Coma Scale.

OR that there are other antibiotics besides penicillins.

Never heard of supra-pubic catheters.

Or how to measure blood glucose.

What is an arterial blood gas?

One had not even heard of Multiple sclerosis.

Their essay skills are second to none, but nursing is not a creative writing type occupation. Patients want to know that they know about analgesia, not about plagarism and learning styles.

These students are in the greater London area btw.

I'm here until October, come see for yourself: )

Supra pubic catheter, well not everyone sees them, I know I didn't see one until after I was qualified. If they don't know how to monitor blood glucose then their placement is lacking. I know where I worked up north the students to the most part was well trained and aware of basic nursing needs and how to perform basic nursing actions.

If this is the case with students you are seeing then it is up to you to bring this to the attention of the tutors.

Specializes in ER.

"Bring this to the attention of the tutors" -

No offence, but we have been doing that for years !!!!!!! :eek::crying2::crying2:

Nothing changes, we still see final placement students with the knowledge and skills that I consider appropriate for a first year student. :mad:

They qualify about 2 months after this placements. I would never want any of them looking after my family. My son was in hospital just this week, and I could not fault the care the (filipino) team gave him, it was nursing at its finest.:nurse:

Sorry, but that is how it is. Come and see! :lol2:

My cousins went back to the Philippines to study for a BSN and they had a poor clinical rotation. One of my cousins was quite disappointed because she was expecting a better education and felt she wasn't well prepared when she came back to the States. My other cousin doesn't care that her education was poor. All she cared about was getting her license in CA and working as a nurse.

Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.
Not entirely true : )

Filipino nurse training is actually better in many ways than that of the UK.

UK nurses train in only one area, adult, kids, mental health or maternity.

In order to take the NCLEX or other foreign exam, they have to complete training in the other three areas just to be eligible. Their training also has far less Pharmacology and biochemistry content.

As a UK trained nurse, I can see huge differences in standards between UK and Filipino nurses that I work with.

And its far easier for a Filipino nurse to approach NCLEX than a UK one, their training is pretty much aligned to the US one. When I took NCLEX, I don't know how I would have done it without my wonderful Filipino team all studying with me on the night shift! Thanks guys!!

Your off topic but your continual insults to UK nursing is getting somewhat tiresome so I am going to respond

UK nurse education teaches students to nurse in the UK not the US, why on earth would they want to study to pass the NCLEX when it has no relevance

You obviously haven't met my current students : )

We have final placemnt students, who are about to qualifiy.

They have never heard of the GLasgow Coma Scale.

OR that there are other antibiotics besides penicillins.

Never heard of supra-pubic catheters.

Or how to measure blood glucose.

What is an arterial blood gas?

One had not even heard of Multiple sclerosis.

Their essay skills are second to none, but nursing is not a creative writing type occupation. Patients want to know that they know about analgesia, not about plagarism and learning styles.

These students are in the greater London area btw.

I'm here until October, come see for yourself: )

Nursing in the UK is hard enough without constant negativity from colleagues, mentors and peers. I have had the pleasure of working with some excellent nursing students and have been on the receiving end of care from fantastic UK nurses both as a patient and as a grieving relative. You make it clear in your posts that you desire to leave the UK and how much you hate UK nursing and nurses, I have yet to see a positive comment from you and I find it exceptionally difficult to believe in all of your years of experience you have not found even 1 UK nurse who has impressed you.

I wonder how these terrible students manage to pass, after all it's the clinical teams and the sign off mentors that have the responsibility for educating and confirming their fitness to practice, are you failing these students as a sign off mentor or are you guilty of passing them even though you are so critical of their practice. Additionally if you have such great concerns that your local nursing school is failing to turn out nurses who are fit to practice then you have a professional duty to report this to the school and if they are still passing these would need need to the NMC as the school is not doing it's job. But then you would need significant evidence to prove your claims wouldn't you.

Anyway, as I said this is off topic so shall we get back to the original question about why so many nurses from the Philippines want to work in other countries. If you want to discuss the state of nurse education in the UK I suggest you start another thread in the appropriate forum

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
The fact that Filipino nurses are trained in the US model rather than the UK model doesn't mean that they get "better" education than UK nurses. It just means that they regard the US as a more desirable "export" destination than the UK ...

Elkpark, with all due respect, while it does seem like the officials of the Phillippine government tend to "pimp" their nurses for export to the highest bidder (and in this case, the US), nursing in the Philippines, from a historical context, have always followed an American persuasion.

While the Spanish did build hospitals in the Philippines for 400 years of colonial rule, the earliest beginnings of modern public health practices where introduced to the Philippines by the Americans after the US acquired the Philippine Islands when Spain was defeated during the Spanish-American war. The first modern hospitals were built by Americans - Philippine General Hospital (built by Forbes, an American Governor-General of the Islands in 1907), St. Luke's Hospital (built by Episcopalian Americans in 1907), Mary Johnston Hospital (built by American Methodist missionaries in 1907), Mary Chiles Hospital (built by an American physician Dr. Lemon and built from funds from its namesake, a woman from Montana).

These hospitals were homes to one of the first professional schools of nursing in the Philippines. They definitely followed the American tradition of modern public health and taught nurses using an American curriculum. The early nurse educators there were American nurses. Similarly, the first BSN programs began in the 1940's in three of Manila's universities, the same time most American universities adopted a university-based program of training for nurses.

This parallels the way, Hong Kong, India, and the other British commonwealth territories and countries in Asia follow a British system of nurse training because of their history.

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
If it really cause that much dissatisfaction I think I'll start seeing that industry collapse. Make me believe it.

The entire call center industry does not give a hoot with customer dissatisfaction. It's a well known fact here in the US (and apparently in Australia too) that people hate calling for technical support for anything and then getting someone on the other end who has a thick Indian or Filipino accent you couldn't understand. There's been numerous jokes about it on popular media. Is it going stop? No, not until greedy corporations miraculously make a sacrifice for the good of providing decent paying jobs for Americans instead of hiring cheap labor overseas. Americans have lost their say on this, unfortunately.

I know this is off topic, but since you brought it up....

Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Infection Control.
The entire call center industry does not give a hoot with customer dissatisfaction. It's a well known fact here in the US (and apparently in Australia too) that people hate calling for technical support for anything and then getting someone on the other end who has a thick Indian or Filipino accent you couldn't understand. There's been numerous jokes about it on popular media. Is it going stop? No, not until greedy corporations miraculously make a sacrifice for the good of providing decent paying jobs for Americans instead of hiring cheap labor overseas. Americans have lost their say on this, unfortunately.

I know this is off topic, but since you brought it up....

Why can't they move those call centers to other countries with low cost of manpower? I'm pretty sure Philippines and India are not the only countries with that standard of labor pay....Get it? Exactly my point!

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