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Moving to Philippines next year

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eddyrams7
  11/29/2015 13:28 EST

i was wondering if anyone could guide me in the right direction. I am married to a Pinay girl for 8 years. she has her American citizenship. she wants to go back to the Philippines together for her to attend Nursing school there. we believe we would be in Philippines for 4-5 years. can anyone just get me started in right direction.i have no clue where to start..........do i need visa? will she need visa? is it a problem wanting to stay 4-5 years. i am sorry if i have posted wrong place but just please guide me to the right place

ron503
  11/29/2015 19:45 EST

I suggest to go to school in the United States. My wife, friend and cousin had all gone to nursing school in the Philippines, fast track education system royally sucks. All of them had a hard time passing the board exam in the US.

Good luck on your venture

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CAteacher
  11/29/2015 20:37 EST

As you know, the cost of nursing school is far, far less in the Philippines than in the U.S. The cost savings can make studying iin PI worthwhile. Keep in mind that the quality of the nursing school, both in the U.S. and in the Philippines, reflects in how difficult the exam will seem to the student.

Flopie133
  11/29/2015 21:52 EST

Hi, I am a recent retired nurse (Loyola/USA grad) so I will try to answer some of your questions:

1. Cost---Example, Loyola, a private Univ in Chicago, nursing tuition for Fall 2015 Entering Freshman is $20k/semester. Add sev thousand for books, THOUSANDS for the dorm, etc. Univ of Santo Tomas in Manila, a consistently high ranking Board Passer, P 50k Freshman--P87k Senior PER YEAR.
2. So, choice of school depends on where you will be living for proximity. Google the top ranking schools, same ones come up since 2009, they give you numbers of testers and passers. The top ranking schools usually have the hospitals readily available for their students for their practicum as a student has to have specified patient hours notched up to complete their semesters. Other schools have students scrambling and competing for hospital patients/spaces to fulfill their requirements.
3. Find out what is required of your choice(s) of school to attend--Entrance exams, interviews, prior credits. Some schools Entrance exams are rigorous.
4. Individual effort plays a great deal on how you pass the Boards. She is American...so understanding the language of the NCLEX test Should not be an issue. Plus, I would get yearly NCLEX study books from Amazon or Barnes and Noble to practice testing. Subscribe to American Journal of Nursing for America based practices.--Evidenced Based Practices is huge right now and students I had met from Korea said they dont have it in their country.
5. Sad to say but Nursing School just prepares you for A B and maybe C, or just your first day on the job. The rest of the alphabet you learn through on the job training, but definitely summer nursing aide jobs is a must to be comfortable dealing with patients. If in the Philippines, try to get into an internship program--this will be a huge plus as working experience in your resume, no matter what country, puts you ahead of other New Grad job applicants in the US.
6. She is Balikbayan, so if she just leaves the country once a year ( overnight in Honkong, let's say) and gets her US passport stamped comin n going, no need for a visa. Others will be able to tell you about the spousal visa information.

Flopie133
  11/29/2015 22:12 EST

Since location will be a factor, like living close to relatives, or in the provinces , research the top nursing schools in the area--their testers/passers per year; the hospitals their school is affiliated with and how they guarantee their students will get their practicum. I have heard of students traveling great distances to hospitals just to get their patient hours requirements.
Cost is a teeny weeny fraction of the US. Univ of Sto Tomas' tuition which I quoted, is one of the top in the country, and considered to be very expensive.

Flopie133
  11/29/2015 22:37 EST

Most importantly, BSN DEGREE is a MUST, not ADN Prep schools!!!!!!!! Most hospitals in Chicago just hire BSN grads and ADN grads, despite passing NCLEX are at a disadvantage (and hired only in the understanding that they are completing their BSN degree). Even BSN new grads in Chicago have to say they are "going back for their Master Degree" or Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Anesthetist, etc to show enthusiasm for their profession as there is a Huge push for Advanced degrees

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Flopie133
  11/29/2015 22:55 EST

My experience with new grads? --based on interviewing dozens of job applicants for positions in my ICU (we hire new grads as well as experienced RNs as it is so specialized that even seasoned RNs start out green). Also, did years of special individualized orientation for standout nursing students from various Chicago schools for their last semester prior to graduation--each actually spend about 2 months working with me as an ICU nurse.

BOBV
  11/29/2015 23:25 EST

Sorry to say but some of these schools do not have books, the children are photocopying pages to do there homework or studies.(you see a number of Xerox stores here, every time i see them i smile they do not even know Xerox is a company copyright. The few things i noticed when it comes to schooling the school students spends to much time doing the school gardening/clean up outside the school. Other times when all else fails.. the school has a parade. nice parade but the time should be better spend with education.
thank god they drink fortified milk for that second intelligence.....(dont complaint to me about this comment it come right from there tv commercials.)

Flopie133
  11/30/2015 00:31 EST

Also, look into your wife possibly getting her Dual Citizenship; much easier to do while you are there in the US. I saw some posting in the Internet from years back of the Philippine Boards not allowing you to take the Phil exam if you are a foreigner. The postings of whether you can just go ahead and take the US NCLEX without the Phil Board is also dated. I believe in the US, states have different requirements for foreign educated licensees. So, check with the Philippines Nursing Regulations Board as well as you US State Licensing Dept for the latest testing requirements--before you leave the US and before you commit to a school in the Phil.

poochewer
  11/30/2015 14:04 EST

Some people call a vacuum cleaner, a Hoover.

chance2014
  11/30/2015 16:10 EST

My mum used to 'hoover' the carpet. The hoover building on the western avenue going towards london is a listed building used to be the hoover factory now tesco supermarket. But the front of the building had to be preserved and restored. Built in the 1920's it a good example of architure of that period.
Another factory close by was the firestone factory but the developer demolished it before the authorities could stop him.
Just some useless information

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BOBV
  11/30/2015 16:31 EST

Hum your mom use to Hoover the carpet i use to hoover above people that can be annoying hehe

charkee
  11/30/2015 19:18 EST

This is true about students having to photocopy textbooks. Also the students must pay for all handouts and tests. The schools have a copier and teachers make a profit charging students for their copies. If they want cheaper copies then they go to one of the xerox businesses. Those businesses are full of students waiting in line. The students spend 12 hours a day in high school, (depending on the classes they take). I believe that is far too much time and when they arrive home they are brain dead. I teach piano and when I see a student brain dead, I ask if they want to skip the lesson and some just continue to plow through it but don't get much out of it. Like in the US schools they spend a lot of energy learning things that really don't pertain to reality or contribute to them being better or more productive citizens. I'd like to point out that TV program "do you know more than a 5th grader?". So many adults can't answer the questions and it is all forgotten because it is not pertinent to adult life. I'm more of a home schooling fan myself. I have relatives in the US that home school and their kids just do so much better and only spend 2 or 3 hours daily in instruction. When they started home schooling the changes in the children were dramatic and very positive.

CAspacecowboy
  11/30/2015 20:40 EST

Not sure if your wife is starting fresh, as 4 - 5 years for a BSN is more than enough time. Current 8Yr RN GF (US Naturalized Citizen) has ADN and will attend on-line college to have BSN is about 12 months in US. Also, she went on-line and prepared all necessary docs to go in early AM to SF PH embassy and by noon had her PH citizenship and passport. My last 2 cents is what is the goal here? Working in the US, staying in PH or??? The end goal, if the US can then have lead-ins off of the clinicals from schoo in the US. Cheers and good luck.

catabisis
  11/30/2015 20:54 EST

It is indeed true about copying books. I know a student who told me their professor charges 500p to copy a complete book. I asked how many students total take the class. They thought it was 200-300 students. That means each semester that professor makes between 100000p to 150000p.
I can also vouch for homeschooling too. From what I witnessed from others, the kids seemed more balanced, they enjoyed learning, and were more advanced. I knew a slew of them that read and knew math far beyond their years.

JPH
  12/1/2015 18:00 EST

As mentioned above, while the cost of tuition in the PH may well be much smaller than the US or EU, one's ability to use PH qualifications outside of the PH remains questionable due to the quality of teaching and subject-load.
Quiet often in the US when you enter the country and look for a job in your own industry you find you have to go back to University to -re-qualify in your subject due to your original degree-content even from standard EU Universities. In an area where the subject-content can change quickly from year-to-year ie. Nursing / Medical fields which require up-to-date modern knowledge and application it is very relevant to one's ability to become employed in that field.

You may be lucky and simply have to do 1 year for a US degree/re-qualification but this is a serious area to consider - 'cheaper' means exactly that so consider Course Accreditation, & the cost-benefit - job application for the subject area.

shootmedead
  12/1/2015 23:26 EST

Philippine nursing schools are not accreditated by the UsA.
Her diploma from the feelippines is not worth the paper it is written on
STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

CAteacher
  12/1/2015 23:35 EST

One becomes an RN, at least in California, by taking an examination - not unlike the bar exam for Lawyers. Students who graduate from the better schools in the Philippines stand a good chance of passing the exam. Last time I was in the hospital, more than half the night crew were Filipinas. In this case, what Flopie (an RN from Chicago with decades of experience) has written represent the facts of the matter.

charkee
  12/2/2015 00:02 EST

One of my daughters is good friends with a nurse that was schooled in the Phils. She passed the exam and had a job in California within the week.

BOBV
  12/2/2015 00:34 EST

i know some that paid for a degree without any schooling who said their minds are void they are alway thinking

Flopie133
  12/2/2015 03:34 EST

More than half of the ICUs and StepDown Units in the hospitals I have seen in Chicago, are Filipinas and most were Phil trained. The biggest impediment with getting a job there was GETTING INTO THE US. Most arrived through jobs from the Middle East. eddyram's wife is a US citizen, one hurdle already knocked over.

standupguy
  12/2/2015 05:14 EST

Flopie - I have been told that it is much easier to get a visa from a US or Canadian Embassy in a country other than the Philippines.

charkee
  12/2/2015 08:07 EST

I'm thinking of a great math teacher I had in the public school in California. It was discovered he had a diploma mill degree and he was using it to blackmail the principle for not checking him out. Hehehe, but he was a good math teacher.

poochewer
  12/5/2015 00:41 EST

Allow me to assist you with the tip of my size 9 boot. Take off!

Spectre13
  12/5/2015 05:49 EST

Have your wife get dual citizenship. Then you can come over for a 1-year period without renewing your visa every 30 days.

Flopie133
  12/5/2015 17:34 EST

The dual citizenship is for the wife to do it before she goes to the Philippines for 4-5 years, and then to take the Phil Boards--there had been issues of the Phil Boards refusing foreigners to take the test despite schooling here. And then, Illinois, for one, would not allow you to take the US Board unless you have a Phil License.

Spectre13
  12/5/2015 20:35 EST

Yes, the "returning Filipina," but having dual citizenship helps greatly on returning trips to US and other places.

standupguy
  12/5/2015 21:23 EST

spectre - add to what PC has said, bring your Marriage Certificate (the NSO one best). They asked to see ours.

standupguy
  12/5/2015 23:10 EST

spec - Permanent Residency is good enough. Citizenship is better.

louisbecke
  12/6/2015 01:00 EST

Spectre13,

If your wife is now a U.S. citizen make sure she travels on her U.S. passport. We have had some women who became U.S. citizens then try to travel on their Filipino passport and end up getting stuck here and in trouble with U.S. Immigration.

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