Excuse Me?

I don't watch "Desperate Housewives", but I came across this article regarding the season premiere of this popular show. In a scene, Teri Hatcher's character visits her doctor, and becomes upset when her doctor tells her she may be going through menopause:

"Listen, Susan, I know for a lot of women the word 'menopause'" has negative connotations. You hear 'aging,' 'brittle bones,' 'loss of sexual desire,'" the gynecologist tells her.

"OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren't, like, from some med school in the Philippines?" Susan fires back.

Yes, it's just a TV show. Yes, it's just for pure entertainment. But that statement devalues professional Filipinos and Filipino-Americans working in the healthcare industry in this country. It disregards the foreign-educated and foreign-trained doctors and nurses. If I told you that, in 2005, of the 25,100 foreign-trained registered nurses that took the Certification Program Nurse Qualifying Exam, administered by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), 55% of them were educated in the Philippines. What does that tell you?

I was offended and hurt when I read that article. If I tell you that people have told me to my face that my Philippine degree doesn't matter here in the US, it's not a laughing matter. I'm proud to say that I received my Bachelor's degree in the Philippines. When people hear that, they think my diploma is just second-rate to theirs. I hope you won't be the nth person to tell me that.

Let's not perpetuate this stigma that foreign-educated individuals are mediocre in their profession.