Originally Posted by augigi
Just a question that occurred to me after seeing how many Filipino nurses are planning to move to US, UK, Australia etc. Do most people do nursing because they want to be nurses, or because it's a good way to be able to work overseas and earn money? I wondered because it seems there are so many who graduate, don't even take the NLE and already know they want to go overseas.
Thanks!
Lately, economic reasons have become the overwhelming motivation for Filipinos to pursue nursing. Just reading through the posts here, you'll find that some are in nursing programs not out of their own desire to become nurses but because of outside influence from family members. They were forced to forego their own aspirations for a different career and instead, think ahead at the promise of financial stability an overseas nursing job can provide.
I am not saying this is bad and I am not about to lay blame on my fellowmen for this kind of mentality. The Philippine economy has not gotten any better and is in fact, seemingly worse off now. Jobs are so hard to come by in that country. We can go on and on discussing the ills of Philippine society until the cows come home but the reality is, for a lot of individual Filipinos, the only guarantee of a bright future for their families is to work overseas.
By the way, nurse migration is quite a hot topic in nursing circles in the western world nowadays. There is even a question of the ethical implications of "importing" nurses from developing countries. Many fear that this trend can adversely affect healthcare delivery in such countries by depleting the pool of qualified nurses. Many argue, however, that this does not apply to the Philippines because we supposedly have a surplus of nurses. Anyone care to comment?