Filipino Nurse DIY Application for NCLEX-RN in New York State: UpdatesAlmost a Year Later

UPDATE: I took my NCLEX-RN just this Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 9:00 am Philippine Standard Time, at Pearson Professional Center, Trident Tower Makati, Metro Manila. I tried the Pearson Vue Trick about 3 hours later, got a good pop up, and last night, October 18, I found out through my unofficial quick results posted on my Pearson Vue account that I passed! I will create a separate post to share my NCLEX-RN experience soon! :)

For the first post regarding the how-to apply:
http://hernameisninanicole.blogspot.com/2012/09/applying-and-taking-nclex-new-york.html?showComment=1380925124411#c7972998261034786132

Hello everyone who stumbled into this blog! I believe you are here for the obvious reason. You are maybe trying to apply for NCLEX-RN in New York, already applied but experiencing some problems or difficulties, most likely a Filipino Nurse with the same case like me, or maybe you are just as confused as I am when I was trying to figure it all out when I started.

Lucky for me, I have friends who helped me figure it out. I thought that paying an agency (name withheld) to process the application for me is just futile and a big waste of money I should be using to pay for review materials instead. Because, truth be told, you can do it on your own without aid whatsoever from a company. I did it and so can you. And because I am grateful for the help that I got, I am happy to be a be of help to anyone. So to give you a little background as to how to apply, here’s the steps I took when I was applying with some connotations and commentaries. I warn you though that since I did it my way and on my own, this may not be the best or most correct way to do it. But it worked for me and it is valid.

Step 1: Where do I want to be licensed at?

I originally planned taking the NCLEX-RN exam and get licensed at the State of California where my family is relocating this year. However, I am in the Philippines, not an immigrant, thus, I have no valid Social Security Number that is required. Also, they have become too strict in applying alone that I know many people having problems there. So there was New York, among other states that do not require SSN, and my dilemma is solved. However, if the time frame is your utmost concern and you would like to take the exam the soonest possible time, New York may not be for you. Vermont used to have the no SSN requirement but they amended that last year and I was late in applying so not luck there, it would have been nice applying there because it just takes 4 months to have everything at hand to sit the exam.

Step 2: Download the application form or application packet in the website of your Board of Nursing of choice.

In my case, it’s http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/nurse/nurseforms.htm where I had it printed and I handwritten almost all the answer to then I had it notarized, sealed, and signed, and mailed to Mail the duly accomplished Application Forms with the application fee to:

New York State Education Department, 

Office of the Professions, 

PO Box 22063, Albany, NY 12201

-I am probably not the best person to ask regarding the mode of payment because my parents processed it for me because it is their account that I used. If my memory serves me right, you can pay using a bank draft or a check that is paid in US dollars, so a dollar account is needed for that. When I had the check addressed to NYSED and paid for in $143, I mailed the check along with my application. I used PNB and I heard BDO and Metrobank processes the payment too.

-Go to a valid, good Notary Public. It will cost roughly Php 150-200. The seal must be placed where it is supposed to be as indicated in the form. Your signature must be in your full name and not the traditional signature you can’t make the characters off. Save time and money and do it properly. I send my application twice because of that.

- I used DHL as courier and it cost me Php 1400 each mail I sent. That’s the fastest service for 3-4 days.

-NYSED did not inform me nor they answered my query when I asked if they received my application already. I based it on the tracking of the package on my courier’s website.

-NYSED will not process your papers too until your other requirements such as the CVS has been issued or submitted.

Step 3: CGFNS Credential Verification Service

You can log on to http://cgfns.org/sections/programs/cvs for the application. As for myself, I used the online application which cost $390 then, and that is a big cheaper than the application form that gets sent to you. Do not be confused though, the only difference is you fill out your information on your online account compared to writing it in the forms where you need to mail it back t them again. When you use the online service for CVS, you will be printing a few pages too including your mode of payment, a proof that you paid via credit card. Have this notarized and signed and mailed it to Mail the duly accomplished Application Forms to: 

PO Box 8628, Philadelphia, PA 19101- 8628.

-The courier guy from DHL sent this to another address that is not a PO box. He said they never deliver to PO boxes where no one is going to receive and sign for it. I relied on his discretion because he said he’s been doing this for years and not a single package got lost.

-This is an office to office transaction. No need to pass anything to anywhere. CGFNS will contact PRC to authenticate your license and your school for your Transcript of Records. Check the status of your service in your CGFNS account and rely on that so you can call PRC or your school for follow up. All has been paid for the $390. You will not be paying a cent to PRC or to your school for mailing fee.

-This service takes 4-12 months, I’ve been told. I sent mine alongside the New York application form around first week of August 2012 and with the delays I experience due to the wrong signature and such, I got my Report Issued around December 2012 and NYSED made me eligible early March 2013. That makes 7 months processing of NY Application for me.

Step 4: By this time I am confused! I already have my eligibility but I have not completed my requirements yet!

I have yet to take the NY Mandated Courses Online (since I answered ‘Yes’ in the application) at http://www.elearnonline.net/statemandate.aspx?x=44 for the Identification and Reporting of Child Abuse in NYS 3.25 hrs ($20) and New York State Mandated Infection Control Training 4 hrs ($25). I might take it sooner or later though regardless if I already got my license of not and even if I will not be working there in NY anytime soon.

-I was told the eligibility in NY is for 5 years. They have our files for that long.

-The mandated courses may not be taken if you are not going to work in NY (Verification needed, I am not sure, help!)

Step 5: Eligibility

Step 7: Register at Pearson Vue 

Once you received the correspondence that you are already eligible (completed the requirements) to sit the exam, you may now register at Pearson Vue at http://www.pearsonvue.com and wait for your ATT or Authorization to Take the Test and that’s the time you can schedule your exam at your preferred site and date.

-I haven’t registered at Pearson Vue yet as I am still assessing myself if I am already ready to take the exam. Last April 2013, they raised the passing standard for the NCLEX-RN and that makes the exam even for difficult so you cannot just take it when you feel like you want to.

Step 6: Wait for your ATT and Schedule the exam

-I have not made up my mind yet as to when I will be taking the exam because I need time to….

Step 7: Review and Prepare for the exam (whichever comes first for you.).

This is pretty much what I’ve been doing seriously since June 6. I enrolled myself in a review class which is pretty much elf review too only you get to use their resources and you get a structure and you condition yourself to study and read and review and answer questions almost 9 hours a day. My style is I read every chapter first then take the post test per chapter then when I finished max 3 chapters a day, I answer questions using the QBank or the Q&A CDs I’ve acquired since college. 250 Q&As max in a day. Minimum 50. Minimum 1 chapter a day.

I do not force myself to study when I don’t want to. Heck, I even skip class when I feel like I’m just going to sleep there. I watch TV and I go out. I do not limit. I study when I am happy and I study happily and that seems to be working. I cannot share yet my study guides or my study tips and whatsnot until I have proven it to be effective and that’s not until I pass the test.

In summary:

NY Application + CGFNS CVS Application + Issued CVS Report + NY Eligibility + Register at Pearson Vue + Get ATT + Schedule the Exam + Take the Exam + Pass The Exam = NY License

*Insert Study and Preparation and Mandated Courses in between

If you have questions, feel free to comment.  I would love to hear from you. I might write about review when I am in a void. Thank you!

-N

Opportunities, Misfortunes, and The Makings Of

We live in an imperfect world, a world so imperfect that the society’s flaws seem customary. But I do not understand why this should be the case. We are imperfect but imperfection is not tantamount to hopelessness and helplessness. And even if it is, being hopeless and helpless don’t mean you have to continuously go with the flow and stick with the status quo. They say this is life and this is life as we know it. Wrong. Life is what we make of it. And your life is the product of the series of choices and turns you do each day.

Right now, I am a 23- year old Filipino Registered Nurse who graduated from nursing school and passed the local board examination on April and August of 2011 respectively. It has been 2 years and here I am still jobless. My being jobless and having no own means of income are burden, not just to me but to my parents and my family. I rely on a monthly allowance that is from the interest of the money being lent by my parents to the people that need it. It is more than enough 95% of the time but sometimes it is just a dime short for my needs. But I never go hungry and I occasionally buy stuff that makes me happy. Sometimes I get to save, sometimes I don’t. There are some opportunities that came, some I failed to answer or acknowledge, some I didn’t get, some I declined. I think I’ve always known what I want and more often than not, those opportunities do not present me with that. I am a little embarrassed to myself, to people, to my parents, that at this age I have not earned my own money since the short lived call center stint I had and left at for my nursing training. I am just lucky that my parents do not pressure me to get a job other than what I really want. A job that will make use of my hard earned degree and sought after profession.

Yesterday, I went to file my application at University of Santo Tomas Hospital, for what appears to be the third time, almost a year after I finished my Medical-Surgical Nurse Training Program there. I don’t know what happened and why it is taking so long for them to hire me. I am not the smartest nurse there is but I am not dumb rock to begin with, so to speak. My clinical preceptor even told me then that I am the best preceptee she had and that I am the first to ever get a line if 9 rating from her. I am quick on my feet. I make sure I know what I need to know and I know how to do what needs to be done. I hate not knowing and the answer ‘I don’t know’ is not acceptable to me. But human as I am, I do not know everything there is under the sun but I make sure I ask and I read and I learn on and about it because not knowing after being confronted with something you are supposed to know the second time is never acceptable. My being compassionate, hardworking, and conscientious make up for my not being a latin award honoree and for not knowing someone from the inside or from the system so I can get the job express. All these do not answer the question, why hasn’t USTH called me yet?

I have always wanted to become a nurse. Or maybe even a bit more than just a nurse. I wanted to become a doctor or a lawyer. My relatives and friends say I can do it and I will make a good doctor or lawyer. But my parents are already of age and my siblings and I wanted them to retire early so I didn’t push to overburden them with my academic needs more than what they can stress-free provide. Right now, I want to practice my profession. I want to care for people, to touch and even change lives. I want to make a difference in an indifferent world. I miss talking to people and caring for them and making them feel that they are well taken care of, that they are not alone. I miss the touch I give to convey that I do care and that to me they are not cases and patients but people that need all the help that they can get to get through all these that they have to get through. I miss the smell of antiseptics and bleach and even the pungent smell that hospitals reek of. I miss doing what matters. I miss doing what matters to me the most.

My license expires in 10 months and despite the three hospital training I had since, I have not fully used it. I know I chose to wait. I chose USTH over a much bigger and more recognized institution. And for the past year and a half, this is the cycle of choices I made and still making. I choose to wait.

Right now, I sit 8-9 hours a day in a classroom or computer laboratory 5 days a week in preparation for my foreign licensure. When I still can, I read and answer a minimum of 2 chapters a day and 150 questions a day. I am far from proving to NCBSN that I am a competent nurse, but I am not that far that I know before the year ends, I can call myself a USRN, too.

My life is imperfect, almost too imperfect that I ask myself everyday, ‘Why is this happening to me? or ‘Why do I seem to unfortunate that I have to wait this long?’ I feel helpless and sometimes even hopeless and I do seem to be just going along the waves and along the status quo. Most of my choices have broken me instead of making me before but this time around, my choice to wait and intensely cling to that goal and purpose is going to make me this time around. With that and with all the blessings I am getting, I am beyond thankful.

Back for Good, Hopefully

I’ve been an awful lot blogger for not being able to update and maintain this blog like I promised myself almost a year ago when I created it and being preoccupied with a hobby isn’t going to make up for that. But I am back to business or whatever. I’ve been running around with thoughts in my mind that needed to be broken down into some spectacle or clutter for a blog post for months.

And just to a wee, quick update, I have just started my official NCLEX-RN review last June 6 here in Manila. I know I have been reading and answering questions since I started applying last August 2012 but I figured that isn’t quite counted and valid preparation because I wasn’t serious about it and I didn’t prioritize it.

So yes, it’s 6:51 am of June 19^th today. My class is in 3 hours and I am just killing some time catching up with a few TV series to relax.

I promise to myself I will update, especially NCLEX-RN wise. I would like to hear stories from people preparing or applying for it. And maybe I can help. 

- N

Buhay Paddler

April 30, 2013

Blessed, honored, humbled, and empowered - just four of the things I feel 2 1/2 months after joining the Philippine Dragonboat Rowing Team (PDRT) Fireblades. No one (and I mean NO ONE) expected I can do this. Some people even said di na akobabalik, that I won't survive and just quit. But I didn't and I don't see it that way.

I've come from being a mere supporter on the sidelines, to a dead weight on the banca, to someone who endures and frisk away muscle soreness and pain, to a force to be reckoned with. Chos.

1 local race, 1 international race (where we bagged 1 Gold and 3 3rd runner up places) under my belt, and the Philippine National Games to champion next month, kaya square ang blade, twist, reach, power entry, quick pull, j-shape, bangon, taas recovery, baon, etc. pa. Keep calm and paddle (pero if you know me + as evidenced by this picture, hindi ka kaya maka-kalma)!

Love Beyond All Faults. Cry Behind Closed Doors. Fight Battles That No One Knows About.

Ah, it’s been a while blog. I think I owe a lot of stories by now. The last time I was here, I was a nursing a terrible heartbreak. And now that I am back, I still am nursing a big, fat heartbreak, which luckily and unluckily at the same time, is different from that of before.

“How was the first quarter of my 2013?”, I asked myself today.  Let’s see.

My sister and my niece visited the country after not seeing them for almost 3 years and I spent very little time with them because I was away from home for a training I was always hesitant of taking part in.  A few days before they left, I got sick, caught a flu, and didn't see a doctor to be checked until it is nearly Pneumonia. They left with a promise that my parents are due to follow them to the States soon. I still am not well despite the meds and had a TB scare because I lost weight, lost my appetite, and had blood in my phlegm which I eventually realized was due to a chicken bone I swallowed that nicked my throat. The doctor doesn’t know what to make out of what is happening to me. Flu then what? Pneumonia? No. Lungs are clear. Allergies? Maybe. Until he said it may be Tracheobronchitis. Practically, I drowned my liver and kidneys with antibiotics which don’t seem to work. Impractically, those medications are damn expensive and they didn’t work or they aren’t for me to begin with. Finally, I got better and gained all the weight I lost back. Color is back on my cheeks and so are the unnecessary and unwelcomed fats. I, too, joined a sport’s team – a dragonboat rowing team and if you know me at all, you’d just laugh at me and dubiously look me with equal questioning eyes. People from the team probably thought I won’t make it out there alive, that I will quit, but I am still in the team and on my way to my 2nd race.

Amidst all these, I was with the best hospital in the country and was about to be deployed in the area by April. Despite having other plans and another preferred hospital at that – even if this is the best hospital in the country – I did all my best. I aced every exam, every oral revalida, every recitation. I was in my A game. The once timid and mediocre girl in the corner is back on the tracks. I was then ‘highly recommended for hiring’, my preceptor’s own words. I was ridiculed by the nurse in the employee’s health clinic for being fat. The doctor had to send me back to my gynecologist for more series of tests because of my Polycystic Ovaries, which shouldn’t be a matter of concern because it is just not. They say I might bleed when the problem is I do not bleed regularly. They say they don’t want me taking my meds or anyone who is taking meds but what if that is what keeping them from any further harm? The doctor said I might have bigger and more cysts somewhere in my system when in fact, the TRS / UTZ is conclusive that I have less than 1 millimeter (YES, that minute things) cysts that my gyne characterized as dot-like. In the end, he didn’t give me clearance because I am on hormonal pills to help me with my PCOS and menstrual irregularity. He – a doctor – wanted me to stop taking my meds, the only thing which hinders more cysts from growing. He isn’t a gynecologist and he doesn’t have the say for me to do that. My gynecologist, who by the way, is affiliated in that same hospital, is furious. My family and friends cry foul – it is discrimination, they tell me, and I believe it is. After all, what does my ovaries got to do with my job? My ovaries won’t hold a dying patient’s hands. My ovaries won’t care for sick people. My ovaries sure as hell won’t talk to patients and  make them feel better. Should I stop taking my meds so I won't have any chance of bearing children in the future? So I just let it go. Not because I am letting myself get victimized by the fucked up system, not because I am a coward to change the system. You just know that things are not worth it when you see it eye to eye.

Do I have any regret or sense of waste as to what happened? No. Because my heart – and my caring hands, are with somewhere else. It always has been. So after a year of my training at another hospital, I had my papers followed up because that’s where I always wanted to be. That’s where I felt I am indeed a nurse and that I am appreciated as one. I checked with the Nursing Service Office and Human Resource Division only to be told that the reason that they have not contacted me for further evaluation is because I have not submitted my requirements in the first place. How is it possible when a month after my training, I submitted my complete requirements, on the first day when they already allowed us to do so, with the people who are now scheduled to start their jobs there as a Staff Nurses? A cousin of mine told me that we have an aunt who is working there. Do not get me wrong. I know I said before how I hate the backer system that this country is so sought at for. I told my parents about this and they confirmed that I, indeed, have an aunt who has been there for a long time now. We knew a lot of doctors from there but we didn’t sought help for me to be employed, not once. But I figured, she’s my aunt, I am more than deserving and qualified so I owe no fucking explanation to anybody. We then found that my application has been sleeping there at the bottom pile because no one’s giving a little push to it. I have always known that that is how it is here so it wouldn’t really hurt if I use my linkages, too. After all, I know to myself that I owe nobody a goddamn explanation and I fucking deserve this this time.

On that same day that we visited her and submitted a new set of application, our house helper called my mom, who was in the city for their check-up in the same hospital, and to fetch me, to say that our dog, Pretty, passed away. My niece couldn’t help but tell me the ill news right away even if my dad told her not to tell me until we got home (which I would have been mad about) and we are in the middle of a hospital where real human beings die every time. I didn’t even know she was sick. It doesn’t make any sense. It has been more than a month since I saw her – alive and well. As expected, I cried almost as instantaneously like how people just die one minute after you see them alive – and I felt that, I , too, have died. A big part of me has died. I cried and cried and the 4-5 hours of ride back home to the province has been the longest and most painful trip of my life. I loved – love – Pretty so much, almost to a fault. She is my constant companion, my pull, my one true bestfriend – which are all understatements if I have to be very honest. We arrived home to see her covered in her old spot. I asked for her not to be buried until we got home, breaking more than a dozen health and sanitation rules but I don’t give a crap, until I see her for one last time. She lay there, like her sleeping old self. She obviously lost a lot of weight, I’ve been told she has not eaten in 4 days, and I felt a pang of grief and pain that we may have neglected her and that no one is around until her last dying breath and worse, I didn’t see her and she didn’t see me through her wonderful, big doe eyes I have always grown too fond of. We are all there, family, Dad, Mom, my brother, Nicole, crying – bawling, speaking to her, thinking maybe she still can hear us. Even our other 3 dogs are in despair. Apologies and gratitude are said to this lovely furry creature we have been for 8 long years. She died young but I’d like to think she didn’t die with her life’s purpose unfulfilled. She changed us. She changed ME. She made me my best possible humble and compassionate self. She made me peaceful and warm and loving to every breathing being. She deserved a separate post than this, which by the way will take time because one cannot help but cry when one speaks of such wonderful living form that she is. To say that she is the best dog is truly an understatement. We are forever in debt of her goodness to our family and I face each day with both joy and pain – joy because she is in a happier place now and pain because I can no longer share that happiness with her. I miss her yesterday, today, and will always miss her tomorrow and for the many years and dog years to come.

In the middle of all these, my parents are due to leave in 5 days and only God knows how long we will have to see them again. Visas are not freely and easily given to people like me – a nurse, and an unemployed and inexperienced one at that. This, too, deserves a other post, in another time, because I don’t think I have an ounce of courage nor strength to break through my denial and sadness of being left behind with tons of responsibilities and independence I do not like. But I am a big girl now and one must continue living not just for oneself but for others – for Nicole, my brother, my family in the States, our dogs, and other many dogs out there who need saving.

Also, to make myself even more despondent, as if it is not enough to be this despondent for too long, I missed my job interview at the Philippine Institute of Development Studies. They e-mailed me last Monday for a scheduled interview the next day (I frankly didn't expect to be considered) and I read the email the next day after that. As much as I would like to regret and feel ashamed for not being able to check and be prepared for this, I chose not to. It isn’t living and sure it won’t be the death of me. At least, not today.

So...

5 days, mom and dad will fly to the States.

I am left with so much responsibilities and I will become a mother overnight because I need to care for my niece and our dogs and myself all at the same time.

I need to get into UST. I need to pass my exam. I may need to go to Law School. I need to lose weight. I need to learn how to be independent and how to not get victimized and absorbed into by this country’s dirty system. I need to see the light beyond the tunnel.

God save me.

x Nin

Personal Paradox

Hey X,

I feel unwanted today. Like a broken toy or an old piece of clothing. Dusty. Worn out. Torn. Out of place. Replaceable. I don’t know if it is normal to feel all these bad things at once. What I am sure of is that this is something I wouldn't want any person I love to feel.

I also feel helpless. No power. No means to actually create a fire, let alone spark a plug.

I feel numb and hurt both at the same time. I cannot explain why and I feel embarrassed even to myself to admit why.

I guess this is the price you have to pay when you are aloof, frigid, cold, and emotionally distant. When you push people away and far from you.

But sometimes, all I want is for them to pull me closer the harder I push them away. Sometimes, all I want is for them to need me back.

And yet again, I am selfish and I always ask for too much.

Not that you listen but thanks,

N

Of burgers and tears

Dear X,

I cannot talk about things like this to anyone that even my shrink tells me I am being illogical. So I am writing this down here just in case someone understands. I’m going to start calling you X from now on because I do not know and I couldn’t be sure who is reading this, whether someone does, so I’m going to start referring to you as the variable ‘X’.

My dad just brought me my favorite burger not over an hour ago. And my reaction was more of horror than thankful. I figured he had to leave work early today and I hope it is not because he finds a need to buy me a freaking burger. Thing is, he brought me this big burger which I am fond of eating before, which I never eat anymore. And that has to mean one thing after his question early this morning before we went for our usual run.

I am not sure what gave him the idea but he asked me if I slept in late last night. I can’t bring myself to look in the mirror to check if my eyes are puffy or red or both. If that’s what gave everything away. I didn't know I slept crying last night, like I didn't know that I do for the past months. I answered ‘no’ and he didn't give a fuss anymore.

I respect so much of my dad, more so for respecting my privacy and not asking too many questions that’s only going to make me tear up. The last thing I want to do is to cry in front of my parents. But I guess, my silence is worst than my crying itself. I do not know if my mom has told him of why I am like this (not that I said much), whatever I am like these days or for the past months. Why I find it necessary to go home whenever I can (because I cannot be left alone in my dorm room, because I will just start crying and bawling and shrinking into a ball and cry all over again). Why I push myself to run at least a mile a day or until my legs hurt. Why I do not eat or sleep or talk too much like I used to. Why I always ask for hugs. Why I cut my hair. Why I am not the same happy person that I once was.

I can only hope that they do not worry about me. Another thing I don’t want them to do is to worry about me, not when they are leaving in a few months.

Are dads always like this? Do they easily pick up what troubles their daughters? Do they sense that they are hurt or sad or feeling abandoned? Do they really feel something is wrong even if we do not speak of it?

Daddy, I know you are not ever going to read this but thank you. Thank you for all these. For not asking more than what I can answer, for keeping me on my feet, for always making me feel that I am worth it and that I am worthy of all the love in this world. I love you and I love that I will always be your girl.

I love you that much that I ate half of the burger even if I didn’t want to. I ate it even if it made me feel sick and that it was hard for me to stomach it. Partly, I ate it because I do not want you to worry and I do not like you thinking that something is wrong (even when there is truly something wrong).

I hope this is the first and last burger. Not only because I do not want to eat it, but also because I do not think the burger is going to help me get that space between my thighs. :)

Love you Dad,

Wanina