Philippine Government Still Optimistic About More Job Opportunities for Pinoy Nurses
The Philippine Information Agency (PIA) revealed that Pinoy nurses will still be very much in demand in the near future in developed countries.
This comes after the government helped the hiring of Filipino nurses in the Middles East which remains consistently high while Australia needs 200T Filipino nurses. Other countries that are opening up for Filipino nurses are Japan, Spain and Canada while deployment of Filipino nurses for the United Kingdom has dwindled.
The United States government, on the other hand, is fast tracking the nursing education for training their local nurses which might affect the number of deployment of Filipino nurses wanting to migrate there. This is expected to be counteracted by two house bills pending in US Congress that will open the hiring of foreign nurses to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in the US.
US Labor Department estimates that they will need 500,000 nurses between 2016 until 2025 as there will be millions of elderly people within this period and training their local nurses will not be enough to attend to the needs of the growing aging population.
PIA has acknowledged news report that there are 400T Filipino nurses left without employment as deployment for nurses abroad has slowed.
This is why it is extremely important for the Philippines to uplift the quality of the nurses today especially in the communication skills as well as hands-on experience as these will be the edge of the Filipino nurses when they work overseas.
When Nursing is Not a Lucrative Profession Anymore for Future Pinoy Nurses
Recent reports have suggested that Nursing is not a lucrative profession anymore for future Pinoy nurses.
This came after PNA revealed that job opportunities for Pinoy nurses are not as promising as it used to. Now future nursing students are advised to think twice before taking the nursing course. Those that think that this nursing profession is their ticket to success by working abroad is in for a big disappointment.
The culprit is the big drop in demand for nurses abroad mainly in the US and UK. Now, local hospitals like the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and St. Lukes Medical Center have serious backlogs to consider as nursing applicants are advised to wait 6 to 12 months.
Despite this, nursing schools continue to lure students to enroll which further fuel the over supply of nurses in the country. The PNA blamed these schools for commercializing the profession thus more and more high school graduates are entering the nursing profession yearly.
In our earlier report, Nursing is the top choice amongst enrollees this year based on CHED reports. This commercialization of the profession also raise up the tuition cost of becoming a nurse and other expenses for those planning to go abroad.
Now, more than ever, CHED should be able to provide governance to the nursing schools. Recent reports showed that CHED still failed to clamp down on incompetent nursing schools which add more insult to the injury the profession is taking in right now.
So what’s in store for our nursing graduates this year? That is something the Philippine government should really be concerned with if they cannot create demand outside the United States and the UK soonest.