Choosing Nursing Review Centers

Selecting the best review center is like choosing the best answer in a board exam question. Almost all choices appear to be correct but only one is the best answer. So how exactly does one arrive at the best decision? Use the nursing process!

Step 1 - ASSESSMENT

• Listen to the presentation of each review center. Your school will normally schedule a date where review centers are given equal opportunities to make a sales pitch. Take down notes. Make a list of the good points of each review center. This will help you narrow down your choices.
• Ask questions. Find out the track record of review centers as shown by their passing rate in past board examinations. Inquire as to the number of review hours and the kind of materials they use in their review. Scrutinize their roster of lecturers.
  
• Visit the actual review site. The environment should be conducive for learning. Classroom size is important as well as the number of reviewees per class. The relationship of reviewees should be inversely proportional to the classroom size. This means bigger classrooms with fewer reviewees is better. Facilities such as library, audio-video equipment, and computers are major considerations too.
  
• Examine the packages being offered by each review center and its corresponding costs.
  
• Ask people you know about their experience with each review center.
  

Step 2 - ANALYSIS / DIAGNOSIS

• Make a decision based on the information you have gathered. Your decision should be based on YOUR own review needs as assessed by you and NOT by the choice of your friends or anyone else.
  

Step 3 - PLANNING / GOAL SETTING

• Planning is key. Set review goals. Most review centers conduct diagnostic exams on the first few days of formal review to assess your areas of weakness. Use this as your gauge for evaluating the effectiveness of the review program you enrolled with.
• Most review centers' review program are divided in phases. Find out if you can enlist for the first phase of review only. This is to avoid being tied up with the review center should you feel that the review program and approach is not effective for you.
  

Step 4 - IMPLEMENTATION / INTERVENTION

• This is mostly on you. Make sure you adhere to your review program and do your part. Learning is not one way. No review center will be good enough and a good review program will be ineffective and futile if you don't study.

Step 5 - EVALUATION

• When the first phase of the review is complete, most often than not, the review center will conduct post-test assessment. This will be a good indicator if the review program is effective. If you feel that you have done your part and yet the review program is insufficient, then try to venture into other review centers.

At the end of the day, it is NOT the review centers that will ensure your success in the board examination. It is your OWN perseverance, discipline, and hardwork that will determine your success in your quest to become a professional nurse endowed with knowledge, skills, and the right attitude.

In the meantime, happy holidays!


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Know your Board Rating through SMS

Find out how you performed in the Nurse Licensure Examinations through SMS by using the following commands:

PRC[space]EXMRSLT[space]LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME/MIDDLENAME
and send to 2333

Sample name: Juan B. Dela Cruz
PRC EXMRSLT DELA CRUZ/JUAN/BONIFACIO

Service is exclusive to Globe subscribers. Php 2.50/SMS.


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Nursing Shortage in the Philippines: The Real Score

I was listening to the radio the other night. The radio anchor was interviewing this young nurse who has just learned that she placed 4th in the recently concluded Nurse Licensure Examination. Apparently, this young nurse is set to leave for the United States of America on an immigrant visa.

The radio anchor felt that it was rather unfortunate that a young and brilliant nurse would rather choose to use her knowledge and skills in a foreign land giving care to foreigners while a great majority of her countrymen are deprived of even the most basic of health services.

This sentiment is not isolated. In fact, several articles have been written on the exodus of our professional health workers. Some were well-placed and had valid points while others were plain ignorant and unfair. I once read an article, where nurses were labeled as "mukhang pera" because they leave the country to literally wipe a foreigner's ass while leaving their aging parents who have no one to look after them so they can earn green bucks.

I think the practice of blaming migrating nurses for the shortage or lack of decent and competent care in Philippine hospitals is utterly unfair and ignorant.

Point #1
True, hospitals close shop because they have no nurses and doctors left to man their wards. However, this cannot be fully attributed to the mass exodus of nurses to 1st world countries. Every year, thousands enrol to nursing schools, thousands more graduate from these schools, and a great number of this, pass the licensure examinations and become nurses. There is a constant supply of nurses. The shortage is in the job vacancies. Some hospitals simply refuse to hire more people as a way to cut operational costs. This is a fact.

Point #2
Nurses in government hospitals are underpaid yet overworked. In some cases, the nurse to patient ratio is as bad as 1:50. That's one underpaid and overworked nurse tasked to care for fifty patients with varying needs. As if this is not enough, they are constantly at great risk of losing their hard-earned license and means of livelihood should they commit grave oversights.

Point #3
Nurses undergo a 4-year rigorous academic and clinical training before they even get to sit for a licensure examination and this entails huge financial costs. While other courses get allowances from corporations when they undergo On-the-Job practicums, it is the opposite for student nurses. Student nurses pay training institutions varying amounts of affiliation fee for every day of duty. Add to that the cost of the supplies that will be used for every day of duty. The point that I'm trying to get at is that obtaining a nursing education involves tremendous financial costs that is unheard of in other professions/fields (I should know, nursing is my 2nd degree) and yet, a professional nurse's average pay is comparable or near to minimum wage. Nurses also have mouths to feed and bodies to keep warm (Read: families).

Point #4
In the early years of nurse migration, critics claim that the continuous migration of nurses to 1st world countries would result to a problem they call, "Brain Drain." This is the phenomenon where the best skilled and trained nurses leave and the less than stellar ones (Read: incompetent) remain to care for the filipino. In recent years, a rather exaggerated term has been created to describe the phenomenon. They now call it, "Brain Hemorrhage." While there may be some ounce of truth to the claim, I see it as self-defeating. It's "damn if you do, damn if you don't" If nurses migrate, they contribute to the health care decay that is the "Brain Drain" However, if they choose to be "patriotic" and remain in the service of the filipino, they are generally described as "incompetent" if we are to follow the logic of the "Brain Drain" phenomenon.

Point #5
Filipino nurses working abroad earn more than your average Overseas Filipino Worker. Thus, by simple math, it can be safely assumed that they are able to make more dollar remittance to their families in the Philippines. This means stronger peso for the the economy, lesser cost for social services for the government, families left behind get access to quality education, healthcare, and a generally better life. It is a well established fact that OFWs are the lifeblood of our country's economy. This is why OFWs are called "modern day heroes." Then why discriminate against the nurse OFW?

Nurses are human beings too like any other Tom, Dick, or Harry. They have dreams, aspirations, wants, and needs. If they choose to leave the country to find a greener pasture elsewhere, it should not be taken against them as it is just human nature to satisfy one's need. Each one of us has a right to pursue our goals and dreams. Engineers work in the middle east so they can earn their keep and realize their dreams; Seamen go on long and arduous voyages so thay can give their families a glimpse of the goodlife. Why can't nurses do the same?

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Nurse Licensure Examination Results - December 2005

...and the long wait is over! the exam results are in. congratulations to all new nurses! click on the link for the complete list:

Text Format
NLE results dec 2005 (text)

PDF Format (with Board Topnotchers)
NLE results dec 2005 (pdf)

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