I was wondering what the typical nursing salary for an RN is in your country? Here in Canada in my province they start new BSCN grads at 26.80$ Canadian per hour...according to the internet thats like 1161 pesos per hour...so in a typical 8 hour shift it would be around 9288 pesos per day. I've met alot of nurses from phils that would say that the salary is better in the usa/canada but i never found out any information. Ive always wanted to visit overseas and was just wondering this about the phillipines.
imagine earning $26 an hour take home pay(taxes insurances etc excluded). and you are paying your baby sitter $15 an hour for the time that you are working. so you actual money left will be $11 plus what ever your significant other will earn daily.
lets see...expenses: utilities, rent/mortagage, car payments(if you work all shifts - you will need a very accessible and safe form of transportation), phone bills(cell phone for easy accessibility to you), if you live in a northern state, you will need clothes for all four seasons, gas money. the list goes on and on. lets not even forget the money you need to pay for your debts incurred coming here.
so how much will be left for food?
when filipinos back in our country say that nurses here are rich, they have a lot to learn.
the patients here are quite well informed and can make a living hell out of your 12-hour shift work. you are always giving 110% to a profession whose only permanent and solid thing is change. dont be surprised but there are a lot of responsibilities that nurses are assuming these days that are proving to be costly in terms of legal expenses. (examples: checking medications - if the attending md prescribes restoril in the orders of a patient and 6 hours later, the resident after speaking to that same patient writes temazepam to be given to the patient at night. you didnt catch it because you did not know that one was generic and the other was a brand name..you will be partially accountable too, pain documentation and relating it to your pain seeking patient - if you don't document, and the pain medication during narcotic count are lacking..who gets blamed for a legal offence here called drug diversion? thats right, the rn - you and me)
the only consolation is the phone calls back home while spending on numerous phone cards.
the flipside can equally be less appealing.
a nurse here in the us has 3 to 4 different insurances
1. life
2. car
3. professional
4. health
so where does that leave room for a family expenses?
in conclusion: a nurse's one day's salary in the usa does not equate to one month's salary in the philippines
ei strab tell something about your previous job, which is private ambulance services company.. thanks!
there are a few ambulance services companies back in manila (luckily I got a good one).. and, being a paramedic is one of the best jobs I had and I have landed a job here in Saudi because of that work experience..
I've read a lot of insightful comments on this thread. I'm an IT professional here in Manila working for a multinational US company and am currently taking up nursing in the hopes of earning a better salary in another country than what can be offered here in ANY profession. My thoughts :
a. As sad it sounds, the reality is that ANY profession, as long as you are in Manila (or in the Phils for that matter), is financially NOT going to pay off in the long term, for the simple reason that the country as a whole is economically/socially incapable of matching salaries offered abroad, thus the exodus of professionals, the so-called "brain drain". This trend is not isolated to nurses, it goes for all professions. I myself recently came back from a stint abroad, I had to come back as my contract ended and the work was simply being "outsourced" eg being sent to offshore offices based here in Manila. This trend in IT convinced me to take up Nursing as it shows more promise. I know of accountants moving to Singapore, architects moving to Saudi, welders moving to Canada. This is how dire the situation is in our country: almost everyone wants to get out. Here, the only professions that pay high are IT and call centers, because these are the professions that rely on the OUTSOURCING trends of developed nations whose companies can offer double/triple the salaries offered by domestic (filipino) companies.
b. I also acknowledge the insight of some of you saying that the higher income abroad does not necessarily compensate for intangible costs : being away from your family. This is truly a sacrifice that we have to make, considering that our country does not offer much in way of job opprtunities. This is why OFWs are to be admired.
But the fact remains that we have to make a choice one way or the other and whatever choice we make will always have risks. True, dealing with demanding patients is not easy, and never will be. Nobody ever said that nursing was easy, we all know its hard. AND THIS IS PRECISELY WHY OTHER COUNTRIES ARE WILLING TO PAY HIGH FOR IT and WHY PEOPLE RARELY PRACTICE IT HERE - because the effort required to execute the difficult job here does not break even against the compensation being given. It's plain and simple economics. I also note that comments of some that nursing is VOCATION,not a cash cow. TRUE, I totally agree, but given the economic situation of most Pinoys, we are WILLING to enter a profession that we are unfamiliar with and MASTER it, just so we can put food on the table for our families. Let's not judge our country men who take up nursing for financial reasons : all they want to do is get by.
As to some comments i see going FOR or AGAINST being a nurse abroad, I can only say this : each profession is not without its own PROs and CONs. As for nursing, I think we should be thankful that there is at least 1 profession left that we can say the Filipino excels at, that offers us better prospects than what we have here. Im saying this based on experience: not long ago, IT was the Fillipino niche abroad, until Indians caught up with us and look at them now, they are synonymous with IT skills. Will we let the same happen to nursing? From what I hear, the Mainland Chinese and Indians want to niche the nursing market abroad as well. We should help each other in ensuring that the Filipino should be the best choice for this profession.
I respect everyone's opinion on this thread, some say that we are better off staying here some that we should work abroad. Either way, ladies and gentlemen, this is more of an economic issue for most of us. We can risk staying here, but remain in a system that shows little hope, OR risk working abroad, see where it takes us and HOPEFULLY, brings us to "greener pasteurs".
BTW, I also see a trend that is about to happen for nurses. Requirements will get tougher and tougher as time goes on. Why? several things : there could be an oversupply of nurses leading hospitals abroad to lower salaries and/or increase employments requirements to screen qualified applicants (it's already happened here in Manila, where local hospitals wouldn't accept nursing applicants, forcing them to simply volunteer or accept the position for a measly 8KPHP per month - NOTE: I say force bec it leaves the applicant with no other option). This is the same thing that happened to IT, until it became infeasible to take it seriously a profession since the compensation given here in Manila (there are very little openings for IT abroad since most of the work is outsourced here) does not break even with the requirements being asked for.
i started with 230 per day, after 3 1/2 years, im earning 315 per day. thats just an 85 peso increase. imagine.. what a shame!! and by the way, im on a special area... compute..
i agree - our salary is definitely not ABOVE minimum wage. HE-LLOOOO!i would say it's minimum wage. i get 10 a month. and ive been working for 3 years. 10 all in. 12,000 minus tax. but who's complaining right? at least i have a job - the new nurses are having such a hard time getting a job.
Specializes in Neuro-Surgery, Med-Surg, Home Health.
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My nephew passed his Philippine nursing board exam and NCLEX about a couple of years ago. He has not landed any paying nursing job in the Philippines at this time. He has served as a "volunteer" a couple of times though. Lucky for him, my U.S. immigrant petition to my brother, who is my nephew's father, is now current after waiting for 22 years. They should be getting their U.S. visa soon.
On a related topic, I agree comparing North American nursing salaries vs. Philippine nursing salaries is like comparing apples and oranges.
When I took early retirement from my government nursing job here in the San Francisco bay Area I was earning $64/hour. At the current exchange rate of say P48.00 to one U.S. dollar, my equivalent salary in Philippine pesos was P3,072 per hour. Multiply that 12 hours per shift, the sum was P36,864 per 12-hour night shift.
On an annual basis, many of my fellow RNs including myself earned around US$120,000 per year as staff nurses. That sum included a few hours overtime pay, double-time-and-a-half Holiday pays, Retention pay, etc. That sum is equivalent to P5,760,000. We have free medical and dental coverage, vacation pay, con't. education pay, Floating Holiday pay, uniform allowance, etc.
If a Philippine-based RN is earning P12,000 per month, that is P144,000 per anum vs. U.S. RN at P5.76 Million per anum.
Oh yeah, apples and oranges indeed!
Can you blame why Filipino RNs want to emigrate to other countries?
Specializes in Neuro-Surgery, Med-Surg, Home Health.
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OK, another way of measuring the salaries of Philippine-based and U.S.-based RNs is to determine their
STANDARD OF LIVING. I've noticed that many people are confusing 'STANDARD OF LIVING' vs. 'COST OF LIVING'.
COST OF LIVING is what you pay for goods and services in a given community.
STANDARD OF LIVING is how "well" you live.
Do you live a comfortable life, or not? Do you own a house, a car, eat out for dinner, vacation to far away places, buy nice clothes, own color tv's, own a computer, etc. If you say yes, then you can claim that you have a high standard of living. Conversely, if your salary can't support a comfortable life, let alone vacation to exotic places, then you have a low standard of living.
Generally speaking, U.S. registered nurses enjoy higher standard of living than nurses in the Philippines.
Granted that Philippine-based nurses live in a country that has a low cost of living, BUT they have salaries that are so low, they negate the low cost of living in the Philippines.
Therefore, Philippine-based nurses suffer from low standard of living as evidenced by their inability to afford what U.S.-based nurses are able to afford from their salaries.
But does money alone, or the ability to earn lots of money make someone happy?
The obvious answer is of course "No".
Given the choice, wouldn't you rather be happy AND at the same time earn lots of money?
The obvious answer is of course "Yes".
Well, I think that the majority of Filipino RNs in the U.S. will agree.
i am working right now in a private hospital along UN Avenue in Manila (there are two hospitals.. hehehe! just take a guess which is which) as a probitionary nurse i only take about 8500 per month (minus the tax, pag-ibig & sss .. i only receive 7,100/month.. so low!)
what a shame!! and by the way, im on a special area... compute..
crossbow
92 Posts
a nurse here in the us has 3 to 4 different insurances
1. life
2. car
3. professional
4. health
so where does that leave room for a family expenses?
in conclusion: a nurse's one day's salary in the usa does not equate to one month's salary in the philippines