About 10 months ago or approximately January 2021, a college of nursing here in Canada posted what seemed to be a testimonial video or advertisement video. The video featured a nurse just named as "Jackie G.". According to some sources, Jackie is a clinical instructor for said college. She's been an instructor for 10 years and prior to that, a nurse in the Middle East and Makati Medical Center. It sounds like an impressive repertoire especially when you add that she also has made educational programs to help internationally educated nurses (IENs) become Canada registered nurses.
The video she made was titled "What's The Difference Between a Registered Nurse (RN) in the Philippines and in Canada?" What seems like a benign topic suddenly went viral in October 2021 as one nurse shared it to his page, then re-posted by others, especially to various Facebook groups and other social media sites.
The original video of Stenberg College was immediately inundated with comments and violent reactions that they had to remove Jackie's video and subsequently removed every bit of presence in all their social media platforms.
As the video got shared, it reached a news channel and also got into the sights of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA).
Why did Jackie's video get so much hate? I was able to make a reaction video of it before Stenberg College took down the Youtube video.
At first glance, you might think that she's only sharing funny experiences that she had when she was a registered nurse in the Philippines. In fact, I do find Jackie to be a bit similar to most of the clinical instructors and seniors/supervisors I have encountered. The ones that use hyperbolic messages about their past experiences to mentor future nurses. There's nothing wrong with using hyperbole. Unfortunately, hyperbole is one of those figurative languages that can be received differently and possibly offend someone depending on the state of the listener/reader.
In this case, Jackie's hyperbolic messages painted a whole group of people in a negative light. To better understand the situation, here's another way of looking at the video by a nurse influencer named Nurse Even.
KENEDEKENEDE.mp4
Posted by Nurse Even on Saturday, October 16, 2021
It's quite unfortunate but Jackie's use of hyperbolic language has made it seem like every nurse in the Philippines are incompetent. Therein lies the problem.
Here's the video with those statements removed.
Notice the huge difference on how it sounds.
So, a lot of people were incensed by the original video. Stenberg College did remove it, but their apology statement didn't even abate the feelings of many slighted Filipino nurses. Nor did Jackie's apology statement do anything to a lot of the nurses who watched her youtube video.
Stenberg College Apology Post regarding Jackie's Video
Messages from the President and from Jackie G. RN
A Message from the President:
Yesterday, it came to the attention of senior staff at our college that a video on our YouTube channel was receiving some very critical commentary online and was being shared in a negative light throughout the Filipino nursing community. From the online comments being made about the video, we learned that the video’s content was found to be condescending and offensive.
Stenberg College takes great pride in being an educator of nursing and healthcare professionals, and we especially value the vast knowledge and experience that our internationally educated students bring to the classroom and then on into their careers. We have great respect for our Filipino nursing students who we, along with employers throughout British Columbia, regard as among the best in the world. It has deeply upset us that a video produced by Stenberg has offended and hurt many viewers in the Filipino community.
We apologize unreservedly.
We took immediate action to remove the video from our YouTube channel and elsewhere. With all our videos, we seek to give a voice to real people to share their personal experiences, perspectives and stories in order to provide a source of information or inspiration. Clearly, on this occasion, we badly missed the mark, and we take full responsibility for that.
For the faculty member who appeared in the video to share her experience, this has been profoundly upsetting and humbling. As an internationally educated nurse (IEN) herself, she is incredibly passionate about IEN preparation for Canadian licensure. It is her life’s work, and the last thing she intended was to offend an audience of her peers.
We welcome the opportunity to grow and learn from this experience. Please feel welcome to engage with us, as you have, through calls and emails offering constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. We remain more committed than ever to supporting internationally educated nurses from around the world to gain their licensure in Canada, and to succeed in every way here. Any input from the communities we serve strengthens our mission.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Sabell, President, Stenberg College
_________________________________________
A Message from Jackie G, RN:
I truly struggle to find the right words to express to you all how sorry I am for the anger, resentment and pain that my words have caused. Although it was never my intention to describe the RN profession in the Philippines as being in any way inferior to nursing in Canada, or to suggest that nursing in the Philippines is in any way unprofessional, I accept absolutely that my video interview communicated differently from what I intended.
I will always be proud to be a Filipino. Those of you who have reached out in the spirit of collegial support, guidance and sharing, have reinforced why I am so proud of my roots and the world-renowned Filipino nursing traditions I represent.
For those of you that I don’t have the opportunity to connect with directly, once again, I am deeply sorry for the offence I have caused. Please know that I will be moving forward from this experience with greater Filipino Pride, ensuring always that my words and actions will uplift all Filipino Nurses around the world.
Once again, I apologize and I truly thank all of you for standing up for all Filipino Nurses. Salamat po.
Sincerely,
Jackie G, RN & Stenberg College IEN Instructor
Personally, I think this apology lacks a bit. Though I'm not one for beating the horse here, this apology would have served better if it was a video apology in their Youtube channel. And after, everything should be good. However, I have read some of the comments and some of them were really below the belt already. Like the people wishing harm to come to Jackie and Stenberg college. That's not going to solve things.
Aside from an apology though, what more can the college and Jackie do?
I think the overreaction has led to some big changes in Stenberg. For one thing, they have removed a lot of testimonial video which feature Filipinos in the Stenberg College youtube channel. And while Filipinos are IENs that are customers of the college, a boycott might not make a difference as there are IENs from other countries. And I've always thought that boycotts are extreme measures for something like Jackie's video.
Everyone should just take time to reflect if responding with virulent words will be effective in this situation.
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