Join me as I share my experiences as a Filipino nurse navigating the UK’s National Health Service. From adapting to a new healthcare system to balancing shift work and living abroad, this is where I document my journey, connect with fellow nurses, and offer helpful insights.
Welcome to my blog, a space dedicated to sharing my experiences as a Filipino NHS nurse in the UK. Here, I offer insights, reflections, and encouragement for fellow nurses, healthcare workers, and anyone navigating life's transitions. Join me as I explore the challenges and triumphs of life, shifts, and scrubs.
In Part 1 of Caring Through Conflict, I wrote about what it feels like to experience conflict as a nurse — the pressure to remain calm, the emotional control we practise in the moment, and the quiet processing that happens long after the shift ends.
Nursing is more than clinical skills, charts, and routines. It is emotional labour, quiet resilience, and showing up for others even when you are running on empty.
Nursing began as a practical decision for many Filipino nurses seeking stability and opportunity beyond home. This reflection explores how working as an NHS nurse transformed that choice into a deeper sense of purpose, shaped by migration, patient care, loss, and quiet human connection.
Being an NHS nurse in charge is more than a title on a rota. It’s a responsibility you carry — for patient safety, staff wellbeing, and decisions that don’t end when the shift does. This isn’t a role you clock out of. It stays with you.
Ask almost any nurse what makes or breaks a shift, and staffing will be at the top of the list. For many Filipino nurses, staffing shortages are not just an occasional challenge—they are a daily reality that shapes how we practise, think, and survive each shift.
This blog post is not about deciding which healthcare system is better. Instead, it is an honest reflection on the differences in nursing practice in the Philippines and the UK, seen through my own journey as a Filipino nurse now working in the NHS. It is written for fellow nurses, particularly overseas Filipino nurses, who may recognise parts of their own experiences in these words.
Nursing Notes share real reflections from the ward, written from my perspective as a nurse and grounded in evidence-based practice. Each post blends lived nursing experience with clinical insight, references, and the realities of patient care in the NHS. Step into the notes and explore the thinking, observations, and moments that truly shape a shift.
Oxygen is one of the most commonly administered therapies in hospital practice. On a busy ward, it can feel almost instinctive — the saturations drop, the patient looks breathless, and oxygen goes on. Over the years working in NHS renal and urology settings, I have seen how quickly it becomes the default response to abnormal observations, clinical concern, or even professional anxiety. It is often perceived as universally “safe”, something that can only help and never harm.
Fluids — they seem simple. Yet nothing feels basic when you are standing at a bedside, watching blood results drift upward, considering intake and output charts, or recalculating fluid balance for the third time in a shift.
Sepsis remains a leading cause of preventable mortality and critical illness worldwide. In the UK, it is estimated to contribute to tens of thousands of deaths annually, with early recognition repeatedly identified as the single most important modifiable factor influencing outcomes (NICE, 2016; UK Sepsis Trust, 2023).
Every shift, nurses ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of zero to ten. But what happens when that number doesn’t reflect how much someone is really suffering?
On a busy nursing shift, observations are often the most frequently performed assessment — and sometimes the most easily overlooked. Taken repeatedly throughout the day, they can begin to feel routine, reduced to numbers on a chart rather than meaningful clinical information.
My name is John, and I'm a proud Filipino nurse working in the NHS. Life, Shifts & Scrubs is where I share my personal journey, reflecting on my experiences, challenges, and growth. My goal is to connect with other nurses, especially those from overseas, and create a supportive community. I hope my stories resonate with you and provide valuable insights into nursing life in the UK.
