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MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine embassy in Oslo has warned Filipino nurses and health care workers to be wary of misleading information circulating online that more jobs are available in Norway.
The misinformation peddled by “consultancy” firms make unsuspecting Filipinos believe that getting a nursing or healthcare job in Norway is easy and that no International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is required.

“While it is true that IELTS is not required by most health care employers in Norway, this is only because English is not the primary language used in the country,” the embassy said.
The embassy said that foreign nurses and health care practitioners wishing to work in Norway have to pass a much harder Norwegian language exam.

While a Professional Regulation Commission license may not be needed for the processing of a visa application, Norwegian authorities still require such license in order for a foreign health care worker to be properly recognized in Norway.
According to embassy officials, these consultancy firms charge applicants large fees for information and services that they can actually obtain for free.


READ MORE: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/02/04/904613/pinoy-nurses-warned-vs-job-offers-norway

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By Jeff Vasquez, RN, MN

EVERY nurse from the Philippines is now furious over Rep. Cynthia Villar's statement on the nursing profession. In a one minute question and answer portion, she was asked to react on her role on the failure to close questionable nursing schools which even led to the resignation of some nursing technical expert members on the panel. In her answer, I think the three phrases that pierced through every nurse's heart are: 1) That nurses do not need to finish the BSN programme; 2) That aspiring nurses have only one desire and that is to become a room nurse; and 3) That nurses do not have to be very good.
I laughed at her answer. It's difficult to answer a question under strict time limits and it's even harder to answer it when you lack information to suffice your answer.
I think nurses still need to finish the BSN programme, but we need a better BSN programme. Over the years, I have gained some experience and looking back at how I could have done things better, I thought that in fact, we could have done things better. We teach nursing students everything that they should know yet only a little is remembered. I have an excellent community nursing rotation, if not the best at that time. But I still question up to now the relevance of the CHN bag. Every student carries the CHN bag yet you do not see a community health nurse carry one. You perform wound dressings, visit the sick, yet the patients do not receive follow up from the local health centre.
During the third year, hospital rotations become more common and medical surgical nursing concepts are introduced. Yet, a student becomes confused as what is taught is not being practiced. The clinical instructor struggles to fill in the gap. Looking back, one project at any rotation would have been a review of literature on evidence-based practices. For example, the use of hydrogen peroxide and/or povidone-iodine versus normal saline in cleansing wounds.
Students are inundated with information just to cover all the topics almost to the point of a nervous breakdown yet we know only little will be retained. So what's the point of teaching everything? I guess you really don't have to know everything but rather, a good clinical instructor builds up on those hospital and community rotations to make them meaningful to the student. This entails investing more time and resources on those medical conditions presented by the patients. However, this needs a proper training hospital to obtain very good medical-surgical patient case studies. And please, no more return-demo on enema. It's obsolete. We now use fleet enema so no need for those primitive enema preparation. Every time I tell this story to my colleagues, it never fails to give them a good laugh. We need a curriculum that is truly competency-based in its whole spirit.
Secondly, nurses have many desires, not just to become a room nurse. There is a lot of opportunities for different specialities of nursing but not entirely available in the Philippines. I wonder where that “room nursing” came from? Well, when you were young, you would see a nurse enter your room, give you your meds or take your vitals. So that is a “room nurse.” Sadly, this perception is embedded in a healthcare system that is strongly physician-based. You see your nurse carry the patients' charts while the doctor does the round then nurses carry out the orders. I would like this changed.

READ MORE: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/opinion/2013/03/04/speak-out-dissecting-rep-cynthia-villas-view-filipino-nurse-271150

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The Duke of Edinburgh told a nurse from the Philippines that her country must be "half empty" - because so many of her compatriots have come to the UK to work for the NHS.




He made the remark during a visit to Luton and Dunstable Hospital where he unveiled a £5.5m cardiac centre.



"The Philippines must be half empty - you're all here running the NHS," the prince told the nurse, who laughed.



A hospital spokesperson said the duke's visit had been "hugely motivational".



The 91-year-old royal, who called himself "the world's most experienced curtain puller", was said to be in a "jovial" mood and asked when the hospital would get a helipad to save him a journey by car.



READ MORE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-21519917

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InterAksyon.com

The online news portal of TV5


MANILA, Philippines - Filipino nurses who passed the NCLEX-RN and obtained US licenses but who have not found employment in America may now gainfully practice their profession in the Manila-based back offices of US health insurance companies, House Deputy Majority Leader Roman Romulo said over the weekend.



“There is new demand here for Filipino nurses with active US licenses. The demand is being created by US health insurers that have increasingly found it more cost-effective to offshore their clinical services here,” said Romulo, who supports Manila’s thriving business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.



“They won’t necessarily receive the $20 (P800) per hour starting pay for nurses in most US hospitals. However, due to their specialized responsibilities in providing clinical services here, they are getting higher emoluments compared to the average BPO employee,” he said in a news release.



The remote clinical services range from the pre-servicing of patients, in which a nurse at the health insurer helps evaluate the patient’s needs and ascertain treatment approaches, to discharge planning and support, such as nurse reviews of the patient’s possible post-discharge care requirements.



Unemployed Filipino nurses should consider taking and passing the NCLEX-RN, so that they could hopefully get US licenses and seek potential employment at the back offices here of US health insurers, Romulo said.



The NCLEX-RN refers to the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurse administered by the US (National Council) of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (USNCSBN). The Pearson Professional Center in Makati City has been administering the NCLEX-RN for the USNCSBN since 2007.



In 2011, a total of 5,630 Filipino nurses indicated their desire to practice their profession in America by taking the NCLEX-RN for the first time (excluding repeaters). In the nine months to September this year, another 2,662 Filipino nurses took the examination for the first time, according to the USNCSBN.



US firms in the Philippines



Romulo named at least three firms –- Radiant Services LLC, Exlservice Holdings Inc., and UnitedHealth Group Inc. -- that are employing in the Philippines local nurses with active US licenses.



With offices at the Robinsons Cyberpark in Mandaluyong City and Eastwood Global One in Quezon City, Radiant is a multinational firm providing a broad range of services, including clinical support for US clients in the healthcare payer and pharmacy benefit management space.



Radiant was put up by Indianapolis, Indiana-based WellPoint Inc. to advance its outsourcing of various services to lower-cost locations such as the Philippines.



WellPoint is the second-largest managed healthcare company in the US, serving some 33.5 million members.



With two centers at the SM Mall of Asia, New York, New York-based Exlservice is a BPO firm specializing in healthcare and insurance-related support services.



Exlservice helps provide “targeted care-management support” to the 18.2 million members of Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Inc., another diversified health benefits company.



Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth, the largest health benefits provider in the US with over 36 million members, only recently up a back office at McKinley Hill Cyberpark in Taguig City.



UnitedHealth has started enlisting Filipino nurses with active US licenses, basic computer skills as well as hospital and BPO experience, to perform jobs as “nurse associates, clinical quality analysts and clinical managers.”



Benefits of Data Privacy Act



Romulo is author of the new Data Privacy Act of the Philippines, which is expected to lure more global corporations to either establish in-house back offices in Manila, or relegate their non-core, business support activities to independent BPO firms operating here.



The new Philippine law mandates all entities, including BPO firms, to protect the confidentiality of personal information collected from clients and stored in IT systems, in compliance with strict international privacy standards.



The Philippines’ highly labor-intensive, IT-enabled services industry encompasses contact center services; back offices; medical, legal and other data transcription; animation; software development; engineering design; and digital content.



The industry is projected to produce $27 billion in revenues and directly engage some 1.3 million Filipino workers by 2016. This year, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines sees the sector generating $13 billion in revenues on a labor force of 764,000.

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SANAA (Xinhua) -- Yemen's security services today set free a Filipino nurse two hours after she was kidnapped in the Yemeni capital, the official Saba news agency reported.
"The 20-year-old Filipino, who works with one of the Yemeni government hospitals, was released unharmed earlier Monday nearly two hours after she was kidnapped," Saba quoted a spokesman of Interior Ministry as saying.
The nurse was forced into a car by two gunmen late Sunday in Hadda Street in downtown Sanaa.
"The security services traced a blue Suzuki Vitara on a highway in the southeast of Sanaa, captured the kidnappers and set the Filipino nurse free," the spokesman said.
The incident came less than two days after militants snatched two Finns and an Austrian in central Sanaa, just a few meters east of the Presidential Palace.
The Yemeni Interior Ministry has formed a crisis team to search for the three hostages.


Readmore at http://www.philstar.com/breaking-news/2012/12/24/889875/filipino-nurse-kidnapped-yemen-released

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