Philippine Overseas Employment Agency data shows USA "New Hires" of graduate nurses from the Philippines declined dramatically from a high of 373 Nurses in 2004 to a paltry 133 Nurses in 2006.
TOTAL Foreign "New Hires" to all countries dropped from 13,822 deployed in 2001 to a mere 8, 528 Nurses in 2006. With 900,000 new student nurses, where are the job prospects?
STORY BELOW:
POEA data shows a decline in deployment of new hires. (See page 42 of POEA table). From a high of 13,822 deployed new hires in 2001, deployment decreased to 8,528 in 2006. Significant drops in deployment of new hires happened in the following receiving countries:
-Saudi Arabia: from 5,626 in 2004 to 2,886 in 2006;
-United Kingdom: from 800 in 2004 to 139 in 2006;
-US: from 373 in 2004 to 133 in 2006;
-Kuwait: from 408 in 2004 to 191 in 2006;
-Qatar: from 318 in 2004 to 38 in 2006;
What then lies ahead for Filipino nurses?
In her study, "Producing the 'World-Class' Nurse: The Philippine System of Nursing and Education Supply," Kristel Acacio, a doctoral candidate of the Department of Sociology in the University of California, said nursing graduates who can't find a job abroad can go into three alternative fields: teaching, medical transcription, and call centers.
Acacio warned that if deployment of nurses continues to slow down, the Philippines will face a "great surge in unemployment as well as underemployment."
Beyond nursing
Grace Abella, vice president of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak in an earlier interview that students and parents should look beyond nursing and consider alternative courses such as accountancy, engineering and information technology (IT) courses.
"Companies here and abroad are always looking for accountants, engineers, IT experts. Students should take up courses related to such professions," she said. Deployment of IT new hires has risen since 2004. (See table 26 of POEA table)
Your point is taken, Daly City RN. Afterall, we can agree to disagree in a respectful fashion.
Following your argument, shouldn't the government then add another year of high school instead of doing it in the collegiate level? I think this makes more sense, in that this will be more cost effective. Unless the student goes to a private school, the cost of another year in the secondary level in the Philippines is almost nil. Even if the student goes to a private high school, the fees involved would not approximate another year of nursing school. If I may suggest, why not use the additional year to bone up on English language skills? It has truly, sadly deteriorated from when we were students many years ago. Doing this will benefit everyone, including those who will not enter the nursing profession.
Adding another year to nursing will simply burden the parents even more, and further line the pockets of diploma mill owners, who have no intention of coming up with better educated students with the additional year.
The schooling in the Philippines for nursing when those that trained at the same time that I did was actually five years and those are the nurses that made a name for the Philippines in terms of nursing. They actually were required to do six months in a province as the only medical person there as well as six months of doing deliveries, both at home as well as in the hospital setting.
So things are not as bizarre as they may seem and may help correct some of the areas that are lacking there now with training. When we see posts about clinical instructors that have no work experience, or people buying patients names and information so they can falsify documentation so that they can submit to the PRC to be able to write the NLE, this does not say much. And this can be found on this forum here, it is not something that is being made up.
Every single BON around the world, or the equivalent, is also aware of this as well. It just makes it bad for everyone. And then when I see people posting about a wonderful review center that they have gone thru that is well known for cheating and issues with both the CGFNS exam as well as the NLE, think summer of 2006; where cheating is how they were taught to get thru things, what is going to happen when they are caring for patients i in another country? Are they going to falsify documents as well? There is a global recession in place now, so chances of being able to go to most other countries is not going to be possible. Add in more than 500,000 unemployed RNs in your country, and then do the math. No paying jobs in nursing mean no experience that would be considered by other countries as well, and without current paid work experience, the chances of getting hred are going to be slim to none. Next is the issue of those that do not wish to even write the NLE, but without doing that, cannot get any experience anywhere.
I'm aware of that fact because the university where I graduated was the first, and used to be the only one, that made that kind of training a part of the curriculum. It was a very enriching (and fun) experience. I also don't know of anyone in our class who enrolled in a review school in preparation for taking the NLE. It was totally unheard of. There were no quick, easy fixes, just good, old-fashioned hard work. Hiring clinical instructors with no clinical experience is the height of oxymoros. It's simply indefensible.
The unethical practices of some have reverberated all over the world. I hang my head in shame. However, adding one more year to nursing education is not the solution to arrest the dishonest conduct of these unscrupulous people. If at all, it will give them more room to play and prey..........
just finished readingthe posts. kinda depressing but true..i should've gone straight to Med school..i cant just blame people you know. after all its up to us. :weep:
The situation might look grim, but while there are opportunists,there are also the good. They are the teachers and CIs who completed their master's degrees and/or worked abroad who chose to come home. They unselfishly share their skills, knowledge and experience with today's young students. They are the heroes who had the choice to stay in first world countries, with all the material comforts that those places offer, or come home. They chose the latter, with its many challenges. They're the ones responsible for the many good ones who graduate from established institutions, who do our country proud. We all know which institutions I'm referring to.
The point I'm making here is economic crisis or not, the world will have a place for good nurses. Thanks to these teachers, the Philippines still produce them.
Drop the attitude and the feeling of entitlement. Do the work and follow the rules. That's the only way to beat this crisis.
pilgrim
58 Posts
Your point is taken, Daly City RN. Afterall, we can agree to disagree in a respectful fashion.
Following your argument, shouldn't the government then add another year of high school instead of doing it in the collegiate level? I think this makes more sense, in that this will be more cost effective. Unless the student goes to a private school, the cost of another year in the secondary level in the Philippines is almost nil. Even if the student goes to a private high school, the fees involved would not approximate another year of nursing school. If I may suggest, why not use the additional year to bone up on English language skills? It has truly, sadly deteriorated from when we were students many years ago. Doing this will benefit everyone, including those who will not enter the nursing profession.
Adding another year to nursing will simply burden the parents even more, and further line the pockets of diploma mill owners, who have no intention of coming up with better educated students with the additional year.