NurseReview.Org

Fewer Pinoy nurses seek jobs in US

2009-11-05T02:57:00.002+08:00

MANILA –Joblessness in the US could be a reason why the number of Filipino nurses taking the United States national licensure examinations decreased, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said on Thursday.

"The confidence of foreign workers in America’s economic supremacy has clearly been shaken by the staggering job losses there," TUCP secretary general Ernesto Herrera said in a press statement.

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Some Pinoy nurses no longer seek US jobs

2009-11-03T07:55:00.000+08:00

According to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the number of nurses who indicated their desire to look for US jobs plunged by 21.38 percent in the past nine months this year.

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Filipino Nurses in Canada: In Search of a Better Life

2009-11-02T14:55:00.000+08:00

In this interview, Evelyn Calugay, a veteran Filipino nurse in Canada, shares her experience when she decided to move to Canada. She also shares her opinion about Canadian policies that are detrimental to foreign-trained nurses.

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Japan hiring more nurses, caregivers

2009-10-23T08:13:00.000+08:00

TOKYO, Japan --The Japanese government said the arrival of the second batch of Filipino nurses and caregivers is expected by next year under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) on the Movement of Natural Persons.

In an interview following a briefing to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) journalists here, Kazuhiko Shimizu, deputy director for Second Southeast Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), disclosed that the Japanese government is currently discussing the details with the Philippine government on the dispatch of the second batch of Filipino nurses and caregivers under the JPEPA.

The Second Southeast Asia Division at the MOFA, of which Shimizu is deputy director, includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. The other group consisting of five ASEAN countries is headed by the First Southeast Asia Division deputy director Takuma Sakaguchi.

“The next batch is coming next year. We’re now starting the discussions with the Philippine government,” Shimizu said.

Shimizu disclosed that the first batch of caregivers had already started their training in Japan. Thirty Filipino candidate caregivers were sent to Japan last Sept. 27.

“The first batch arrived just recently. They are now starting their training in Japanese hospitals,” he said.

Under the agreement, Filipino nurses and caregivers have to take a two- to four-year school course in Japan. They must also pass the licensure examination to be certified careworkers in Japan.

Aside from hospital training, the Filipino health workers are required to undergo Japanese language training courses for six months.

SOURCE: MANILA BULLETIN

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Singing Pinoy Nurse

2009-10-21T08:09:00.002+08:00

Could a hospital using an unconventional tool to help its patients feel better. Filipino Dominic Limpin is a dialysis nurse who had been working in New York City. After having Traumatic stress Disorder because of the September 11 terrorist attack, he signed on with a company that sends him around the country. As a traveling nurse, he helps hospitals fill empty shifts with his UNIQUE NURSING STYLE.

Dominic may be a little modest about his musical abilities. He performed with a choir that sang with the Philharmonic in New York City. He says he’ll do anything to get patients’ minds off their ailments. He does what Medicine sometimes can’t. So maybe it’s not the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down as much as the song itself.

http://thepinoy.net/?p=4212

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7 Pinoy nurses win case vs Sentosa in NLRC

2009-10-19T08:08:00.000+08:00

CHICAGO – Seven of the 31 Filipino nurses in New York who got embroiled in a labor dispute with their recruitment agent SentosaCare LLC won the case they earlier filed with the National Labor Recruitment Commission (NLRC) in Manila.

A decision by a three-member panel headed by NLRC presiding commissioner Gerardo C. Nograles awarded the seven nurses the “unexpired portion of their basic salaries" totaling $186,000, saying the nurses were “constructively dismissed" from their jobs.

The panel dismissed the claims of 18 others on grounds that they failed to produce a “quantum of evidence."

The ruling, which was handed down last Sept. 25 but made public only on Oct. 13, reversed an earlier ruling of executive labor arbiter Fatima Jambato-Franco that dismissed the case on January 24, 2008.

Rico Foz, executive vice president of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (Nafcon), declared the ruling as a “victory for the nurses, as the decision now finds wrongdoing on the part of the Sentosa employers."

"But let us not lower down our guard. Justice has not been truly served yet by this decision. While it is an improvement on how Philippine labor agencies look at the nurses’ complaints, the decision merely throws bones to the nurses and to all of us who support the nurses," he said.

Nafcon is one of the lead convenors of the campaign launched in the US in 2006 to help the nurses from exploitation and threats by their employers.

The nurses who won the case are Maria Theresa Ramos, Jennifer Lampa, Carlo Conrad Garcia, Rizza P. Maulion, Riche P. Salve, Annabelle Capulong and Maria Consuelo Gonzales.

They were former nurses at Avalon Gardens Nursing Home in Long Island, New York, who resigned from their positions as contract nurses with the SentosaCare LLC.

The nurses had earlier requested for legal assistance from the Philippine Consulate relative to their “working conditions, difficult working relationship with administration, delayed/underpayment payment of salaries and other benefits" that deprived them to send “money to their dependents in the Philippines" and their piling bills.

As noted by the NLRC panel, instead of acting on the workers’ complaints, the employers threatened to file suits against them before the US Courts for abandoning their jobs and endangering their patients.

“The delayed salaries and diminution in pay, coupled with the uncaring and indifferent attitude on the part of the respondents, brought about the feeling of oppression and created on adverse working environment, making it unacceptable for the employees to continue working for respondents," said the panel’s ruling.

Because the respondents led by Sentosa were in “substantial breach in their employment contracts" as the employees “demands for money claims were duly substantiated," the employees are “entitled to the full reimbursement of his placement fee with interest, plus the salaries corresponding to the unexpired portion" of their contract or for “three months for every year of the unexpired term, whichever is less," said the ruling, citing “The Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995."

Background of the case

The labor dispute started when Sentosa supposedly failed to fulfill its commitment to let the nurses work in specific nursing homes in the US. The nurses complained that upon their arrival in New York, they found out that they were made to work for an employment agency and received less than what was stipulated in their contracts.

When their complaints were ignored, 55 nurses resigned from the Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in April 2006, but many of them returned to work for fear of paying a $25,000-fine to Sentosa.

Ten of the nurses, however, refused to budge and were charged by Sentosa before a New York court.

On January 13,2009, however, the New York court dismissed the case against the nurses, saying they were “threatened with prosecution for crimes for which they cannot constitutionally be tried." - GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/174587/7-pinoy-nurses-win-case-vs-sentosa-in-nlrc

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Nov 2009 Nursing Board Exam Update

2009-10-10T05:00:00.002+08:00

The PRC reminds first time examinees that the deadlines in filing for the November 2009 Nursing Board Exam will be on October 16,2009 (Friday).

If you are in Hong Kong and you dont have a PRC Nursing Licence yet, your in luck because as reported by the Saudi Gazette, there will be a special nursing examination there for filipinos who dont have a nursing license yet.

To keep posted with regards to the November 2009 Nursing Board Examination and to get the latest updates, kindly subscribe. We deliver news to your email.

If you have any comments and suggestions or questions regarding the November 2009 Nursing Board Exams, kindly comment below and I will try to answer them as soon as I can.

Good luck to those nurses who will be taking the Nov 2009 NLE.

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UK envoy: Employ RP nurses at home first

2009-10-06T07:56:00.002+08:00

Before the Philippines could start sending out Filipino health care workers in droves abroad, it should first begin populating its hospitals with nurses.

The current surplus in Filipino nurses should be used by the government to care for its own people, said newly installed British Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Lillie.

“You have a lot of nurses in the Philippines but there are some parts of the Philippines that do not have nurses," Lillie said on Thursday.

Although the British government is proud that its health care system has Filipino nurses, Lillie said the UK would eventually want to be self-sustaining.

There are about 250,000 Filipinos staying in the United Kingdom, most of whom are working in the health care industry.

Aside from the promise of more than 20 times the salary for nurses in the Philippines, Filipino nurses are often lured to work in the UK in hopes of petitioning their families to live with them there.

But Lillie said the UK is not like Canada or Australia which encourages immigration of foreign workers and their families.

“We want our health care service to be self-sustaining," he added.

Since 2005, the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) noted that the demand for Filipino nurses in countries like the UK, US, and Canada have already reached their quotas, causing thousands of fresh graduates to cease finding employment overseas.

The number of unemployed Filipino nurses was estimated at 400,000 in 2008.

Then PNA National President Leah Primitiva Samaco-Paquiz said the perceived oversupply of nurses is really caused by the inability of Philippine hospitals to create additional plantilla positions for fresh graduates.

Back to the barangay

To absorb the surplus of Filipino nurses, the government created a program to send them to hospitals in rural areas for training.

Under the Nurses Assigned in Rural Areas (NARS) program, which the British government has also been supporting, unemployed nurses will be made to return to their hometowns for a six-month tour of duty and will be given P8,000 a month as stipend or allowance. (For more information click on the Department of Labor and Employment’s website)

But Jackson Gan, vice president of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, said the program only addresses the temporary employment of nurses but it would not make them attractive abroad. [See: NARS won't make RP nurses attractive abroad]

“Trained nurses in specialty areas like surgical wards, burn ICU (Intensive Care Unit), neo-natal ICU, cardiac cath lab, nursery nurses, pedia, cardio-vascular, emergency, therapy, and clinical wards, which are in demand in the Middle East and Western countries like the USA, UK, Australia and Canada," Gan said.

He said funds for the NARS program should be diverted instead to the improvement of government hospital facilities in both rural and urban areas “so that more nurses can be hired in those areas and accumulate the training needed for work abroad." - GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/173054/uk-envoy-employ-rp-nurses-at-home-first

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Nurses urged to invest in healthcare services

2009-10-05T04:56:00.000+08:00

By PHOEBE JEN INDINO
September 28, 2009, 8:41pm

CEBU CITY – Given the over-supply of registered nurses in the country currently, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) is urging nurses to explore other options relevant to their profession such as investing in home healthcare services through cooperatives and associations.

“Nurses should start thinking of being entrepreneurs,” underlined DoLE Undersecretary Carmelita Pineda during the culmination of the first batch of nurses participating in the Nurses Assigned in Rural Service (NARS) project in this city.

Pineda, in her speech, said nurses can go beyond being mere employees of hospitals, clinics and health units. “They can organize themselves into associations and cooperatives to set up home healthcare services, birthing places, or health facilities for older people among various other similar possibilities,” she urged.

The DoLE official added that while waiting for a chance to be employed overseas, nurses can venture into and already start income generating projects.

However, she admitted that the high demand for nurses abroad is a really attractive career to pursue because of its obvious economic returns.

Meanwhile, Pineda disclosed that the continuing demand for Filipino nurses overseas is expected to intensify, as the world’s northern countries experience longer lifespans and the graying of their population in the next five to ten years is sure to see the deployment of local nurses.

“Countries that will continue to offer employment opportunities include the Gulf States in the Middle East such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman,” she said.

Further, European countries including the United Kingdom and Ireland will also continue hiring Filipino nurses, even as new markets are emerging in Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Netherlands.

Canada, too, is a new market, while Australia and New Zealand likewise offer job opportunities for nurses.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/222455/nurses-urged-invest-healthcare-services

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Hospital looks abroad for sixty nurses

2009-10-03T12:56:00.002+08:00

Last updated: 9/26/2009 12:00:00 PM

SIXTY nurses are being brought over from the Philippines to work in Colchester's main hospital due to a shortage of appropriate healthcare staff in the UK.

A total of 80 additional nurses have already been hired by the Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust which is increasing the number of its beds this winter.

But due to problems attracting qualified and experienced nurses in the UK the trust sent staff to the Philippines to try and recruit more nurses there.

In total, the trust is currently looking to hire about 130 healthcare staff, with the biggest gaps in specialist medicine.

Yesterday, a spokesman said: “We went over to the Philippines in the early summer and recruited 60 Filipino nurses.

“The reason for choosing the Philippines was that we had recruited from there before about five years ago and it worked very well, both in terms of the quality of work and the retention figures.”

The spokesman added that hiring staff from the Philippines was approved by the Department of Health and that the first 15 staff would be taking up their positions in November.

“There is a national problem with recruiting experienced and qualified nurses staff in the UK - there just are not enough.

“We are very successful at recruiting healthcare assistants from the community and that is not proving a problem.

“However, in common with lots of other hospitals, we are not finding it easy to recruit experienced staff at a reasonably senior level from the UK.”

The spokesman added that by March next year the trust hoped to have a full complement of staff.

He added that the hospital had recently set up a peripatetic nursing team that was able to swiftly plug any staff gaps that arose in various medical fields.

http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=xDefault&itemid=IPED25%20Sep%202009%2023%3A20%3A40%3A437

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Implanted tooth helps blind US woman recover sight

2009-10-03T08:34:00.002+08:00

MIAMI (AFP) – A 60-year-old US grandmother, blind for nearly a decade, has recovered her sight after surgeons implanted a tooth in her eye as a base to hold a tiny plastic lens, her doctors said.

Sharron "Kay" Thornton, from the southern US state of Mississippi, lost her sight in 2000 when she came down with a case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare disease that scarred her cornea, according to the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.

For patients whose bodies reject a transplanted or artificial cornea, this procedure "implants the patient's tooth in the eye to anchor a prosthetic lens and restore vision," said Thornton's surgeon Victor Perez.

In the procedure -- which was pioneered in Italy but was a first in the United States -- the medical team extracted Thornton's canine or "eyetooth" and surrounding bone, shaved and sculpted it, and drilled a hole into it to insert an optical cylinder lens.

"We take sight for granted, not realizing that it can be lost at any moment," the grateful patient said. "This truly is a miracle."

She said people should imagine what it is like "if you could keep your eyes closed just for one week... it's amazing what you see when you open your eyes again."

The tooth and the lens were implanted under the patient's skin in the cheek or shoulder for two months so they could bond, then they were carefully implanted in the center of the eye after a series of procedures to prepare the socket.

"A hole is made in the mucosa for the prosthetic lens, which protrudes slightly from the eye and enables light to re-enter the eye allowing the patient to see once again," read an Eye Institute statement.

Following a series of operations, medical personnel removed the bandages from Thornton's eyes two weeks ago.

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SafetyNet Monitoring System Keeps an Eye on Wards of Patients

2009-10-02T08:30:00.006+08:00

While surfing the web, I came across this article that I would like to share with you guys just to keep you up to date with the latest technologies. Enjoy!

Masimo is releasing a new version of the firm's popular SafetyNet™ remote monitoring system. According to the company, the system can provide continuous pulse oximetry readings from up to eighty patients on four separate hospital floors. The technology aims to decrease respiratory-related adverse events in a high risk population, such as post-surgical patients on the general care floor, patients with obstructive sleep apnea, and those who are on narcotic analgesics. Using internal pagers or interfacing with other messaging systems, the central server can notify clinicians if a patient requires prompt attention.

The Masimo Patient SafetyNet remote monitoring and clinician notification system combines the gold standard performance of Masimo SET® pulse oximetry with optional Oridion Microstream® end tidal CO2-based respiration rate monitoring at the point of care and wireless clinician notification via pager to provide an unmatched level of patient safety on general care floors. The system uses IEEE industry standards for connectivity—allowing for more efficient sharing of data across a hospital's IT platforms and the option of full integration into a hospital's existing IT infrastructure, providing a lower overall cost of ownership and improved financial benefits.

The new Patient SafetyNet system is already having a big impact on both nurses and post-surgical patients for two hospitals involved in limited market release testing. Marilyn Nemerever, R.N., director of Acute Care at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, where the new system is being used to monitor patients in three separate post-surgical units at three different hospitals from a single central monitoring station, stated "We love it. ICU beds are in high demand these days and Patient SafetyNet allows us to more closely monitor post-surgical patients in our med-surg units, so we can use our ICU resources more appropriately. Our nurses now have the piece of mind that comes with knowing that Patient SafetyNet is helping watch over their patients if and when they cannot. And our patients are having better outcomes because we can see, as well as respond to changes earlier."

Clinicians at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who found that Patient SafetyNet reduced rescue activations by 65% and ICU transfers by 48%—while in some patients where ICU transfer was avoided, length of stay was also reduced from 5.8 to 3.6 days with an associated cost of care reduction of 30%, have also embraced the capabilities of the new Patient SafetyNet system. George T. Blike, M.D., Medical Director of Patient Safety at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, stated; "The new system enhancements allow us to see real-time numerics for each patient at a glance, while the ability to monitor more patients on a single server will enable us to deploy the system across more care areas than before to reduce overall costs of implementation."

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2009/09/safetynet_monitoring_system_keeps_an_eye_on_wards_of_patients.html

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Inspiring Story: My Stroke of Insight

2009-09-30T03:05:00.000+08:00

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

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Health care firm offers jobs to ‘surplus’ nurses

2009-09-29T08:27:00.003+08:00

FILIPINOS’ HOSPITALITY, along with the abundant supply of licensed nurses, have pushed a Singapore-based medical tourism hub to set up the first health care knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) facilities in the country.

"The Philippines has an abundant call center and human resources while the Filipinos have the necessary language skill and are known globally for their emphatic and caring nature," Geoff Spiller, managing director of Life Stage Communication, said in a press briefing yesterday.

Life Stage Communication is the local unit of Singapore-based Fly Free Health Group of Companies, which is said to have provided the world’s first comprehensive business-to-customer and business-to-business medical tourism hub, which is a one-stop destination where health, travel, leisure and lifestyle converge.

This is our free preview of this article.

To enjoy reading the story in full, please log in to Codex. Or, if you are not yet a subscriber, please subscribe now to get complete access to Philippine business news daily from BusinessWorld.

Article copyright NurseReview.org - #1 source of information to update nurses all over the world. All rights reserved. No part of an article may be reproduced without the prior permission.

NLE / Nclex Mp3 Nursing Lectures Download

2009-09-27T07:45:00.000+08:00

Mp3 Nursing Lectures Download

I know that this list of mp3 downloadable nursing lectures is already posted over the right lower corner of the site. The site is jam packed with notes, lectures, practice test, etc., I decided to re-post past articles that I find essential in passing your exams. If you can just find time to browse the site, you will find alot of information to help you pass this November 2009 Nursing Licensure Exams NLE, Nclex Exams, IETLS Exams and CGFNS Exams.

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In US, Filipino Men Stay Home as Nurse-Wives Work

2009-09-26T20:12:00.006+08:00

New America Media, News Feature, Anthony Advincula ,
Posted: Sep 21, 2009 Review it on NewsTrust

BAYSIDE, NY — Back in her native Philippines, Rosette de Real, was a full-time mom and housewife. Most of the time, she stayed at home, cooked meals, washed and ironed clothes, and took care of their two young children. Her husband, Ronaldo, worked to provide for their family.

In a tradition-bound, patriarchal culture, Rosette described their gender roles as typical in most Filipino families. She was the homemaker and her husband was expected to be the breadwinner.

“Before he was the ‘boss’,” Rosette, 33, said jokingly in Tagalog. “It just happened naturally,”.

But since they immigrated to the United States in 2006, there has been a dramatic reversal in those roles. Rosette is now a registered nurse who works for a nursing home, while her husband Ronaldo has been managing the household chores.

Although the shift seemed inevitable because Rosette has a more stable and high-paying job, their decision on who should work and who should staying at home when they got to this country, didn’t happen spontaneously. It took them some rigorous planning and many long conversations.

“We discussed everything about it — even when we were still in the Philippines,” she said. “We certainly weighed all the options that we got.”

Ronaldo, 40, who was standing next to her and getting ready to head out and pick up their eight-year-old daughter from school, agreed and listened silently.

Rosette came to the United States first to make sure she had a job waiting for her, passed the NCLEX – the nursing licensing examination – and finalized a one-year contract with her previous employer. Six months later, as soon as she got settled, her husband and kids joined her in the United States.

“Of course, the transition from a working to a stay-at-home father was difficult for me,” Ronaldo recalled in a soft-spoken voice. “I was so used to working every day that my body had desired so much for it.”

At first he struggled and, despite their agreement, he worked for Chrysler while Rosette got a job on the graveyard shift and took care of the kids during the daytime. They ruled out the option of getting a babysitter because they were concerned that the money they earn would only go to the babysitter’s wages.

While it put him back on his usual work routine, Ronaldo felt sorry that his wife never had time to rest and do things for herself. He then gave up his job and became a full-time house dad.

“They are my kids, now three of them. I have to sacrifice. If we were still in the Philippines, it would have been easier to get a nanny, or the grandma of my kids could always take care of them. But things are different here,” he said.

The shift in gender roles that the De Reals are experiencing is not uncommon among Filipino couples, especially those who have settled on the East Coast, and most often the female spouse works as a nurse. While the data is largely anecdotal, many from the Filipino community say the number of such cases is significant.

Clarita Ramos, a waitress in a small Filipino restaurant on West Side Avenue in Jersey City, N.J., said a group of Filipino men who are mostly married to Filipina nurses would often hang out early in the afternoon for snack.

Before the clock strikes 3 p.m., they would go their separate ways, Ramos observed. Some of these men, she added, would walk to a nearby school to pick up their kids, and others would most likely head home and drive their nurse wives to a hospital or a nursing home for another long night shift.

“There is an oft-repeated joke among Filipinos here that if you meet a Filipino man at the grocery store with kids in tow, especially in the middle of a working day, and you ask him what does he for a living, the common reply will be, ‘My wife is a nurse,'” said Narna Macasaet, a Filipina immigrant.

Macasaet, who had a tourism degree, went back to the Philippines last year with her daughter, then two years old, and took several nursing courses there. She now is preparing for the U.S. licensing examination for nurses.

Some experts say this role reversal is not only happening among Filipinos, but in many other immigrant communities as well. These immigrant women, who have become the sole providers for their families in the United States, broke the traditional family roles.

“Immigrants, including women, are expected to serve and make money, so I am not surprised about this role reversal,” said Prof. Gary Okihiro, who teaches for the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Columbia University.

A recently released New America Media poll, “Women Immigrants: Stewards of the 21st Century Family,” reiterates that many of these women are radically altering their roles in their private lives.

“While few may have fit the image of submissive women in their home countries to begin with, almost one-third report having assumed head-of-household responsibilities now that they are here and share equally with their husbands in making decisions from household finances to more intimate concerns, like family planning,” pollster Sergio Bendixen said in the report.

As women have "left" the village, the report states, they have also brought the village with them.

While it is a manifestation of a “good adaptation” process into mainstream U.S. society and “a depiction of the universal values of equality between men and women,” Okihiro believes that “it could also be dysfunctional.”

“Men can be offended. Unfortunately, when they lose their self-esteem, it can result in spousal abuse,” he said, noting several studies showing high rates of domestic violence among South Asian working women whose husbands react negatively to the role reversals.

Lafayette Caliolio, a Filipino immigrant who resides in New Brunswick, N.J., concurred. Men who are compelled to stay at home must deal with their own cultural stereotypes, he said.

“Personally, as a man, I think it is degrading to stay at home while my wife is working. And, just by thinking of it, boredom will make me crazy,” Caliolio, 40, said in a mixture of Tagalog and English.

Lafayette and his wife, Ruth, work as nurses in Flushing, N.Y. They both take the night shift and stay at home with their two kids, 14 and six years old, during the day. When it is time for them to go to work at night, a babysitter takes care of their kids.

But Ruth, 41, prefers that one of them stay at home.

“It is not practical. Because both of us are working, we pay higher taxes, and the quality of time that we spend with our children is being compromised,” she said. “But if we work together, like in our current situation, the positive impact on our family, economically, is very clear.”

When asked which parent should stay at home to attend to their kids, Ruth supported her husband’s ideas. “For me, as a Filipino, it’s awkward to see my husband as a full-time homemaker. That’s not our culture.”

Angie Abella, a manager for a New York-based staffing agency that recruits foreign nurses, said that role reversal among Filipino nurses is also dependent on their visa status and family living situation.

“We have to realize that a lot of these families get their visa petition from their nurse spouses. If the nurse wife is still on a work visa, she can’t just quit her job to take care of her own kids,” she said. “Also, if the kids are quite young, the husbands have no choice but to take care of them. Babysitters are expensive.”

From her conversations with Filipino nurses, Abella said that a simple agreement about their domestic situation could alleviate the gender role-based conflicts that may arise between couples.

Back in Bayside, Rosette de Real agrees:

“I know that it is not easy for Ronaldo to be at home, even though we talked about it, and we prepared ourselves for it,” she said. “Sometimes he would tell me, ‘Every time I want to buy you fresh flowers, do I still need to ask the money from you?’ But I am very lucky that he is considerate and understanding.”

SOURCE

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Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 3 (Download Mp3)

2009-09-25T08:12:00.000+08:00

Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 3 (Download Mp3)

Supplemental PDF File for
Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 3 - Cambridge IELTS 3.pdf

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RP chosen for new healthcare KPO hub

2009-09-24T08:24:00.006+08:00

MANILA - First, there was business process outsourcing for college students. Now, Filipino nursing graduates who are looking for work and a chance to increase their skills further can do so by joining the knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) arm of Life-Stage Communications (LSC) Fly Free For Health.

Geoff Spiller, LSC joint managing director, said the LSC-KPO arm functions the same way as a call center but with a more specific focus on the heath needs of their clients. He said the company is looking to hire at least 100 Filipino health professionals in the next six months who will work as "medical butlers" and provide borderless healthcare to clients.

Spiller said the Philippines has several advantages not found elsewhere that makes it perfect as a KPO hub for the company.

"The Philippines has call center expertise that doesn’t exist elsewhere. It's got ample human resources who have good English language skills. Finally, there are so many nurses who are looking for jobs," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com during the company's launch on Wednesday.

Spiller said the KPO medical butlers are highly-skilled individuals who all have medical backgrounds. "They are going to be talking to customers who will ask them all sorts of questions. You have to have the basis to give information and refer the customer to the right person," he said.

Dr Wei Siang Yu, founder of Fly Free For Health, said the convergence of technology and global value chain management has made the evolution of healthcare business process outsourcing possible. He said the company's value chain of services, including medical concierge management, borderless multi-disciplinary management and borderless collaborative care, could help drive new patient leads, loyalty and repeat transactions for medical facilities.

He said the company also specializes in development of international medical tourism destinations, particularly in Southeast Asia and countries such as Korea, India, and Australia.
.
Spiller said the company is looking for an office in Pasay City for its first KPO center. He said the company is partnering with RA Gapuz Review Center, the largest review center for nurses in the Philippines, to offer KPO courses to willing students.

“These introductory courses are going to be a revolutionary step for nurses who are seeking alternative paths to nursing practice. We are confident that nurses in the Philippines are going to be very competitive in the global market of borderless healthcare,” said RAGRC president Dr. Mia Gapuz

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/09/10/09/rp-chosen-new-healthcare-kpo-hub

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Pentagon NLE Notes (Download)

2009-09-23T07:35:00.000+08:00

Pentagon NLE review notes

For those nurses who are taking the November 2009 Nursing Board Exam NLE, the above Pentagon NLE Notes might be useful to your guys. I just came across this while looking for good review materials to help those nurses taking the Nov 2009 NLE.

For those of you who knows a good documents or study materials, please post a link in the comment section so that we can help nursing taking their NLE this coming November. Please comment below on your thoughts and suggestions.

If you want to be informed through email regarding November 2009 NLE Results, please subscribe to us by filling in your email address above. NOTE: You email address will be kept private and will not be distributed to spammers.

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30 more Filipino caregivers to leave for Japan under JPEPA

2009-09-21T20:11:00.000+08:00

09/21/2009 | 02:52 PM

Another batch composed of 30 Filipino caregivers will leave for Japan on Sunday under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines has said.

This is the second batch of Filipino caregivers to undergo intensive language and skills training before assuming employment in hospitals and health institutions in Japan.

The first batch of 270 Filipino candidate nurses and caregivers hired through JPEPA, under the framework on the Movement of Natural Persons, left last May.

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the health workers will initially undergo an onsite language and culture training for six months in five designated language institutions in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Hiroshima before they can start acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills from hospitals or health care facilities in Japan.

Under the school track scheme, they will then take two to four-year school courses in caregiver schools.

The POEA said qualified Filipino nurses will be allowed to take the Kangoshi (Nursing) Licensure Examination in February 2010. Candidate caregivers, on the other hand, would still need at least three years of work experience in Japan before they can take the Kaigo-fukushishi (Caregiver) National Certification Examination – which allows passer to continue working in Japan.

The health workers are provided with an allowance during their training. But if they fail to pass the Japanese standards, they will be sent home immediately.

Japan and the Philippines signed the JPEPA in September 2006. Following heated debates, the Philippine Congress approved the agreement in 2008, thereby allowing for the freer flow of trade and investments between the two countries.

Under the agreement, the Japanese market will have greater access to Philippine produce while Japanese exporters will be able to supply certain electronic products to the Philippines at low or zero tariff. Japan, for its part, will then accept Filipino nurses and health care workers. - GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/172795/30-more-filipino-caregivers-to-leave-for-japan-under-jpepa

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202 Useful Exercises for IELTS (Listen, Download)

2009-09-19T10:14:00.000+08:00

202 Useful Exercises for IELTS (Listen, Download)

Download the 202 Useful Exercises for IELTS PDF file

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NLE Topics: COPAR (Community Organizing Participatory Action Research)

2009-09-17T07:38:00.003+08:00

A social development approach that aims to transform the apathetic, individualistic and voiceless poor into dynamic, participatory and politically responsive community.

A collective, participatory, transformative, liberative, sustained and systematic process of building people’s organizations by mobilizing and enhancing the capabilities and resources of the people for the resolution of their issues and concerns towards effecting change in their existing oppressive and exploitative conditions (1994 National Rural Conference).

A process by which a community identifies its needs and objectives, develops confidence to take action in respect to them and in doing so, extends and develops cooperative and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community (Ross 1967).

A continuous and sustained process of educating the people to understand and develop their critical awareness of their existing condition, working with the people collectively and efficiently on their immediate and long-term problems, and mobilizing the people to develop their capability and readiness to respond and take action on their immediate needs towards solving their long-term problems (CO: A manual of experience, PCPD).

Process:

- the sequence of steps whereby members of a community come together to critically assess to evaluate community conditions and work together to improve those conditions.

Structure:

- refers to a particular group of community members that work together for a common health and health related goals.

Emphasis of COPAR:

1. Community working to solve its own problem.
2. Direction is established internally and externally.
3. Development and implementation of a specific project less important than the development of the capacity of the community to establish the project.
4. Consciousness raising involves perceiving health and medical care within the total structure of society.

Importance of COPAR:

1. COPAR is an important tool for community development and people empowerment as this helps the community workers to generate community participation in development activities.

2. COPAR prepares people/clients to eventually take over the management of a dvelopment.programs in the future.

3. COPAR maximizes community participation and involvement; community resources are mobilized for community services.

PRINCIPLES:

1. People especially the most oppressed, exploited and deprived sectors are open to change, have the capacity to change and are able to bring about change.
2. COPAR should be based on the interest of the poorest sector of the community.3. COPAR should lead to a self-reliant community and society.

CRITICAL STEPS (ACTIVITIES):
1. Integration
2. Social Investigation
3. Tentative program planning
4. Groundwork
5. The meeting
6. Role Play
7. Mobilization or action
8. Evaluation
9. Reflection
10.Organization

Phases of COPAR Process:

1. Pre-Entry Phase - is the intial phase of the organizing process where the community organizer looks for communities to serve and help. Acitivities include:

Preparation of the Institution

* Train faculty and students in COPAR.
* Formulate plans for institutionalizing COPAR.
* Revise/enrich curriculum and immersion program.
* Coordinate participants of other departments.

Site Selection

* Initial networking with local government.
* Conduct preliminary special investigation.
* Make long/short list of potential communities.
* Do ocular survey of listed communities.

Criteria for Initial Site Selection

* Must have a population of 100-200 families.
* Economically depressed.* No strong resistance from the community.
* No serious peace and order problem.
* No similar group or organization holding the same program.

Identifying Potential Municipalities
* Make long/short list.

Identifying Potential Barangay

* Do the same process as in selecting municipality.
* Consult key informants and residents.
* Coordinate with local government and NGOs for future activities.

Choosing Final Barangay
* Conduct informal interviews with community residents and key informants.
* Determine the need of the program in the community.
* Take note of political development.
* Develop community profiles for secondary data.
* Develop survey tools.
* Pay courtesy call to community leaders.
* Choose foster families based on guidelines

Identifying Host Family

* House is strategically located in the community.
* Should not belong to the rich segment.
* Respected by both formal and informal leaders.
* Neighbors are not hesitant to enter the house.
* No member of the host family should be moving out in the community.

2. Entry Phase - sometimes called the social preparation phase. Is crucial in determining which strategies for organizing would suit the chosen community. Success of the activities depend on how much the community organizers has integrated with the commuity.
Guidelines for Entry

* Recognize the role of local authorities by paying them visits to inform their presence and activities.
* Her appearance, speech, behavior and lifestyle should be in keeping with those of the community residents without disregard of their being role model.
* Avoid raising the consciousness of the community residents; adopt a low-key profile.
Activities in the Entry Phase

* Integration - establishing rapport with the people in continuing effort to imbibe community life.
o living with the community
o seek out to converse with people where they usually congregate
o lend a hand in household chores
o avoid gambling and drinking

* Deepening social investigation/community study
o verification and enrichment of data collected from initial survey
o conduct baseline survey by students, results relayed through community assembly
Core Group Formation

* Leader spotting through sociogram.

Key persons - approached by most people
Opinion leader - approach by key persons
Isolates - never or hardly consulted

3. Organization-building Phase

Entails the formation of more formal structure and the inclusion of more formal procedure of planning, implementing, and evaluating community-wise activities. It is at this phase where the organized leaders or groups are being given training (formal, informal, OJT) to develop their style in managing their own concerns/programs.
Key Activities

* Community Health Organization (CHO)
o preparation of legal requirements
o guidelines in the organization of the CHO by the core group
o election of officers
* Research Team Committee
* Planning Committee
* Health Committee Organization
* Others
* Formation of by-laws by the CHO
4. Sustenance and Strengthening Phase

Occurs when the community organization has already been established and the community members are already actively participating in community-wide undertakings. At this point, the different committees setup in the organization-building phase are already expected to be functioning by way of planning, implementing and evaluating their own programs, with the overall guidance from the community-wide organization.

Key Activities

* Training of CHO for monitoring and implementing of community health program.
* Identification of secondary leaders.
* Linkaging and networking.
* Conduct of mobilization on health and development concerns.
* Implementation of livelihood projects.

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Becoming Canadian: Citizenship (Immigrating to Canada - Options to Work Abroad For Nurses)

2009-09-15T13:07:00.000+08:00

Watch the first video of the Becoming Canadian series. This series is sure to open your mind and touch your heart.

WATCH VIDEO

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Pilot call center employs nurses as agents

2009-09-15T12:18:00.000+08:00

Life-Stage Communications (LSC) Thursday launched its pilot call center operations utilizing the huge population of nurses in the country as its agents in providing healthcare solutions of local and international clients for its accredited hospitals in the Asia Pacific region.

Geoff Spiller, managing director of LSC, said they will start with the operations of the world’s first borderless healthcare knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) in two to three months and expect to get 100 agents or its so-called “medical butlers” composed of registered nurses within six months at its Pasay location.

Spiller said that hospitals and medical facilities are being accredited as their affiliates and would be included in the pool of facilities that their medical butlers can refer to for the help of patients.

Dr. Wei Siang Yu, founder of FlyFreeForHealth concept and pioneer of medical tourism, said they have 100 major hospitals affiliated with them.

Locally, there are three to four major hospitals that they are in contact with to be enrolled in this service marketing operations for medical and healthcare needs.

Wei said that the global market for health care is estimated at $100 billion and still growing especially with health care reforms happening in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

But the problem is that hospitals are not integrated with health information and down the value chain.

The group’s proposal is to tie up health and lifestyle value chain noting that the Asia Pacific region is expected to get the influx of medical tourists.

LSC has already tied up with the RA Gapuz Review Center, one of the country’s review centers for nurses, as its partner for the medical butlership training.

Spiller said they have decided to put up pilot project in the country because of the proven hospitality of Filipinos, particularly the Filipino nurses. “The current system has no unified concierge that would put healthcare and lifestyle together,” Spiller said.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/219947/pilot-call-center-employs-nurses-agents

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Becoming Canadian: Combating immigration fraud (Watch Video)

2009-09-14T01:03:00.000+08:00

Transcript for “Becoming Canadian: Combating immigration fraud” video

WATCH VIDEO

Video length: 2:30 minutes

Canada is the destination of choice for a quarter of a million people each year seeking a new home. They’re attracted by the prize of Canadian citizenship; a strong democracy and a stable government. Our immigration system is fair – by law — to each and every newcomer.

Unfortunately, some newcomers are victims of scams – duped by immigration fraud artists. Irma Luque, Ricardo Miranda and their son Christian left Chile a dozen years ago for a new life in Canada. They now live in Toronto as permanent residents, but achieving that status was very hard. They put their faith in a Canadian Consultant who offered them work and visas. This consultant charged the family five thousand dollars U.S, and kept them waiting for years – yet he delivered no results.

Ricardo Miranda/ Immigration Scam Victim

“I feel bad. I can say nothing. Because maybe this guy call the police or call immigration. I don’t know. You know, I’m scared about my family.”

This family is not alone. Every year, many newcomers – isolated from home and friends, with limited language skills – are lured by false promises of high paying jobs and guaranteed visas by unscrupulous immigration representatives.

Robin Seligman/Certified Immigration Lawyer

“They just want to make a buck and at the end of the day people have to understand they will lie, they will do whatever they have to get their money.”

There are lots of scams. Ads in publications from around the world offer jobs and settlement in Canada – for fees reaching into thousands of dollars. Crudely constructed letters — note the starfish background – claim to represent the government of Canada.

Many deceptive internet sites promise visas and employment at very high cost – one features a Wooly Mammoth – not exactly a Canadian symbol.

No one can guarantee you a visa to Canada or move you up in line. But when you need help, there are many good immigration consultants. Just make sure they are accredited.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada provides free advice and visa application forms on its Website.

Anne Arnott/Director General International Region

“You cannot lie on your application and still go to Canada. If we find out there is a lie you won’t be going anywhere. Or if you do end up in Canada we will take steps to remove you.”

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