Job outlook for Filipino nurses no longer as bright

[piolo_askal]

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when the number of people taking up nursing rose significantly, saturation was expected and too bad a lot have never seen it coming. many were fooled by the statistic finding that the high nursing demand will run long.

tsk, tsk..

[emow]

Diploma mills are okay for people who just needs a nursing degree such as doctors, PT/OT, Respiratory Therapists, BS Bio, MedTech who wants to shift careers just to enter the U.S. A lot of people I know successfully became nurses in the U.S. through these diploma mills. This is not for people who are fresh graduates or from a non-clinical profession.

No offense but though nursing is a very tedious and demanding course, intellectualy, it is relatively very easy. Ang mga stand by sa amoa sa una nag nursing tanan, unya naka pasar ug board ang uban ni pasar na ug NCLEX. This is just my own little guage and is not meant to belittle nurses.

nursing exams are not very hard. my whole barkada passed the foreign exams with just one take. the problem is, with numerous nursing enrollees, most of them are below standard. schools are simply focused more on number of students but not with quality. the truth is, many nursing graduates are just far too unprepared for theses exams. they graduated nursing not even knowing the difference between an anti-viral from anti-bacterial meds, just to cite an example. most of these nurses currently studying, only about 20% are acceptable nurses, just an opinion.

[xxkatgorgeousxx]

paet..mayra gyud wa ko nipadayon sa Nursing..kai di ka-afford akong family to shell put that much money..mura ang sure ball ra ma gyud kalarga are those students na naa na VISA daan for the States..kanang can afford families..ang mga pobre tawon na nag-nursing, dinhi ra gyud pilipinas..unless naa mu-support nila or ang uban kai ipamaligay ila mga katigayunan pra ra gyud mkalarga..

[emow]

sad but true........

[DEMONOCIETY]

"nursing graduates who can’t find a job abroad can go into three alternative fields: teaching, medical transcription, and call centers."


hahaha, isa na guru ko ani diri! hahahah

kafaet life is very unfair so sorry to hear that makarelate ghapon ko

ingon ani pud akong ate PT graduate and u know what happen? she end up working as a ticketing sa usa ka shipping lines mas bright unta nako well-maintained ug grade pero i dont know ug giunsa paggamit iyang utok ang akong nahibaw-an ky dali ra kaayo manglood after wa kapasar ilang group sa interview sa US consulate niliko dayon iyang isip. kafaet jud mo study ug college unya wa ta kahibaw asa ang padolngan. very awkward life.

unsaon ingon ani jud ang kinabuhi sa tao kapit-sa-patalim

[oninrocks]

kaluoy..saturated na kaau ang nursing.deli lang mga babaye nag nurse daghan pod mga laki.

[sercor::jhumzki]

lisod gyud ang board karon sa nursing pero ang nagreview sa labagnoi wa daw lisori kay ang review style nila answer na daw daan yopaks labagnoy!

hoist daghan mga toyabs na nursing ayyy!!! shudi dho!

[jdimpas]

Pinoy Migration, 7/9/2008 3:01 AM | abs-cbnNEWS.com

The demand for Filipino nurses in the United States and other key labor markets is falling, thus swelling the ranks of jobless Filipino nurses, the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) said Tuesday.

“In the past two years alone, with domestic demand not increasing and global demand decreasing, many nurses are now waiting to be employed,” said Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) President Leah Primitiva Samaco-Paquiz, in a press conference Tuesday at the PNA office in Malate, Manila.

“There is already a decrease in demand for nurses, and that's the trend for now. Mahirap po ngayong makahanap ng trabaho kahit qualified ka. Matagal. (It's hard to find a job now, even if you're qualified. It takes a long time.),” said Dr. Fely Marlyn Lorenzo of the National Institutes of Health, a research institute of the University of the Philippines Manila.

Lorenzo said the nursing job market slowdown began in 2006 when the demand for Philippine nurses plateaued due to a shrinking US market for nurses and a change in policy of the United Kingdom on hiring of foreign nurses.

Since the domestic market for nurses is oversaturated, nursing pools of qualified nurses in major Philippine hospitals are as high as 1,500, and employment waiting time ranges from six to 12 months.

The PNA explained that the high unemployment and underemployment of Filipino nurses is due not only to lower demand but also overproduction of nurses by Philippine nursing schools.

The nursing licensure examinations produced 37,030 nurses in 2006 and 31,275 nurses in 2007. In 2007, there were about 65,000 newly-registered nurses.

Declining quality

The quality of nursing education has also been declining, and this has affected the chances of Filipino nurses getting hired.

The PNA reiterated the need to focus on the quality of nursing education in the Philippines instead of commercializing the profession.

Billions of pesos are wasted in tuition payments by parents whose children don't get to finish nursing education or those who cannot pass the board exams.

Lorenzo said that there were 178,626 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) enrollees in school year 2003-2004, but only 14,383 graduated.

“The graduation rate is a very small percentage of those enrolled in BSN. So we have to ask ourselves, what happened to all those enrollees? Many students are admitted in the nursing program, but so few graduate. Quality is the problem,” said Lorenzo.

According to Lorenzo’ estimate, P34.2 billion were wasted from 1999 to 2006 by Filipino families whose children didn’t get to finish nursing schools. In public schools, the waste is much lower: P19 billion from 1999 to 2006.

This huge amount spent for a nursing education, she said, could have been used to educate young people in other courses.

In support of CMO 5

Since quality nursing education is a critical issue, the PNA declared its support for Memorandum Order No. 5 of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which seeks to ensure safe, ethical and quality nursing practice.

Out of 460 nursing schools, 341 have already implemented the new curriculum. The new curriculum is supposed to improve the quality of Philippine nursing education by honing critical competencies in safe and high quality health care for patients.

“The new curriculum is a very laudable, significant step. We totally support this. But it doesn’t mean that this is the only one. This is one clear step that CHED has taken for quality education,” said Dean Josefina Tuazon of the UP College of Nursing.

No to Practical Nursing Program

However, the group is not in favor of the CHED’s insertion of the Practical Nursing (PN) Program through a proposed ladderization of the nursing curriculum.

“It has been packaged as the easiest way to go abroad, but it’s a dead end program because there is no local demand and no foreign demand [for it],” said Tuazon.

The PNA raised three major points on why they oppose the practical nursing program:

* there is no local demand nor positions for practical nurses within the Philippine Health Care Delivery System, particularly in the light of the oversupply of nurses and subsequent unemployment of graduate nurses;
* there is no global demand for foreign-trained practical nurses, only professional nurses;
* there is no licensure of practical nurses provided for in the Philippine Nursing Act (RA 9173), thus, the institution of practical nursing programs has no legal basis.

“Why not maximize the nurses we have? We have nurses who have not passed yet. What's the point of creating another layer or category of nurses,” said Tuazon. “Address the surplus situation first. Find jobs for those who are already out there, the licensed nurses, instead of coming up with a new one."

She stressed the need to maintain the Philippines’ good brand of nurses by ensuring high quality of nursing education through the new curriculum.

“This is the time to fix it [curriculum] so that we can maintain our advantage. We should ensure that the brand of Filipino nursing is maintained and kept,” added Lorenzo.

US market

Paquiz also related the bad experiences of two new Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) graduates who could not find jobs in the US, contrary to the promises of practical nursing schools in the country.

“They claimed that they were misled by their respective schools since they spent almost US$5,000 or almost P200,000 more to complete courses on Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) for international applicants,” Paquiz said.

She said the graduates were also informed that there is enough demand for LPNs in the US.

“Nursing leaders and educators decry the commercialization of nursing, of luring the unknowing public into enrolling in LPN training programs and poor quality education programs. Ensuring quality and safety of nursing practice through various nursing education and practice reforms will counteract blatant commercialization,” said Paquiz.

source: ABS-CBN News Online (Beta)

[Motownkid]

PNA na gyuy nisulti lisod na mangita trabaho para sa nurses HERE & ABROAD... nikalit lang ug daghan ang nurses gud murag gremlins.. mas daghan pa nurses kaysa pasyente..hehehe

[jdimpas]

Most Pinoy nurses jobless, underemployed - PNA

MANILA, Philippines - For two years now many licensed nurses are unemployed or underemployed due to policy change in destination countries, oversupply, and quality problems, the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) revealed on Tuesday.

In an interview, PNA National Capital Region Zone II National President Governor Leah Primitiva Samaco-Paquiz revealed that the significant drop with the employment of professional nurses started in 2006 when demand for Filipino flat-lined due to US visa retrogression and UK policy change, which signaled the shift of home grown health workers instead of recruiting one from overseas.

Paquiz claimed that the domestic demand is not also increasing.

“In the US alone, the quota for visas has been filled up resulting in delayed processing of visas with current efforts focused on 2006 accepted applicants. While the domestic market is now oversaturated with nursing pools in major hospitals as high as 1500 and with employment waiting times ranging from six to 12 months," Paquiz explained.

Nursing pools refer to those considered qualified by hospital employers but waiting to be formally employed.

In St. Luke’s Hospital alone, an average of 20 applicants per day applied as walk-in and 10 per day applied through email. With a nursing pool of 300 nurses who finished 3 months pre-hire training, while vacancy is 6-10 persons per month since Oct 2007.

In the Philippine Heart Center, hiring has slowed down due to turn over rates decrease to 10% since 2006.

In 2007, turnover rates remained with nursing pool of 1,500.

Meanwhile, in the Philippine General Hospital, waiting time is 10-12 months with a nursing pool of 200-250.

There are 100 applicants per exam conducted every 2 months- only about 20-25% pass and still go over interviews. In 2007, PGH turnover rate is .83%.

Paquiz said that the current nursing employment market is “a buyer’s market", which allows current employers to be highly selective and quality job seekers are closely scrutinized. - GMANews.TV

source: GMANews.TV - OFW Microsite - Most Pinoy nurses jobless, underemployed - PNA