Only 806 Pinoy nurses seek US jobs in Q1, says lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines — Only 806 Filipino nurses sought jobs in the United States from January to March this year, LPG-MA party list Representative Arnel Ty said.

The number is lower than the 863 nurses who took the NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) during the same period last year, Ty said.

Nevertheless, Ty said statistics from the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing show that among foreign-educated nurses, Filipinos remain the most aggressive jobseekers in American hospitals, clinics and nursing homes.

The lawmaker said 257 Indians, 125 Canadians, 118 Puerto Ricans and 106 South Koreans also took the NCLEX for the first time in the first quarter of this year.

“We are still cautiously optimistic that the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, will eventually help revive America’s demand for Filipino nurses,” Ty said.

Obamacare is expected to increase by some 10 percent the number of insured Americans potentially seeking health care, a rise seen to help stimulate demand for foreign nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, medical technologists, radiologists, and speech pathologists, he said.

Ty urged the government to tap other foreign labor market, such as Japan and the Middle East, to give jobs to what he estimated are 320,000 idle nurses.

Last year, only 3,673 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time, or just 17 percent of the record-high 21,499 who took the exam in 2007, the height of the nursing boom.

Taking and passing the NCLEX is the final step in the US nurse licensure process.

The number of Filipinos taking the exam for the first time, excluding repeaters, is a considered a good indicator of how many of them are seeking to enter the US job market.

Ty earlier filed House Bill 4582, which seeks to establish the Special Program for the Employment of Nurses in Urban and Rural Services or NURSE.

The measure seeks to deploy at least 10,000 nurses to poor and underserved communities for six-month tours of duty, for which they will receive a monthly stipend not lower than P24,887.

Thousands of new graduates as well as repeaters are expected take the Philippine nursing licensure exam on June 2-3 in 16 cities across the country.

The passers will join the 16,908 new registered nurses that the country produced in January. –Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon.com