That's what I thought...
When my older son started formal schooling I had to "borrow" money from my uncle. He did not have second thoughts about it. I was thinking he would shoulder my sons' education for free as long as I was of service to him (aside from being a doctor I acted on his behalf for such things as replying to DOH correspondences, entertaining potential investors in our clinic. I also gave him marketing ideas. When Quality Management Systems was required of our diagnostic clinic, he had to send me to train for QAM for me to facilitate ISO certification, which I did.)But his wife intervened and made sure that I paid my debt through salary deduction. With my meager salary, I could never afford to feed my family well without having to ask for cash advance from the clinic. My mind raced. It was insane of me to ever think that my uncle would treat me like his daughter that he never had (especially that his oldest son has turned out to be a big disappointment.)
During that time a lot of my colleagues were already inviting me to join them in their pursue of the nursing career, but also, Canada had opened its immigration doors to doctors. There was also an article on the newspaper saying that NHS in UK were in dire need of teachers and doctors, hence they are accepting foreign applicants. So I ignored the invitations to a nursing career in the US. I was thinking, doctors are also in demand, why should I settle for less? I attended a seminar on Canadian immigration and I researched on the net about NHS and proceeded with the initial steps in applying...until I came to a point when I needed to have $$$$ just to take up exams prior to medical practice in UK, and the need for $$$$ for the immigration company to process my papers for Canada. It was a dead end. I gave up the idea then.
Now the idea of a one-year Nursing course, with extra exams on English and CGFNS, with bonus incentives and free immigration processing for nurses indeed sounded soooo good and offered hope to my distraught soul. Hence I pursued Nursing. Many friends and relatives were quite supportive of it (especially my aunt in California who helped my sister in her Nursing degree).
When I sat in a nursing lecture prior to enrolment I was astounded to see the students -- medical directors, hospital owners, subspecialists, DOH employess with high positions -- both young and old doctors were there! While I was shifting to the nursing career because of financial potential, these rich doctors were making the change for a more secure future for their children. (Let's face it -- our government sucks!)
The following are photos taken during our community nursing in Isabela, Cagayan.
Left photo was taken inside the bus on our way to Isabela for Community Nursing rotation.
Shown here from left to right are me, Me Anne, Joey, Nerie, Recy, and AJ.
Center photo shows the class in LaS allete University in Isabela. Notice the range of age of the students.
Right photo shows us while we were resting in one of our trip to houses of our community for our case study.
Left photo shows us having fun time partying and singing videoke on our last night in Isabela.
Right photo was taken while we were stranded after our bus had a non-fatal accident that we had to wait for another bus to fetch us.