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Pete-Reuben Calixto's first inkling to move from the
Philippines to the United States can be traced back
to the simple task of reading textbooks in nursing school.
The books were written by American authors, and Calixto,
RN, noticed that the technology they described was a
far cry from the equipment being used in his country's
hospitals. He was eager to immerse himself in the latest
medical practices and was inspired by the stories of
fellow Filipino nurses who'd returned to tell of their
adventures in America. In 1979, he decided to pursue
a job in the United States-and he's never looked back.
One of the first obstacles he remembers was trying
to find reliable recruiters. He'd heard horror stories
about recruiters who lured Filipino nurses to sign illegitimate
contracts. With advice from fellow nurses, he connected
with trustworthy recruiters and landed a job as a dialysis
nurse at Florida Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale.
It didn't take long for him to encounter his next challenge
as an international nurse: learning to be direct.
"It was difficult to accept that," Calixto
said. "In the Philippines, people try to beat around
the bush or try to be polite by saying they understand
something even if they don't because of fear of being
labeled. In the United States, it's better to just say
'I don't understand.' "
He also noticed that American nurses are more autonomous
than those in the Philippines, and Calixto said he thrived
in an environment where he had more responsibility.
He was vacationing in San Francisco when he began tinkering
with the idea of moving yet again, but this time it
was within the same country. "I liked the weather
in San Francisco, and I wanted to work in a teaching
hospital because that environment would foster state-of-the-art
nursing," he said.
In 1981, he accepted a position as a nurse in a kidney
transplant unit at the University of California, San
Francisco School of Medicine. Now, the challenges were
rarely related to cultural transition, but focused on
the dilemma of working in a unit dependent on donor
organs.
"The type of people you meet is challenging,"
he said. "They usually approach the treatment with
a lot of misconceptions that you have to correct. One
is that not everybody is going to get a kidney. When
you are a transplant nurse, you wish there could be
more organs."
In September, Calixto was promoted to kidney transplant
coordinator. He's also working to help other Filipino
nurses support one another as they transition to working
in the United States. Calixto is president of the Philippine
Nurses Association of America.
But he has a second goal for this group as well: to
educate American hospital employees about the cultural
ways of the Filipino nurses they are recruiting. He
and other members of the association have started giving
presentations at hospitals to help American health workers
understand the growing Filipino nursing population.
Although he still relates to the Filipino recruits,
Calixto said that after 22 years in the United States,
he feels more like an American.
"I feel glad that I'm here, and proud of America,"
he said. "I have gone over the fence, and now I'm
one of you guys. I no longer consider myself an outsider."
Contact
Heather Stringer at heathers@nurseweek.com.
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