International Nurse in Pennsylvania - Live and Work

Hi everyone and welcome my name is Luciana Da Silva with Connetics USA. It is Friday that time or the week time for our onwards and upwards show everything a global nursing needs to know to live and prosper in the United States. We have a fantastic show for you. Today we are focusing on Pennsylvania, what it is like to live and work as an international health care worker in the state of Pennsylvania. Now, just for you to remember, if you do want to come and live and work in the United States, please go to our website Conneticsusa.com/apply, fill out an application and we can get you started on your journey. Today's show we have some wonderful guests from Pennsylvania joining us. Let's meet our guests right now. We have Michelle Cody. Hi, how's it going?

Good. How are you?

Good. Good. We're so glad that both of you are able to meet with us today. Um, let's do some introductions. Michelle, please introduce yourself to our audience.

Hi, guys. My name is Michelle. I'm a registered nurse here in Pennsylvania. I work for Sabre health care group as a Regional Director of Clinical Services and I love it.

Hi, guys, my name is My name is Cody Manan, I am a divisional vice president. So what that means is I essentially oversee the operations for all 24 of our skilled nursing centers in Pennsylvania, one in Delaware. As well as we have a new acquisition coming on sometime this summer, which I will also oversee so I'm more operations Michelle works on the clinical side of things, but um, very nice to see you guys.

Wonderful. Yes, and both of our guests today are from Sabre health. Michelle give us a little bit of background on Sabre just so that our audience knows where you're from.

Sabre is a great company. They are based out of Ohio, they do have a number of buildings here in Pennsylvania. Very supportive. This is probably the first company I've worked with that I felt supported from every level. I know, you know, as do when I was a deal. When was saber I knew my regionals. My regional nurses were in the building all the time, Cody was actually my Regional Vice President of Operations at the time, so we got to know each other well, in that time. I just love working for Sabre, they're a great company.

And Cody, tell us what does Sabre focus on what type of health care workers do you recruit?

Quality? Um, you know, I mean, we do we do skilled nursing. So, so in other words, for, for clinicians, we need RNs. LPNs and CNAs. Yeah, so, you know, that's, that's kind of and then and then, you know, we're always looking and we're always hiring, we always want the best quality people. Um, but uh, yeah, so we're mostly skilled nursing,

skilled nursing, allied health care. We're so glad to have both of you here. Now for everyone in the chat. Please put in your questions about Pennsylvania, about saver health. Our guests are here to answer them to answer them for you, and help you get started in your journey here in the United States. Also, please put in the chat your name where you're from, we'd like to give you a shout out here I see that Claire is saying hello. And is an RN from Ghana. Grace is asking how can I apply we're glad soon you can go to our website Conneticsusa.com/apply and fill out our application. Our recruiters are waiting to speak with you and place you with the healthcare facility here in the United States. We also have Zulfiqar from Dubai saying hello by Sally saying hi from Kashmir, India, as well as saying hello, I'm an RN, from Belize. We have people from all over the world joining us today. So we're very, very excited. Let's get started. I'm going to start with Michelle here. Tell us about where you live. What city do you live in and tell us about what it's like to live there.

So I live in a very small town. It's called Fremont. It's very rural. We often joke that there's more cows than people in this area, which is most of the time true. We are very close to bigger cities bigger metropolis is the good thing about living in this area is everybody knows everybody. We're family here. So a lot of the residents that we take care of in our facilities we grew up with I, I recently took care of a teacher that that taught me algebra in high school. So it's, it's great to see and to have that connection before the residents come in and it it ups your game It ups that quality of care that you want to give. But the area is great. I always say to that we're never more than two hours away from, you know, Big City Life. Two hours away from Philadelphia, half an hour drive from Harrisburg, the state capitol. There's a big town about 20 minutes from here that it's America's oldest beer brewery. So if you're into beer, and you like to take free tours, they have a great tour.

Love the beer tours, and it's five o'clock somewhere that somewhere on the other side of the world. So if you're drinking a beer right now and getting ready to go to butcher see. We also have two international nurses joining us as well Connetics nurses who also live in Pennsylvania. Let's start out with Stella please introduce yourself to our audience.

Well, I'm Stella. I'm from Nigeria. I'm one of the International nurses working at Penn State. I moved to the United States last year, November, and I'm living in Pennsylvania.

When Pennsylvania are you?

God pew

Camp Hill Okay. While we're talking about some smaller cities here, that's just wonderful so that our audience can get an idea of all the places to live in Pennsylvania. There's the big cities and the small towns with Shamy. Please introduce yourself to our audience. You're on mute. Oh, it's so good.

Hi, this is Rashmi us Aryan. I have just arrived. Pennsylvania just two months ago. I was I was previously working in Nepal as a registered nurse. Yeah. New arrivals. Yeah.

So new arrivals coming here. That's wonderful. Cody, back to you. Tell us about where you live in in Pennsylvania. And how long have you lived there.

I've lived my whole life in Pennsylvania. And it's a very big state. And it's a very unique state. So I grew up in a place called Punxsutawney Pennsylvania, which is a which is a really small town. I live in. I live in Johnstown, Pennsylvania now, which is probably 90 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. I do spend a lot of time in the Philadelphia market because we have a very big cluster of skilled nursing facilities in the Philadelphia and the Philadelphia market, I spend a lot of time in the Scranton market. So Pennsylvania kind of gives you that flexibility of, you know, you can live in major US cities, we have Pittsburgh, and we have Philadelphia. But you could also live if you're more comfortable in a rural environment. We have plenty of rural environments to Pennsylvania is a huge state. So you know, it's a six and a half hour drive, seven hour drive depending on where you're at from one end of the state to the other. So you can live any way that you really want to and frankly, speaking for Michelle and I's organization that Sabor, we have skilled nursing facilities in all different lifestyles, major cities, small towns, anything in between.

and Stella, tell us a little bit about when you arrived in Pennsylvania, but let's back up a little bit. Why did you decide to come to the United States and work as a nurse?

That is very interesting. Well, before I migrated to the United States, I've had so much about life in the United States, so many social amenities that we are not able to enjoy in Nigeria. So and I visited United States a couple of times, and I get to witness that all that I had was actually true. Then I started making plans on how I could be able to relocate with my family and live here as a legal resident nurse in here in the United States.

And you came with your children to we hear some little ones in the background. We love those songs and we'll get more into that later on in the show of what it's like to bring your kids to the United States as an immigrant as a nurse. But Rashmi may tell us, why did you decide to come to the United States and work?

Well, I had always dreamed about working as a registered nurse in foreign countries. Once it got passed out from a nursing, I started digging up the some of the information regarding NCLEX regarding PTE many more, and what are you found most visible for me as NCLEX, because it is most secure one? Direct green card. So I was more drawn more. Got interest in that. So that that's the time when I decided, okay, this maybe the most good for my career, and my future as well. So I decided that time. Yeah.

And you took the NCLEX exam, and you said the PTE for the English exam?

Yeah, I was. I was and in many more. But mostly, what I felt is NCLEX is the most secure one.

Absolutely. Now, if you would like to work as an RN in the United States, let's bring up our success path if we can. So you can see that the first step is actually to pass your NCLEX. So whenever you take that test, and you pass the board exam to practice as a registered nurse here in the United States, then we start preparing you for an interview. And we connect you directly with a healthcare facility like Sabre health, and then you can go through your English exams is Rasheem. You said the PTE exam, the IELTS or the OET. And then we go through the immigration phase, we get you your green card. And then you come to the United States with your onboarding your training in a place like Pennsylvania, and it's time to enjoy and prosper. So if you didn't go a nurse with NCLEX, we're offering $1,000. Right now, if you refer a nurse with NCLEX, to Connetics, all you got to do is also go to our website, you can click on referral, or go to Conneticsusa.com/referral, and we'll get ready to get all of your friends and family started. So I would actually like to go back to Michelle, tell us a little bit more that you were born and raised in Pennsylvania, from what you told me earlier. What was it like to grow up in Pennsylvania as a child?

It was wonderful. And I'm not sugarcoating anything. I really enjoyed my childhood. Like I said, everybody knew everybody. It's kind of one of those idyllic towns where when the porch lights came on it at dusk, you need it to be back in the house, or all the neighbors were going to be out yelling at you to get back to house back to the house for supper. My cousins lived right down the street. My aunt's lived right down the street. My grandmother used to watch us, it's just a very laid back lifestyle. But if you still want that excitement, you know, it like I said, it's just a short drive to a big city. And my kids have grown up here, you know, they're kind of starting to fly away their school right now. So but they come back all my friends that I graduated with high school with, we always talked about getting out of Pennsylvania and getting out of this small town life. But in the end, when it came down to settle down and start our own families, we all kind of came back to this area.

That neighborhood watched that community. And that's something that's so special, especially in a place like Pennsylvania, and their smaller cities to everybody is that much more that much more connected. Cody, tell us about the area that you live. What is transportation like there?

Um, well, the we have there's all different types. It's hard to explain it. This depends on where you live to. I mean, the access to transportation where I live now, which is Johnstown, Pennsylvania is a smaller city, I would call it you know, but we have public transportation. So there's a lot of, you know, buses that are around at all times to take you all across the city. We have taxis everywhere. We Have Ubers everywhere. But getting around to me, whether you're in a, in a smaller city or a major city, I never really have a problem. Getting around that I spend a lot of time in both environments.

And it's important like, like you were mentioning to although there, you know, maybe trains and taxis and Uber and Lyft. In the United States, it seems it's very important to have a car you need a car to get from point A to point B. Stella have you and your family have you bought a car yet? What kind of transportation are you taking around where you live?

These I was making use a left to go to work and, and other friends helped me like friends that I already made. During my first time working here, I, I will always tell them that I'm having challenges coming to work, they always will. And one of the nurses leader, one of the leaders volunteered to help me as well, because they both route was, was not favorable because of the assignment that I have to be at work. So I resorted using these bad days, sometimes, she will always volunteer to help me to come to work. But now we have our own car and my husband have been the one bringing me to the hospital because I will need to have a Pennsylvania driving driver's license before I could be able to drive to work which he was the first one to have gotten that.

It's wonderful that now your family has a car. And that story that you just told about someone in your facility, someone that you work with that was reaching out to help you. And we see that over and over again, with our clients at Connetics USA nursing agency, that there's the community once again, that's able to reach out and help one another rest reamer What about you? How are you getting around?

I haven't far going around. I'm just using Uber and Lyft app. I haven't got my driver, I shouldn't say it, I need to go, I need to go to the driving classes. So what I do is just book over or lift and go around. I need to get used to it. Because I'm just new. And I have seen a couple of times boss some of the bus take a tour. But I don't know. Air sea route. So must fizzy fall for me it just the app that I'm using it.

Everything in the United States is connected to that technology. everything right? You want to order a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you do it on an app and you go pick it up you want to ride you do it on an app, then you go and the ride comes and picks you up. Rashmi you just arrived. What are your thoughts? I really want to know you just got to the United States what what's it like for you?

Like yours, like most of the that you get most of different kinds of feelings you get confused because of the policies here, as I'm from Nepal and the policy we follow there and is totally different here. Every rules and regulation is totally different. The first thing that I was amazed was I could not see people around, you know, the city was quite, I cannot see people is totally departed. I could see in nearby whatever it is. You see people so people everywhere and people travel here by their personal vehicle. And when I went for a walk with my husband, we were to we do we're only walking on the street. That was quite different feeling. And, yeah, and, and technology, I must say is more advanced than it. Yeah. misfitting you know,

getting into that technology topic. Michelle, I want to ask you about this. Let's get into the clinical side a little bit. Tell us about the technology in your facilities. What can nurses and allied healthcare workers expect? act when they arrive.

So, being in long term care, we've, we've transitioned from paper, everything to now we use a lot of technology, we pass our medications with a computer system, we do our charting with a computer system. We do a lot of things on our computers and with that technology, but the good thing about it is it's so it's easy, user friendly, you know, we've had the 18 year old 19 year old nurses come in, and they have no problem. And then we have those nurses that are tenured with us, who are maybe just a little bit shy of retirement age, and they have no problem using it. Of course, nobody likes change at first. But once you get comfortable with it, the system that we use is really very user friendly.

So it's easy for anybody to learn, for everybody to get used to. Cody, tell us a little bit more about that technology, and you work with so many different facilities within Sabre healthcare. So how do they differ? And what can people expect?

Um, well, first, that's the kind of the nice thing about working for, you know, we're a bigger company. We in the US, I mean, a lot of skilled facilities, there's a lot of really small companies. And that can get a little bit confusing. You know, but we have 126 nursing homes across seven states. So our Information Technology Department and the people that can help you get through those things. Because even here, I mean, there's a lot of people that are unfamiliar, or, you know, new systems that we have, you know, they need trained and everything. So I think that the bringing people up to speed with our technology will not be a problem, because again, we try to keep things uniform, across the entire portfolio. So you're always going to be working on kind of the same thing we're in right now, to be honest with you. And this is exciting. It's quite an undertaking. But it is exciting, we were undertaking a change in our entire electronic medical record system. So we're going to be moving to a new system here at some point in the summer, which is, which is really going to be difficult, but it'll be more user friendly. It'd be better for the patients better for the nurses, all that good stuff. But again, robust training, hand over hand training. We have a huge department that way that is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. So it, what I would say is don't be intimidated by it, because you know, there'll be a lot of help along the way.

Seems like people from all over the world are commenting and asking about Pennsylvania and life here. Ahmed is saying hello from the UAE. Joyce is saying hi Younique is an RN in Jamaica, as well as asking what are your requirements for hiring? Well, as Mary, it depends on what is your specialty? Are you an allied health care worker? Do you do long term care with nursing homes? Are you an RN? Are you do you have a specialty of OB GYN or maybe emergency room? All of those different positions also have different requirements. So if you want to be an RN, you need to have your NCLEX exam if you don't, that's okay. still apply? We have partners that offer on NCLEX scholarship that also work with AMN Healthcare who is our the owner of Connetics USA. And so please apply Conneticsusa.com/apply and we can get you going on getting hired with a healthcare facility here on Mars saying hello, everyone. What is the difference between federal tax and state tax? And how much is the tax rate in Penn State? Well, Mr. I will tell you that the difference between federal and state taxes federal means it's for the entire country, nationwide, and state taxes, taxes that are just from your state. Now if you want some more information on that we can reach out to a financial advisor. We also do shows here about taxes in the United States. So make sure you go to our website and you can get some information from some shows that we've done with experts that talk about that bus raw or Barcia is saying thank you Connetics, I got my GC visa, Green Card visa and I can't wait to work as a US RN. Great to always hear about the new green cards and like you're on your way. Let's see when we have Arthur How can I apply for a law I since endorsements in Pennsylvania, do I need an agency for that? Or have to do it personally? Any advice? What whenever you apply with Connetics USA, we help you with your license endorsements, we will help you and guide you through that entire process. So no worries, Barbara can't wait to be accepted in the program. Alia saying I need a job of medical assistant, please help me we do have allied health care facilities and medical assistant clients who are looking for people in your specialty. So please apply. And Barbara is saying applied three weeks ago in Germany saying hello. Let's get back to these questions. Now. Stella, what was it like your first day of work? You're on mute.

Okay. I will say that I felt these Brizo. warmness. I was welcomed with and raised from one of the nurse leaders when I told you that helped me with transportations. And the community was so welcoming. And I got to meet with the nurse manager, which told me the things that I'll be seeing moving forward with Penn State, not only that, their staff also recommends, I get to meet a lot of them or that day. So I didn't, I didn't feel the culture shock and work environment shock that I expected. I was kind of adapted easily with them.

Culture Shock is a real thing. And it is something that people talk about, some people don't believe that it exists. And that is culture shock. Rashmi, are you dealing with culture shock at all? What's that like for you?

Yeah, I had a culture shock before, but now I'm getting used to it. I was quite overwhelmed with the system here and policies here. I was unaware about most of the thing, especially the Human Resources thing. And now I'm getting yesterday at culture shock is like, it makes you very much depress on time. But I could get over it by talking to my family members, friends. So yeah.

Just to keep that community around. You helped me through that seller, you were saying about culture shock. Let's go back to you. What was that like for you?

Well, it means a lot to me, because I had so much before I look at it here, I had that I will get to see a lot of racism from different nationalities. But it was quite different from what I've been experiencing so far. Although, as I already made up my mind towards that, that, definitely that I was gonna see, experienced culture shock here and there. But I was hopeful. And what I saw in return wasn't the way I expected it. I felt like I adjusted real fast. And I'm also I'm also using my family to get added to, like, relieve it whenever it comes to me. Yeah.

How are your kids adjusting with the culture shock?

You know, I remember one day, my first son came back, he was crying. He was like, Mom that the dad teasing him that making just of him that he doesn't speak the way they speak. But now he told me that he can hear everything and not speaking like them but not very friendly the way they speak. But generally they love they love the system here. They love and they adopted more than my husband.

It's funny kids are so resilient, and the way that they can pick up on language and adjust. It's a beautiful thing. It really is. Yeah, and Michelle, you also mentioned that you have kids and that you know they they're growing up as well in Pennsylvania. Tell us a little bit about what their life is like there. How are the schools what do they do for fun?

So the schools in my area They're smaller schools. My daughter graduated I think, with 100 people in her graduating class. And that's opposed to a bigger city that's close to us where they graduate with 500 students. So they enjoyed that smaller class size, they got to know their friends, you know, they grew up with their friends from preschool all the way through graduation, some of them go to the same college now. I think they really enjoyed that small town, atmosphere and it, and even though it was a small town, they weren't missing out on a good quality education, they still got all the things that the big schools got. They just got it on a smaller scale. So I mean, I would hope they would say that they really liked it, they probably just didn't like school in general.

That's pretty normal for a kid, right? That's why they wait for that summer vacation. And then they can just go wild, and have so much fun there. Cody, let's go back to you for a moment to talk about what it is like living in Pennsylvania, you've lived all over the state. Now, there's a lot of history in Pennsylvania, tell us a little bit about what people can expect, historically speaking, when they go around all the different places.

Yeah, I mean, Philadelphia, is, you know, one of the first major meeting places for the foundation of the United States. So, you know, going back into the 1700s. I mean, there's a lot of historical artifacts and architecture and all that kind of stuff in Philadelphia, but it goes beyond Philadelphia, too. I mean, Pittsburgh is a very historical city. That's been a major city. In the development, there's Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, that made it a very valuable port city, as the United States developed, you know, so that's always been a very important place in this country. And then beyond that, in, in rural Pennsylvania, there's a lots of sights and sounds to see everywhere, both from a, from a landscape perspective. And from a from a historical perspective, and I know that Michelle spoke on this before, but I do think the really unique, the unique thing about us, like where we live, and again, traveling around and growing up in the United States and spending my time the majority of which in PA. I mean, it's cool that, you know, I grew up in the woods. I mean, you know, I grew up in a rural town, but I went to, you know, 10 or 15 professional sports games a year, because it's so local, so you can live kind of however you want in any way.

And Pennsylvania is a big state and like you were saying there's everything there, there are rivers, so if you like watersports, if you like to go hiking, and then there are all those sites that Cody just mentioned. Rishi, me, where have you been in Pennsylvania? Have you had a chance to do any roaming around?

To be honest, I haven't been to most of the place. The woundedness that I have been to is pagoda. It was, like, in the hilly, you can say in the hill. On top of it. You can see the beautiful scenario of the whole city haven't been got chance actually.

There's so many places to go. The United States is so big that you can spend forever your whole life exploring. Stella what have you and your family been doing for fun? Have you done any travels? Yeah, I

think it was last week. We went to marry line for a friend's birthday party. And we stayed there just one night. And it was fun. And I really enjoyed it for the fact that I could actually be in Maryland in less than in less than two hours was a very big thing for me.

That was that transportation piece that we were talking about earlier. How did you get to Maryland did you take a train because there are trains in that area of the country to that you can go from city to city all over the East Coast.

We made use of our own vehicle. My husband drove us to Maryland. Yeah, we did it on our own.

Use that new car you saw the countryside how oh yeah. That's the beauty tour is that when you have your own car, there's nothing like a road trip yet, or you hit the highway. And you can just tell us about that. We're just like driving.

Well, actually, I told my husband, the day that he bought the car, I actually told him does see that I consider myself as the as I've considered that day to be the day I entered the United States, because not having a car to move around, not as sprawling the town, you will not get to enjoy the beauty of the city. And which was actually one of the things that I've been enjoying so far after he was able to purchase the car. So we've been going out and most times is usually on maybe going for breakfast or lunch, sometimes we do dinner outside on one of the restaurants, Chinese restaurants in Come here. So that's basically what the laws I don't I'm not concerned, I will not consider it the last reason necessity. That's one beauty. One beauty thing that you get when you have a car of your own, you don't get to think about how much you pay for Uber to drive you around. You don't think about how you will be only cold weather because we moved here during winter period, and it was quite chilly outside. So whenever we're in the car, we get to turn on the heater. And you will not feel the warmth that will not feel the climate and the winter and all that

the climate it can get a little called in Pennsylvania, Michelle, the Pennsylvania veteran, what can nurses expect whenever they arrive there weather wise.

So we do experience all four seasons. This winter actually was a little bit more mild than what we're used to we, you know, typically we get a lot of snow, the temperatures really do plummet in the winter time. And then we look forward to spring when the tulips start coming up and the crocus's and hang up that winter jacket, maybe just go around with a sweatshirt. Although the last couple of weeks, the weather's been in like the high 50s, low 60s for a little bit. So that's been a change. Fall is beautiful here, the leaves all change color. And it's just breathtaking to drive, you know, on back roads. So I recommend you ladies to just get out and just drive along the back roads in the fall, especially because it's just absolutely beautiful to drive in the fall.

For fall seasons, you have the warm summers, the beautiful springs, the falls, the amazing leaves, and then you can make snow angels and have a white Christmas. So it seems like it's just the best of all the all the worlds there. Cody, let's talk. Let's go a little bit more back to the transportation. You know, Salah was mentioning that she's really close to Maryland and that it only took two hours to get to Maryland. What is it like to be in Pennsylvania tell us about the surrounding areas the other states people can go to as well. As you can see, we have a map of Pennsylvania here.

Yeah, I actually I went to graduate school in West Virginia. So I'm very familiar with that area of the world. West Virginia, again, a beautiful, beautiful state that's more of a very rural, mountainous state. But again, skiing, exploring hiking, that kind of stuff. Maryland, we're actually pretty close to Washington DC, which is the nation's capitol, which has everything you could possibly imagine to see. Depending on where you're at. If you're in the northeast of Pennsylvania, the Scranton market. You know, you're pretty close to New York City, and some other major cities Boston, New York City, that whole thing. So again, depending on where you're at, I mean, you know, because Pennsylvania is so big. You know, if you're in Erie, which is the northwest of PA, you're really close to Cleveland, Ohio. You know, so it really just kind of depends on where you are on where you end up. But either way, no matter where you're at, you also have access to other major cities outside of PA.

Let's bring that map back up of Pennsylvania. As you can see on the North West or sorry, the Yeah, the northwestern corner there. Lake Erie. That's one of the Great Lakes. Is that not good? Yep. Yes, it is. Tell us a little bit about that area.

It's beautiful. It just depends on you know, there's really good universities up in Erie, those Great Lakes, there's five of them, they span that whole area across the Midwest. And a lot of people you know, a lot of people like to go up there and vacation and shop and kind of, kind of do all that thing too. But um, very nice, very cool stuff.

In the United States, we have a saying hop, skip and a jump. So it seems like right there on that northwestern part, it's just a hop, skip and a jump over Lake area and you're in Canada. Really, right there in the center of all of it. So it's really a great area to explore. Let's talk about fun. In Pennsylvania. I want to start with I always think that fun has to do with food in so many ways. Rashimi tell us about the food in Pennsylvania where you live. What have you tried? What do you love the most?

I would try it once. I went with rich riches are like Shenza Fisher. I went with him in the restaurant and I don't know what the mean it is this actually we went into the steak house. I can't remember this name but it was quite good, I must say. And the most the dish that I like most is chick chicken nugget. We can find it easily on chick really have been there a couple of times. I would suggest that one.

Chick Fil A's have around the world Chick fil A is a fast food restaurant. You know there's McDonald's Burger King KFC in the United States. The number one is called Chick fil A and they're actually studies about that apparently it's always voted number one and they do nothing but like fried chicken and fried chicken sandwiches and fried chicken nuggets. So that's definitely a big part of American culture is our was our wonderful fast food and the fried chicken and the big Coca Cola that comes with it. Stella What about you? What kind of amazing foods have you tried in the United States and your family to

eat so apart from eating in a Chinese restaurant? I don't usually know. I don't really know the name of the American food that I get to see. So I'm always comfortable with the Chinese food that I always go out to eat. Because the food that I can even say the name of food I had is not I didn't see I don't used to see it interesting to me. And not only that I still have some food that I came back home with. I still have them in stock. I always make use of it. I don't really like American food. I'll have to be honest. I don't know I've not tested it and okay for what made me to test it the other day. But I said no, I have to be frank to myself that I don't usually like it.

I was having this conversation with a friend the other day as defined food in America. What is American food? So many people will say oh, it's the hamburger. But truly here in the United States. We have so many multicultural dishes, that it's not just the hamburger that we have here. There's so many other types of foods that you can try Michelle tell us about the restaurants in your area and maybe you can touch on what are some Pennsylvania classics of dishes that people could try.

So in this area, we love Chick fil A that is the best place to get chicken nuggets if you get chicken nuggets from there you will never get it from anywhere else. Because I live in a small town we have the food we grew up on. It's more of like a Pennsylvania German food so we eat a lot of chicken pot pie which is most people call it chicken dunk dumplings chicken and dumplings where other people are from but for us it's chicken Popeye. We do lettuce with hot bacon dressing which is phenomenal. My husband and I are actually making Cholesky this weekend, which is cabbage and onions and some potatoes and you mix it and fry it together. We love perogies Hello cookies, which are pigs in a blanket some people call them it's just it depends on what part of the state you go to. You know, if you go to Philadelphia, they're known for their cheese steaks, you have to get a cheese steak from Geno's, that's where everybody goes to get a cheese steak. up this way, it's the Pennsylvania Dutch food. It's and I'm not sure what it is out where Cody lives. I don't get out to that part of the state very often. But they call it they call soda pop out there. So they're a little weird out there sometimes. But yeah, it depends on what part of the state you go to different counties have different traditions. It's just, I would recommend trying a little bit of everything.

Cody, what's the food? Like in all the different places that you've lived in Pennsylvania? What do you recommend for healthcare workers to try when they get there,

I think that's a, that's you hit the nail on the head is that food is very multicultural. In, in PA, Pennsylvania we have you know, like I grew up, I'm actually polish I've come from Polish ancestry. So that's kind of what I grew up eating different types of lot, a lot of things that involve butter and onions and lots of salt. But it just depends on where you're at. I mean, there's different ethnicities and different you know, pockets of the state that kind of, and you can see the food kind of follows. as such. In Pittsburgh, there's a lot of what makes Pittsburgh unique, which no one's ever really seen, and I thought was normal growing up. But I guess it's not is that we put french fries on everything. So there's french fries, on salads, there's french fries on sandwiches. And it turns out, that's not really necessarily normal. But that is a that is a pretty unique southwest Pennsylvania thing. I don't know why. But it is if you order a steak salad in southwest PA, it's going to come with french fries on it. Which I think is pretty cool. It makes it kind of unique. It depends on it just depends on where you're at. But again, I think the variety for me is, is what makes it the most enjoyable because you can have whatever you want, whenever you want.

That's like a lot of the United States, whatever you want, whenever you want it, and it's such a multicultural country for people to come to and live. Or she may on that note, what is the culture like where you live? When you got to work and you met your co workers. There's someone here asking, Amara is asking can I ask her she may how was the first few days which we talked about earlier? Where she lived and how she arranged herself so when you got to work? What were the people like what are your coworkers? Like? Is it a cultural area?

Oh, the first day of my work was like I was very overwhelmed that time. Accuracy lots of people from different actually, I don't know their ethnicity their from which country they are from which state they are from, I can't really recognize them. For me everywhere are like very different for me. Okay, I'm really for the team that I felt is like okay, this is it. I'm in the United States. And for what I found difficulty is they speak very fast English and I speak very slow English and I could not get what they are telling and even the medical terms they use is totally different from where I used to work before. It is totally different and I had to like question them multiple times. Okay, what do you mean? Can you please repeat again? Now, still I have problem for dealing with that different terminology. So I asked my colleague, the man, the preceptor, especially I accept help from appreciator. And Please dismiss days. And this is how you learn things. And the good part about is that they are very much helpful. And they can understand you are from the different parts of the country and you can get a difficulty in learning things. So they reach out to us, they tell the question as if we are in trouble or not. And they keep on helping us. So this is, so I'm feeling very much happy that my coworkers are very much supportive. And I'm getting to see it. Yeah.

I absolutely love those stories and Stella also saying how her coworkers were very, very supportive. Whenever she also arrived upon your arrival. Stella, I want to go back to you. How did you find housing? Did you come in you? Are you renting now? Or did you wait? Where are you living? Tell us about it and how you found a home.

First when I arrived, actually, I didn't have anybody here leaving here. So I had I stayed in hotel for almost doing more than 20 days. And in the meantime, we were looking for the apartment. And thankfully, one of the nurse from Connectix only arrived in the same hotel and we talked with her and see had already found the apartment in the Wilson School lane. So from her contact only I book, I tried searching from the online I visited the apartment personally and I liked it very much. And, and I also found that this is the most safest place like within the school district is the safest space you can see where I live. And I liked very much so from that only, I mean, I we had to apply appointment to online and fill up some of the very much long forms I must say. And yeah, actually my disk booking things I give all the responsibility to my husband because I'm not good at good with this. And he took all the responsibilities and I finally in the apartment living here. Yeah.

It's so wonderful. When you come with family, even if you come along, it's great. But if you have a spouse, it's also coming with you if you have your kids coming with you. It can be a little more challenging perhaps but it seems like it's so much more rewarding. And speaking of you were saying that you got your apartments. Stella, tell us about I want to get into the cost of living a little bit we have some questions in the chat about that with your kids and your you know your wonderful salary with your new job. Your apartments, give us an idea of how much do you think someone needs to live in Pennsylvania just to you know basics. How much does it a hamburger cost? You know, little give or take rents where you live? Tell us about it.

Yeah depends on the fast food that you're getting the hamburger. I think the average should be around three to $7 or something fun of hamburger but I know that it could cause pretty on that range. And depth of living is between 14 116 100 for two bedroom apartments in campaign especially campaign plaza where I live is within the neighborhood of 214 100 to 1500.

What about school for your kids?

Okay, this school I think is basically you have to get an acquire a Fatman before you will be you will be selected on the school districts where you your kids We'll go to. So that's one of the major things that we consider before we moved from the hotel to this apartment where we leave. And we asked people around, and they told us that Camp Hill has a very, that they have the school that the school system is very, very good. So we got settled here before we enrolled my kids in school. And to enroll them is not quite challenging, like I thought it would be. You just have to have like, their immunization record their birth certificates, and all the information that they will ask you, and your kids will be settled in school, then you will be shocked that you'll be provided with most of the materials that they will need for the school like they, my kids were given many laptops and materials to start school.

That's wonderful. So it's given to you just as part of their curriculum, it seems. Michelle, tell us about the schooling for kids, is it free? Do you have to pay for it? How does that work, it all goes under that cost of living.

So for the most part, it's we don't pay a monthly fee to go to school, we pay our income taxes, our school district taxes once a year. And you pay that to the district that you live in. And that's where your kids go to school. So there's no actual regular fee, it's a once a year type fee that we pay.

What about the cost of living in your area, just some basics.

So a hamburger in this area will be anywhere between two and $4, depending on which you know, restaurant, which fast food place you go to. So it's a little bit cheaper than the Camphill area because Camphill is a bigger area, and they have more things there. But, I mean, I think it's comfortable for a nurse to live here. You know, in that specifically in the town I live in, you can rent a good apartment for anywhere between three to $500 a month. When we bought our house, I think our mortgage was $600 a month. So I mean, it's definitely doable.

See, there's it's just amazing how the cost of living can change. Whether if you're in a big city or a small town, I do believe we actually have a comparison on the cost of living here that it's showing that basically, you know if we're looking at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania versus Los Angeles, Long Beach, okay, so and the cost of living is 49% higher in Los Angeles than in Pennsylvania. So it's so much more expensive to live in a place like Los Angeles, look at here, Harrisburg versus New York City, New York City is 137%. Higher, the housing costs are 402% Higher. So it seems that Pennsylvania is a very affordable place to live compared to so many other places in the United States, which is something that everybody needs to take into account. I have one more question. Let's take one more question from the chat here. Kaneesha is asking, I want to know how safe Allentown Pennsylvania is even though every state and city is 100% safe. Can I please know the crime rate general safety thank you, Cody, I want to take this one to you. Maybe not specifically Allentown but talk about all the different places that you've lived in work and the safety there.

I spent time in Allentown I don't I want to be honest with you. I never feel there's nowhere that I feel unsafe whether it be Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton anywhere in rural Pennsylvania. There's nowhere that I that I feel unsafe. So it just like living in anywhere. You know, I'm sure there's some times of night and some certain neighborhoods that maybe would be a little bit more avoidable than others. But to be honest with you, I don't really I've never felt that way. So and Allentown specifically is a lovely small Pennsylvania city that there's no reason to feel unsafe there Allentown is a lovely little city

cities in the US I states are like cities all over the world. If you're in a big city, there's always going to be that area that might be a little more unsafe, maybe, you know, a little crazier. But all in all, it seems like Pennsylvania is a safe state, no matter where you're going. And let's get into final advice here seems like we're running out of time. I can't believe it already. Rashimi, if you could give one piece of advice to an allied healthcare worker, an RN that's sitting somewhere in South Korea watching this right now? What piece of advice could you give them about coming and working in the United States?

Like I think you have to be very much mentally strong, you must be mentally strong and prepare that I need to get through cultural shock. I hear our like, from getting and getting from the Asian country is totally different for us to get adjusted in the American society, because they are they have much more freedom, they have different rules. So and even with the work environment, they have different voices, rules and regulations. So to get to it, you have to be very much strong mentally. And, yeah, that's it.

So what about you one piece of advice that you could give our viewers who are coming to work in the United States.

And you have to be very smart, you have to be very smart, whatever, you got to get whatever they wanted to get across to them. And when you're preparing. Where you're preparing to come, you have to be patient, patient out with integration, so that you will not so that you will not make you not run into trouble. Make sure you get all the work that is needed of you. Then also read your mails, because all the communications that has been done yeah, pretty well through mail, email, and the rest of them. So you have to like be very up and doing to meet with the fast paced country that you're coming to.

And straight from Penn State. Thank you so much for joining us. Michelle, give us last piece of advice here for nurses coming to the United States in Pennsylvania.

I would consider long term care. There's so much nursing to do out there. Everybody thinks you know, let's go to the hospital. Let's do this. But Pennsylvania specifically has so many different opportunities in long term care. It's your rewarding field to be in you make relationships with your residents and your fellow staff members. It just give it a shot. You know, you're never going to know unless you try it.

You never know until you try it. Cody last piece of advice.

I agree with Michelle. I mean, long term care. It really does. I think I think people watch too much TV and think that everything is like being an ER nurse. You know, and that long term care actually allows a registered nurse or otherwise to kind of explore all of their skill set their managerial skills, their clinical skills. All of those things are kind of on display in long term care, as opposed to other health care settings. So I do agree with Michelle that you should try us out.

Thank you so much to saver health care. And to Michelle and Cody for joining us and telling us about saver and about the wonderful state of Pennsylvania, Stella and Rashid me welcome to the United States. We absolutely are here to help you prosper and Connetics. We are here for all the nurses all over the world to come and work in the United States. Our recruiters are waiting for you jump on our website Conneticsusa.com/apply and get your American dream started. Thank you so much to all of our guests for joining us. We really appreciate it. And just to wrap up the show here. Let's talk about the future shows that we have coming up so you can stay tuned for immigrating with kids to the United States. We just talked a little bit about that today. But we're gonna go really into that topic next week. April, the 14th. Budgeting for us arrival, how much money do you need? How much does an apartment costs? We'll be talking about that on the 14th. On the 21st, we'll be doing a client showcase with you avow. They're also one of the healthcare facilities that works with Connetics. So they'll be here to talk about what it's like to work at their facilities, immigration Q&A on the 28th with our lawyer partners, to answer all of your immigration questions that we're gonna get into nurses month, May is nurses month. On the fifth, we're going to do a career day a Connetics Career Day, which actually saver healthcare is going to be a part of speed dating for careers, you get to hear from many of our different clients and what they're looking for in the United States for their different positions that are available. And there's this month game show on the 12th. We'll be giving out prizes all month, especially during this game show. So definitely tune in to have a chance to win our wonderful prizes. We'll be doing another immigration question answer on the 19th. And on the 26th. We will be focusing on direct hire versus staffing. What are the differences between those two services, of course, we do our once a month show the love for a talk show. And April the 11th. We'll be working on the OET the next gen NCLEX, which is actually launching April 1, there's a whole new NCLEX that have that's come out. And they've made all of these adjustments to the old test. So we're going to give you all of that information and how to prepare. Finally on May the ninth for the Lefora Talk Show work life balance. It's something that's so important in order to have a prosperous and a happy life here in the United States. Thank you again to all of our guests and thank you so much to you at home joining in. And as we always say, onwards and upwards. Take care