Nurses giving up on US market

Fewer and fewer nurses are seeking employment in the United States.

Former labor leader and now party list representative Arnel Ty said only 1,370 nurses made efforts to seek employment in the United States by taking the NCLEX for the first time from July to September this year.

The number is 38 percent, or 857, fewer than the 2,227 Filipinos who took the US nursing licensure examination for the first time in the same three-month period in 2010, he said.

“The US labor market for foreign nurses is shrinking. America itself is producing more nurses, and fewer healthcare service providers there are making new hires in light of continuing government subsidy cutbacks,” Ty pointed out.

Citing US National Council of State Boards of Nursing statistics, Ty said only 4,354 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time from January to September.

“This represents a decline of 44 percent, or 3,426, compared to the 7,780 Filipino nurses who took the NCLEX for the first time over the same nine-month period in 2010,” Ty said.

The number of Philippine-educated nurses taking NCLEX for the first time, excluding repeaters, is considered a sound indicator as to how many of them are trying to practice their profession in America.

But the Philippines remains America’s top supplier of foreign nurses.

He said a combined 1,894 nurses educated in India, South Korea,Canada and Puerto Rico also took the NCLEX for the first time from January to September.

Ty said a total of 17,589 nurses educated outside the US took the NCLEX (including repeaters) in the nine-month period, but only 27 percent of them passed the examination. Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today