We also have had some exciting expansions happen as well. We are pleased to announce that we will also have a specialized review for the NCLEX-PN (for practical nurses) as well as the NCLEX-RN. These two tests are similar in approximately 20 percent of there content. Practical nurses often take their review with registered nurses and unfortunately that does them a disservice. The largest content area difference is in management of care versus coordinated care. This can make up to 18 % of the NCLEX-PN. We have created specialized content that differs from the NCLEX-RN for this area and other differences while still offering the same teaching style, amount of questions, databases, games and support.

We have another exciting edition as well. We are also launching a travel service for nurses located anywhere in the Philippines that will handle their flight, pick-up and drop-off from the airport, hotel accommodations, drop-off and pick-up to and from the NCLEX test and a nurse who will meet you at the airport as well as arrange all of your transportation in Manila. That nurse will also answer questions about the testing environment and try and reduce any pre-test anxiety you might be feeling. One way to do your best on a standardized exam is to have proper preparation about all the little details of the test environment and not worried about the details of traveling to and around the largest city in the Philippines. In our effort to help you do your very best on the exam, we want to make your trip to the test as pleasant and worry-free as possible.

Well, as always we like to divide our newsletter with how we are doing and topics that we know are of interest to you. So this newsletter we are going to talk about visas. Many of you are experts in this area, knowing what you need to get and where you need to get it, but very few nurses that we talk to are aware of the potential dangers of student visas. Student visas, whether they are given for New Zealand, England, Canada or anywhere else where designed for…. You guest it…. STUDENTS! This means that the country offering this visa is doing so with the assumption that you are going there not to work, but to study. This is the whole reason behind show money! In order to get around this some very crafty companies have stated they will get you a job with a student visa. This is an area in which everyone needs to be EXTREMELY cautious! Let me explain why. Most of these companies work out an arrangement with a school in which you are registered for classes that either don’t exist or are “internships or work programs”. Both internships and work programs legitimately exist, but they are designed to be final coaching at the end of a degree before you enter into the work force. Now the Filipino nurse comes along, pays a placement company (typically Filipino) a large amount of money to get them a student visa and a job placement. In the two years that you are working there you typically receive a lower salary then other professionals there doing the same work (sometimes the difference gets paid back to the placement company) and you have to find a way to get hired to get an actual work visa. All this you must do without the government of that country catching you. If they do catch you and determine that what you are doing is illegal, YOU get in trouble, not the placement company or the school. You will be deported, not allowed to even visit the country again and sometimes even required to pay a fine. To make matters worse if they are any country who has significant economic ties to other countries, for example England and the rest of the European Union, you may be barred from entering those countries as well. So please, Please, PLEASE, be extremely careful about these types of visas. Go to the consulate of the country you are trying to get a visa for and find out for yourself! Often times you can get the same visa for around 20 to 40 thousand pesos, the problem is finding a job. A final word of caution is that some of these countries are slow to recover from the drop in the global economy. This makes them pay more attention to the jobs in their country because they want those same jobs for their citizens. I wish you all luck, everyone in the Philippines knows someone who is working under a student visa, and most get away with it, but keep in mind what could happen if you don’t!