On passing the Nursing Board Exam

As luck (or fate) would have it. I passed the Philippine Local Nursing Licensure Exam. 32,617 out of 77,901 passed the June 2009 Licensure Examination with a national passing rate of 41.87%. And lo and behold, that 41.87% of happy happy passers included me.

I was passer # 12075. Yay!

My internal celebration didn't stop there, thankfully. Internal because people around me sort of expected that I would pass, and when I did, well, let's just say the congratulations and applause were a bit lacking in the excitement area. One of the down sides of too much expectations.

Anyways, although it seemed to me that I was the only one up in the clouds about it all I relished my achievement. More so when I received my board rating.

It was a peculiar day when we decided to go to Professional Regulation Commission and get our ratings and other requirements. Schedules were thrown out the window and expected people didn't show up while unexpected ones popped out. After saying our hello's and complaining about the PRC crowd, we smartly cheated our way into the numerous PRC lines. (Yes, cheated, and proud of it). After a surprisingly short wait, we got a hold of our ratings and woohoo, what I got was better than I expected.

In the world of mediocre line of 7's, I was praying for at least an 80 general average. What presented in front of me was a fat 82.40, 4 out f 5 tests with 80 plus grades and one angry 79 in Test II. Ugh, should have known. Community and Maternal Health. My most hated subjects have come back to haunt me.

But it was better than I expected. And I was ecstatic about that. Lesson learned: Expectations really do matter, it actually matters more than people think it does.

After our PRC trip, we decided to head on over to the Philippine Nurse's Association office in Gil Puyat. Unfortunately, at 3:30pm, it was already closed and was not accepting applicants. Tired and slightly irritated, we decided to try our luck again the next day and as a routine, schedules were not again followed but eventually, we got our neon pink PNA IDs (if you could call it that). Ok, maybe more like a cardboard with signatures and numbers on it. We still have to paste our pictures and write our names ourselves. Fun, not.

But who's complaining? What we've worked for is now right in the palm of our hands (and hopefully our PRC card real soon). What's next is this newly registered nurse's fight and flight through the jungles of the health care system.

And that's exactly what this blog is all about.