Filipino nurses still in demand in US hospitals

Amid massive layoffs worldwide due to the global financial crunch, Filipino nurses and other healthcare professionals are still in demand in US hospitals, an immigration consultant said yesterday.

Last year, the Philippine Nurses Association announced that job opportunities for nurses have dwindled changes in policy in destination countries, the oversupply situation and quality problems and doubts on Filipino healthcare workers.

But Consultant Emmanuel Geslani said due to the ongoing labor shortage of healthworkers in the US, American recruitment firms still look to the Philippines as a major source of foreign nurses due to their high competence skills and fluency in English.

Next month, representatives from a recruitment firm will be in Manila to interview around 300 healthcare professionals — registered nurses, physical and occupational therapists — for employment in US hospitals, he said.

The St. Georges Recruitment International Inc., which facilitated the interview of applicants, will be accepting resumés and walk-in applicants with special ward experience in ICU/CCU, Telemetry, and ER for initial screening, evaluation and final screening before they are presented to Cambridge Healthcare officials who will make the final selection.

Applicants who passed the NCLEX, IELTS and NTPE, NBCOT, TOFEL/IBT will be given priority in the selection process, Geslani said.

Deployment for the US will be within four to six months after selection and submission of all complete documents as required by US visa authorities.

Geslani said Cambridge Healthcare will give assistance and housing allowance, a 36-40 hour work week, lucrative overtime pay, US standard benefits and options, paid legal, licensing and testing fees.

“They (healthcare professionals who qualify) can earn a minimum salary of $48,000 which can go up depending on the qualifications and experience of the healthcare professionals and depending on the location,” Geslani added.

Competitive salaries for positions will be determined on the experience, qualification of the selected candidate and the assigned area of work. Applicants must have at least one year experience in the specialty area and be currently working or on volunteer duty with a 100-bed capacity hospital or higher.

The healthcare professionals who qualify will be selected and be petitioned by Cambridge for H1B working visas under a non-cap exempt status privilege and do not fall under the retrogression period for H1B visas.

“They (representatives from Cambridge Healthcare) have already selected 50 from the first batch of the agency. Their papers are now being processed to obtain a H1B working visa,” Geslani said. –Danessa Rivera, Daily Tribune