Filipino Nursing Herald

With retrogression, hospitals in the US have temporarily suspended their sponsorship programs for foreign nurses. Some continue their recruitment efforts but the most they can do is file for the Petition for Alien Worker or I-140. When visas become available, look for US hospitals to start sponsoring foreign RN again. Here are a few hospitals in Southern California that have sponsored foreign RNs in the past: Saint John's Health Center - www.stjohns.org Good Samaritan Hospital - www.goodsamcareers.org Tenet California - teamtenet.com Enloe Medical Center - www.enloe.org Antelope Valley Hospital - www.avhospital.org White Memorial Hospital - www.whitememorial.com Just like other hospitals, these facilities have put their foreign recruitment efforts on hold, but look for them once there's some relief from retrogression. IMPORTANT NOTE: This posting should not be seen as an endorsement, rather it is for information purposes only. Please do your own research into these facilities f...

The Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC) has now posted the room assignments for the Dec. 2007 nursing board exams on Dec. 1 and 2. There are separate room assignments for those taking the: A. Regular Examination B. Special Examination-June 2006 C. Removal Examination To view room assignments, see the list below or click here to go to the PRC Web site . A. REGULAR EXAMINATION ABABA, KHRISTHEA MAE SACRAME to ALINEA, EDZEL GARLITO View ALINEA, MARIE GRACE DE GUZMAN to ARTICULO, DESSA MARIE RIVERA View ARTIENDA, EFREN TESTADO to BARTOLOME, JADE BRILLIANT FERNANDEZ View BARTOLOME, JAIRUS IDOL FERNANDEZ to BRICIA,MARIA ROWENA DIAZ View BRIGINO, LEO VILLANO to CANLAS, ANGELICA PUNU View CANLAS, CECILE ABON to CHUA, SHONALEY ESGUERRA View CHUA,SUSANA BERNARDO to DANG-AOEN, DAVID JR CALAYCAY View DANGAL, ROCHELLE IRIS MACATANGAY to DELA CRUZ, SHERYL CASTAÑEDA View DELA CRUZ, SHERYL DELOS SANTOS to EGUIA, MARIA BEATRIZ BORCE View EGUIN, CAROLINE VILLA to FERRER, AIMEE REYNA TORRES V...

A new batch of Filipino hopefuls will take the Philippine Nursing Licensure Exam on Dec. 1 and 2. Here's wishing you goodluck on the test. As always, we'll try to post the results of the nursing board exams here once they are available. The only tip I can give you now is: Pray hard, think hard, and stay calm.

The income tax system works differently in the US compared to the Philippines. Whereas, a nurse's salary in Manila will only be deducted with a single income tax based on his or her salary bracket (or based how much the person earns annually), their US counterparts, on the other hand, may be charged a Federal income tax (US Federal governement), a State income tax (state level) and, possibly, a local income tax (county or city level). The Federal income tax ranges from 15% to 35%. Florida, Texas and Washington charge the maximum 35%, however theses states no not have state income taxes. State income taxes range from 3% to 9.5%. The lowest state income tax is in Illinois, which has a flat rate of 3%. Vermont has the highest as it uses the maximum 9.5%. In California, state income tax ranges from 1% at $6,622 in income and increases to 9.3% over $43,468. Nurses whose basic pay exceeds the minimum for the highest bracket are usually in the 9.3% income tax category. Aside from the inco...

For those anticipating updates about retrogression, just continue to be patient. The US Congress is on break until Dec. 4. Today's the start of Thanksgiving in the US so everyone's on vacation mode at this time.

Kaiser Permanente is one of the biggest hospital staff employers in the US. They have headquarters in Oakland, California and are located in 9 states and in Washington, D.C. I've heard many good feedback about Kaiser and how they treat their employees well. But getting on board Kaiser is a difficult process if you don't have any hospital experience, particularly U.S. hospital experience. A hospital recruiter told me that Kaiser in South California does not sponsor foreign nurses, but Kaiser facilities in North California do. So, once visa retrogression is out, I would recommend those with years of experience to check out this potential employer.

Just signed on with this new online ads company, Blogsvertise.com and part of their requirements is that I post something about them. For a long time I've been using Adsense from Google and have been happy with them. I would love to get any feedback from other people who've signed on before with Blogsvertise. In the meantime, I'll try out this new program and see how it goes. Later, I'll give my own feedback as well. We hardly make anything out of the Filipino Nursing Herald blog. What we value most are the friends we've made since we started this site. Born of our own frustrations with our own search for Web sites that catered specifically to Filipino nurses' needs, the Filipino Nursing Herald now has a modest number of regular visitors and a growing number of new visitors. We truly appreciate your visits and it is our hope, that in our own little way, we are able to help others in their own nursing career journeys. We always value other people's feedback,...

The Canadian Nurses Association says there will be a shortfall of 78,000 nurses by 2011, rising to 113,000 by 2016 in the country, CTV.ca reports .

A couple of days ago I blogged about the plight of 3,000 male nurses in Saudi who can't find jobs. The kingdom's ministry of health chief thinks that's already a crisis. In the Philippines, government officials wouldn't even bat an eyelash if tens of thousands of nurses today are unemployed. Just digest these figures a bit: In December 2006, around 20,000 Filipino nurses passed the bi-annual licensure exam conducted by the country's Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC). In the following exams, some 32,000 made it to become registered nurses as well. How many of these successful exam-takers do you think has been employed? With retrogression still a major hurdle in the US job market, how many of our registered nurses are actually working? Even with other markets, outside the US are open, such as the Middle East, how many have actually found employment? To add to our woes, the 32,000 nurses who passed the June 2007 exams still don't have actual licenses yet. So...

Despite what we posted last time about Canada, the country is still a land of opportunity for many. In the past weeks, for example, about 90 Filipino nurses have been recruited to work in the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region, according to the Leader-Post. See story here . Information on the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region Information on Saskatchewan

Many things about our world bother me. High up on my list is discrimation and racism. Almost everyday, I hear stories of Filipinos being discriminated on just because of our race. Many efforts have been done to resolve this worrisome situation, but a lot more effort is needed to make it go away. I've heard stories about Canada being a land of promises. Some of my relatives have lived there for a long time and some of them have become successful. Yet, the truth about its broken immigration policies and its highly discriminative work environment is truly troublesome. Take this Web site (www.notcanada.com), for example, and see a part of this country's almost hidden identity. Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Joe Volpe acknowledges the issue. Read his comments here on W-Five's story . Even Filipino nurses who have years of experience are forced to work in the lowest positions when they go to Canada. I've heard about a nurse director from one of the larg...

Here's good news from the United Arab Emirates. The government is allowing nurses on visit visas to sit for their nursing exam and take on jobs with private hospitals. Read the story here . You must have at least three years work experience before you can work in UAE, but the government is looking to trim this down to two years.

Since the last push for new Schedule A visa allocations was stymied by US legislators, there's been no news of other similar proposals being pushed forward yet. At least, not that we know of. A lot of things happen in Capitol Hill and it's impossible to keep track of all of them. I guess the general sentiment in the US is that the big immigration issues will be addressed only after the presidential elections in Nov. next year. The issue is mostly focused on what America will do with its large population of undocumented immigrants. The issues affecting people in the employment-based categories like the technology workers, nurses and PTs are collateral damage, so to speak. The US Congress is currently rushing to finish about 10 spending bills or budget bills and just like the last Schedule A visa push, we're all hoping another proposal will be attached to one of these bills. Hopefully another visa proposal will be introduced without restrictive provisions such as the $3,500 a...

Some 3,000 male Saudi nursing graduates are still waiting for jobs, reports The Arab News. Dr. Obaid Al-Obaid, vice minister for planning and development at the Ministry of Health, claims there is a surplus of male nurses but a shortage of female nurses in the Kingdom. Female nurses comprise 35 percent of all nurses working at government hospitals in the Kingdom while male nurses make up 32 percent. “The number of jobless Saudi male nurses will unfortunately increase by the end of this year to reach 6,000 to 7,000,” said Al-Obaid.

The Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Philippines (ANSAP Inc.) regulates Intravenous Therapy (IVT) training seminars in the country. For upcoming training schedules, you can call them at (63)7163901 loc. 383.

A US House and Senate conference committee has approved the Labor-HHS-Education budget bill that combines the proposed budgets for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. The bill will be presented and voted on by Nov. 5. We're still trying to confirm if the proposed recapture of 61,000 Schedule A visas made it through. Update: There's news that the proposed recapture of visas for Schedule A occupations did not survive the conference committee.

The US budget appropriations bill where the proposed re-allocation of Schedule A visas is tacked on to is currently being deliberated on in a conference committee involving both the US House of Reps. and the US Senate. Here are some links that provide updates on the progress of the bill: US Senate Appropriations Committee US House of Representatives Apprpriations Committee You can also search Google News for the latest updates. Just google "Labor, Health, Education Appropriations bill"