Fewer Pinoy Nurses Seeking U.S. Jobs
The number of Philippine-educated nurses who sought employment in the United States plunged by 42 percent to just 5,630 in 2011 from 9,789 in 2010, LPGMA Partylist Rep. Arnel Ty said recently.
Citing statistics from America’s National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Ty said the 5,630 Filipinos who took the NCLELEX for the first time in 2011 was roughly equal to only one-fourth of the 21,499 of them who took the US licensure exam at the height of the nursing boom in 2007.
“In 2011, we had the fewest number of Filipino nurses taking the NCLE X (for the first time) since 2001, when only 4,456 took the exam,” Ty said.
The number of Filipino nurses taking the NCLEX for the first time, excluding repeaters, is considered a good indicator as to how many of them are trying to practice their profession in America.
Ty said a total of 145,081 Filipino nurses have taken the NCLEX since 1995, without counting repeaters, in the hopes of pursuing gainful careers in America.
NCLEX statistics suggest that around six out of every 10 Filipino nurses who take the exam eventually pass, if not on their first attempt, on their second take.
Ty has been pushing for new legislation that would establish a special local jobs plan for the growing number of unemployed Filipino nurses.
The Professional Regulation Commission estimates the number of jobless Filipino nurses to hit 298,000 this year, to include the 68,000 who took the local licensure exam in December.
As proposed by Ty in House Bill 4582, the jobs plan would be an expanded version of the Nurses Assigned in Rural Service, the short-lived Philippine government project that enlisted nurses to improve healthcare in the 1,000 poorest towns in 2009.
The bill seeks to install a Special Program for the Employment of Nurses in Urban and Rural Services (NURSE), which hopes to mobilize a total of 10,000 practitioners every year.
They would each serve a six-month tour of duty, and get a monthly stipend not lower than the amount commensurate to Salary Grade 15, the higher starting pay for public nurses mandated by a 2002 law.
Outside of America, Ty stressed the need for the Philippine government to push for the opening of new foreign labor markets for Filipino nurses.
The US labor market for foreign nurses is getting overcrowded, he said.
“US demand for foreign nurses is slowing down, with hospitals and nursing homes there still staggering from subsidy cutbacks. America is also producing more nurses. In 2011 alone, a total of 172,041 US-educated nurses took the NCLEX for the first time,” he added.
mb.com.ph
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