Oversupply of Nurses in the Philippines? Do You Even Care?
Just recently, I learned that one of my dear cousins have passed the June 2008 nursing board exams. I was able to speak with her today and congratulated her at their oath-taking ceremonies for passing the board held at SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia. Like many of her collegues at the oath-taking, all are happy and excited in their white uniforms.
After the oath-taking, I asked her about her plans for the future. As she pointed out, she wants to work in the US where our Aunt lives and has already committed to support her initially once she is there. However, like many others, she is not expecting to get a job soon. With the problems in the US economy still on-going coupled with the retrogression issue, there is a strong possibility that she’ll end up working more years here than she intended.
The problem is she still have to find work after this. I asked her if she believed that there is an oversupply of Pinoy nurses and how it will badly affect her. She said she is not aware of this at the moment.
That’s quite startling to know since the oversupply issue has been around even before these board passers came into the profession. I guess the saying that “what you don’t know won’t hurt you” is true here. She doesn’t seems to care as of the moment.
I don’t want to spoil the celebration of the family so I decided to be silent for the rest of the day. I even joined her oath-taking pictures after the ceremonies smiling. But in the back of my mind, I know that there is a challenge for all these new nurses once they get their feet wet in the profession.
I can only wish the best for her and the rest of those who took their oath today. Who the hell cares anyway?
You, do you care?
7000 New Nurses Have Taken Their Oath Today At SM Mall of Asia’s SMX
The SM Mall of Asia’s SMX Convention Center has been host to the oath-taking ceremonies of about 7,000 out of the 27,765 nursing board passers in the June 2008 nursing licensure examination.
The nursing board passers are required to attend the ceremony since only after the oath-taking can the title “RN” or Registered Nurse be suffixed to their names.
Another batch of nurses will take their oath-taking ceremonies next day still at SM Mall of Asia’s SMX Convention center.
Looking for US Visa Retrogression (Backlog) News and Updates?
People are asking us if we have any US Visa Retrogression news and updates for them. There has been a lot of talks about this issue again lately because of the perceived oversupply of nurses in the Philippines. But what is the real reason why so many people are looking for the US Visa retrogression news and updates?
It is the fact that many Pinoy nurses prefers to still work in the US.
Pinoys still desperately believe that the key to their being rich is in the US mainland. With what is happening now in the Philippine local economy and the world economic crisis, we can’t blame Filipinos to dream big in the US even if the US economy is still dwindling. This is one of the primary reasons why most high school graduates, even if they dont want Nursing personally, will take up Nursing as they are led to believe that nursing is their ticket to America.
But with limitations that the US retrogression offers, the long wait and dying hopes is frustrating many people mostly nursing graduates. In the meantime, what will the nurses do. Even the call centers are rumored to reject nursing students to become call center agents. So if they stay in the Philippines, what else will they do? For some, they will most likely take odd jobs and shortchange themselves for what’s their worth.
With the worldwide aspiration to go to the US competing at each other, we can only imagine that the backlog (retrogression) of US Visa will continue to be a major hindrance for many Filipinos to go to the States. The only real hope in the horizon is the passing of the US Emergency Nursing Supply Release Act of 2008 or HR 5924.
For the latest update on retrogression, here is the latest July 2008 US Visa Bulletin.
Indonesian Nurses Were Accepted in Japan; Pinoy Nurses in Japan to follow?
Japan has open its doors Indonesian nurses and caregivers. About 200 of them set foot on Japanese soil to help fill up the need for labor shortages in the healthcare industry.
Japan, known to be very stringent in their immigration laws, has finally succumbed to the needs of its aging population and admitted to the world they need the help of their Asian neighbors to take care of their old and sick population.
These Indonesian nurses are part of the 1,000 strong contingent slated to go to Japan within the next 2 years after the free trade pact took effect between the two countries on July 1. These Indonesian nurses are expected to work full time in hospitals and nursing-care facilities. They are expected to be trained for six months to learn the Japanese language before starting to work as nurses.
This is good news for the Indonesian nurses. We are hoping the same can be reached between the Philippines and Japan in the very near future to help boost the demand of our nurses worldwide.