Problems of Filipino Nurses 3/23/09

But what is happening to all the Filipino nurses nowadays? After graduated and took up the Nursing Board Exam, what should be the next step? And that is to find a job. According to the statistic, there are approximately 200,000 graduates of nurses every year in the Philippines but only 2,500 are getting the right job for it. Let us just do some percentage here; approximately there is only 1.25% from graduates who gets a job?

What will happen to those who remain jobless? Why does the government keeps on accepting enrollees to take up nursing courses from different universities if they know for a fact that Filipino nurses are overly populated. Are there any quotas for it? What are they aiming for? Maybe, to human export again these professionals to become a “bagong bayani” or OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers)?

Accord sought with countries recruiting Filipino nurses blog 3/23/09

Former Health Secretary Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan has urged the government to ensure a win-win bilateral agreement with countries who take interest in hiring Filipino health professionals.

In the country’s agreement with Canada’s Saskatchewan province and Finland, Tan said for every 10 nurses, the importing country has agreed to improve the nursing center and for one Filipino nurse hired, three more nurses will be educated. Joint researches, linkages and graduate scholarships with their universities for improved research were also included in the agreement.

RN contract trap (part 2) Cebu Sunstar 3/23/09

For many, the working conditions are not as promised. They were told that they would be working at a specific hospital in a safe environment, only to find out that the position is in a different hospital, in unsafe neighborhoods or even in completely different cities and states than promised. Others find that the “agency” or employer has no work for them. They wait several weeks or even several months without receiving a pay check or full time work hours

For ‘fooling’ nurses, agency faces raps Cebu Sunstar 3/23/09

THREE employees from a defunct agency are now facing a syndicated illegal recruitment case for duping nurses into paying more than P500,000 for a job in the United Kingdom (UK).

E. Visayas awaits nurses under jobs program Philippine Inquirer 3/18/09

Over 500 registered nurses, including those who recently passed licensure tests, would land a job in Eastern Visayas under the national government’s Project Nurses Assigned in Rural Service (Nars).

Project Nars is designed to mobilize 10,000 unemployed registered nurses as “warriors for wellness” to 1,000 of the poorest towns in the country to improve the delivery of health care services for six months, according to Department of Health (DOH) assistant regional director Dr. Minerva Molon.

The nurses will initiate primary health, school nutrition, and maternal health programs; first line diagnosis; inform communities about water sanitation practices and also do health surveillance; and immunize children and mothers.

Envoy: UK needs more health workers Cebu Freeman 3/19/09

Aside from healthcare workers, which include nurses, and caregivers, Beckingham said demand for hospitality workers, and entertainers are also strong. This would mean, job opportunities for hotel workers, singers, musicians are growing, although UK is not spared from the global economic slowdown.

What concerns him though is the declining demand for seafarers, and shipping crew demand is getting thinner.

JPEPA secures Japan jobs Manila Times 2/28/09

Nurses, caregivers to get first crack President Gloria Arroyo announced on Friday that Filipino health workers could now work in Japan starting April through the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement

UK restricts visa issuances for nurses Manila Standard Today 2/28/09

THE British Embassy will restrict the number of student visa applications it will process daily because it is clogged with 47,000 applications, many filed by Filipino nurses taking advantage of the National Vocation Qualification program.

Manila signs MOA with 11 nursing schools Philippine Star March 12, 2009

MANILA, Philippines -- Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim today signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with heads of 11 nursing schools in the city that plan to send their nurses to train at a government hospital here. ....now why can't the universities do this themselves here in Cebu to make themselves really part of the educational process???

Obama opposes bringing nurses from overseas 3/16/09 USA

"The notion that we would have to import nurses makes absolutely no sense," Obama told a gathering of health experts and lawmakers at a White House meeting on health care reforms. Last week, a legislation was introduced in the US Congress to create a special category of nursing visas, which would facilitate much faster and easier brining of trained nurses from Asian countries like India.

Nurse in the Philippines|quantity vs the quality of care 2/29/09

Many college and universities now a day’s offers nursing courses despite of declining quality of nurse in the Philippines, many schools opened just because of the global demands for nurses. Since our government cannot sustain the needs of employment for nurses, lots of nursing graduates are jobless. But the crucial part of outgrowing numbers of nurses is the declining quality of nursing care.

The nursing education now a day is not satisfactory in quality analogous to the previous times that the country had produced top quality nurses in the Philippines. Lots of nursing student every year graduates their chosen field, however the passing rate of the Philippine nursing licensure exams for the past eight years falls below fifty percent, compares to the graduates of year 90’s, it declines for so many reasons: lack of quality educators, outnumber students-educators ratio, less support coming from the government and lack of motivation to become fully pledge nurses which is the most important thing, the quantity exceeds the quality of nursing care.

WANTED 200 NURSES FOR SINGAPORE Cebu Sunstar Classified 3/15/09

FOR THESE POSITIONS CONTACT EMERALD INTERNATIONAL MANPOWER SERVICE CEBU 032 254 3981 MOBILE 0927 6267 976 emerald08@pldtvibe.net

NEEDED NURSE HOTEL CEBU Cebu Sunstar Clasified 3/8/09

TO APPLY EMAIL RESUME TO HR@microtel.ph or mactan@microtel.ph

NOWHERE TO TRAIN the Nurses!! The Philippine Star 09/08/08

450,000 nursing graduates have no great hope for 1-3 years of work experience needed before applying for overseas jobs at present!

....the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) reported that around 400,000 licensed nurses could not find employment locally as there are only around 60,000 nursing jobs available in the country. (click the title to read the complete article)

Message of false hopes I think the good commissioner PRC commissioner Ruth Padilla is missing a major point in the issue, and is sending a dangerous message to thousands of nursing hopefuls currently enrolled or about to enroll in nursing schools.

A crucial factor Padilla left out or failed to clarify is that nurses being sought after by such countries are those armed with a significant number of years of hospital and clinical experience. In contrast, majority, if not all of the 400,000 jobless nurses mentioned by the PRC are those who belong to the recent batches of licensure examination passers who are armed with nursing license and – nothing else! This is like training soldiers and sending them to battle without guns.

Nowhere to go In fact, several years of hospital experience alone isn’t good enough for foreign employers. Many if not all require a nurse to have warned her clinical experience in modern, tertiary hospitals. In Metro Manila, we only have a handful of modern tertiary hospitals. And the situation is worse in the provinces.

An innovative way employed before by rookie nurses in a bid to earn actual clinical experience was to apply as volunteer nurses. The ploy apparently was picked up by succeeding batches of newly-licensed nurses which resulted in a backlog even in the pplication for volunteer nurses.

Some newly licensed nurses lamented that even government hospitals are no longer interested in accepting volunteer nurses due to lack of qualified nurse-instructors and supervisors to look after the trainees and volunteers. Woe! Even for free, thousands of nurses cannot get their hands wet with actual hospital work.

With dreams dying, Filipino nurses ponder options, set new directions

Philippine Star 11/13/08

Sadly, after spending hundreds of thousands of pesos for their education and countless moments of difficulties, their hopes and dreams are either dying or in need of immediate resuscitation or better still, drastic redirection. Scores are considering setting aside for the long-term, if not totally abandoning, their plans of working in local hospitals due to the terrible lack of employment opportunities amid the ironic reported increasing global demand for their services. Thousands of registered nurses have joined under-board engineers, accountants, and architects who have flocked to call centers, aside from those who have opted to become medical transcriptionists or managers of fast-food chains or run family business. (Read complete article by clicking title)

UK restricts visa issuances for nurses Manila Standard Today 2/28/09

THE British Embassy will restrict the number of student visa applications it will process daily because it is clogged with 47,000 applications, many filed by Filipino nurses taking advantage of the National Vocation Qualification program.

Glut of Filipino nurses because Government & Universities don't have 1-3 working experience slots in country hospitals Manila Times 3/7/09

There is now a glut of unemployed nurses because they cannot find work abroad despite the big demand for them in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia for lacking the required training and experience. Many have expressed willingness to pay for “internship” in the country’s top hospitals but there is simply no room for them.

The government’s current program of employing nurses in clinics and hospitals in the rural areas cannot provide them with the training in critical skills required by foreign hospitals. It becomes the duty of the Department of Health to arrange with some modern hospitals for the special training of these nurses, especially in highly technical work in operating rooms and intensive care units.

6 Saudi hospitals need 4,000 workers Philippine Star 3/9/09

MANILA, Philippines - Six of the largest military hospitals in Saudi Arabia are in need of more than 4,000 healthcare professionals, technicians and medical personnel, making it the biggest market for overseas Filipino workers, a recruitment leader said yesterday.

The RN contract trap Cebu Sunstar 3/9/09

The most common contractual clause that wreaks havoc on an immigrating RN’s life is the breach of contract damages clause. Most contracts typically require the RN to work for a specific number of years and failure to do so triggers the damages clause. The damages can range from $15,00 to $50,000!

Growing number of nursing students quality is doubted... Cebu Sunstar 3/9/09

THE Philippines’ nursing course has become suspect among countries known to have provided employment to Filipino nursing professionals. The sheer number of nursing students, growing from 30,000 in 2004 to 450,000 this year, seems too much. Countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand doubt the qualifications and the quality of the training programs in place.

In New Zealand, for instance, its Nursing Council has made it impossible for second coursers-–doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.--to get approval for their applications. The excuse is that it cannot accept nurses who have obtained their degrees for less than four years.

SAUDIA ARABIA PRIVATE AND STAFF NURSES WANTED Cebu Sunstar classified 3/1/09

email almustaqbal_international@yahoo.com phone 032 256 2548

STAFF NURSES WANTED Saudi Arabia Cebu Sunstar 3/1/09 classified

phone 032 253 4506 look for Ms Edna de Garcia