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If you have been wondering about the fast turnover of nurses in
Philippine hospitals and clinics, this will give you one reason why.
More than 21,000 new Filipino nurses sought
employment in the United States last year, the Trade Union Congress
of the Philippines (TUCP) reported Friday.
TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said a total of
21,499 Filipinos took the US National Council Licensure Examination
(NCLEX) for nurses for the first time (excluding repeaters) from
January to December 2007.
This represents an increase of 6,328, or 42
percent, compared to the 15,171 Filipinos that took the NCLEX for
the first time in the whole of 2006, Aguilar said.
He said the 2007 NCLEX statistics, released
January 24 by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN),
“solidified” the Philippines’ position as America’s top
provider of foreign nurses.
Aguilar said the Philippines readily topped the
five countries with the most number of nationals taking the NCLEX
for the first time in 2007.
India came second, with 5,370 examinees;
followed by South Korea, 1,906; Canada, 888; and Cuba, 673.
Passing the NCLEX is usually the final step in
the nurse licensure process in the US. Thus, the number of people
taking the examination is a reliable indicator of how many new
US-educated and foreign-trained nurses are trying to enter the
profession in the US.
TUCP’s disclosure came a day after the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) expressed
confidence that global demand for Filipino workers would remain
robust, despite fears of an economic slump in the US.
Many foreign countries, particularly the
developed ones, are still approaching the Philippines wanting to
recruit Filipino workers, particularly professionals and other
skilled personnel, POEA chief Rosalinda Baldoz said.
“Foreign employers come to us because they are
short of capable workers and their nationals refuse to handle the
dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs,” Baldoz said.
Even in the US, where there are fears of a
looming recession, Baldoz said they see a growing demand for nurses,
as well as temporary workers in hotels.
Buoyed by record high crude oil prices, Middle
Eastern countries also need thousands of foreign workers to support
heightened economic activity in that part of the world, she added.
The TUCP has been pushing the deployment of
surplus nurses and other highly skilled workers to lucrative job
markets overseas, primarily to help remedy unemployment of licensed
nurses and ensure that positions can be made available for new
nurses entering the profession in the country.
Nursing is one of the most preferred courses for
college students, and thousands graduate from a considerable number
of nursing schools all over the country.
“Our sense is, if we must advance the export
of services, we might as well consciously encourage the deployment
highly skilled surplus professionals such as nurses, who are
generally immune from employer mistreatment,” Aguilar said.
The government should “purposely discourage”
the overseas deployment of unskilled workers such as domestic
helpers, stressed Aguilar.
“Their [domestic workers] skills are easily
replaceable. This is why they are undeniably far more susceptible to
employer abuse,” he added.
Aguilar said Filipino nurses looking for greener
pastures could definitely count on greater employment opportunities
in the US, where more than 800 new hospitals would be put up until
2012.
He said some 78 million American baby
boomers—those born between 1946 to 1964—now comprise 26 percent
of the 300-million strong US population.
America, he said, is turning into a senior
citizen society, and the oldest baby boomers turned 60 years old in
2006, he added.
“These seniors and the deluge of migrants from
Mexico are creating a huge demand for hospitalization and health
care in the US,” Aguilar pointed out.
Aguilar played down fears of a brain drain with
the continuing deployment of Filipino nurses to overseas labor
markets.
“We are now producing nurses at a rate of
100,000 to 150,000 every year, and less than five percent of them
are getting employed locally, either by the government or the
private sector. So we definitely have a large surplus of nurses,”
he said.
In August 2007, Aguilar noted that the
Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) admitted to the local
nursing profession a total of 31,275 candidates who passed the June
2007 licensure examination.
This does not include the thousands of
candidates who took the December 2007 nursing eligibility
examination, the results of which will be released soon.
On top of those who took the December
examination, the PRC earlier said it expects anywhere from 80,000 to
100,000 nursing graduates to take the June 2008 licensure test.
Meanwhile, TUCP renewed its objection to a House
bill that seeks to require nurses who obtained government-subsidized
schooling to render at least two years of compulsory local service
before they can leave for overseas employment.
The labor group was referring to a bill that
seeks to oblige nursing graduates of state colleges and universities
to perform 24 months of mandatory service here before they may be
lawfully recruited to work abroad.
Aguilar said the bill was “totally
counterproductive and uncalled-for,” as there is an oversupply of
nurses in the local labor market.
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