Being a registered nurse in the Philippines

I took the nurse licensure exam last 2 years ago, June 2008 and fortunately  passed the exam. The feeling of happiness is indescribable when I saw my name on the lists of passers. I'm really ecstatic to tell my parents about it  since this was my dream and the dream of my family as well,  they are the ones who worked hard  just to send us in school.

Back in college, My goal were to finish my studies and to be a registered nurse someday. When I graduated and finally, the time to take the nurse licensure exam , I gave my 100% to it. I invested a lot of time for it. When I found out that I did pass, I said to myself , this  might be the time that I could  repay my parents for the love and support they have rendered me .

After a month, I immediately went to PRC to register and  eventually get my license.I was really excited then to practice my profession. At that time I am just so overwhelmed with what I have accomplished and I am really looking forward to submitting my application and eventually land a job as a staff nurse, without knowing what the real situation is . At that time, I thought it will be that easy since I am a Registered nurse already. But it did not turn out to be that smooth. I am just wondering why after almost a year of submitting applications to hospitals, I received no response from them, but there were few stating that they turned down my application due to numerous applicants. It was so frustrating to hear this. I thought having a license will serve as a ticket for me in having decent job in a hospital.Then I realized the painful part that these days, we will be having a very hard time looking for a "real" job  in any hospital since our country has oversupply of nurses already but there are limited jobs available for us . As days go by, I realized what the painful truth is, that most nurses nowadays pay hospitals a huge amount of money for the training just to earn an experience.

So I followed what the trend was and decided to apply as a volunteer nurse in an ambulatory hospital. After 4 months of waiting, finally,my application got approved and the said training lasted for 5 months. The saddest part of being a nurse in the Philippines is that you are working so hard and yet not receiving even a single centavo from your hard work.

We don't deserve to go through all these, we are professionals and we absolutely deserve to have a decent job and be paid for every single thing that we do. If  I could only turn back time, I would really think a million times if I have to take this course. But for now, I need to be optimistic ,and patiently wait for the best thing that God has in store for me, I am sure He has. I do hope that the government will hear our voices, and eventually help us in landing a "real" job in the hospitals that we all deserve.