Nurses

MANILA, Philippines—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz is now advising some 100,000 unemployed Filipino nurses in the country to try their luck in the booming business process outsourcing  industry or call centers which she said had “non-traditional” health-related aspects.

THE Philippine Regulations Commission announced last week that 22,760 nurses passed the Nurse Licensure Examinations (NLE) given last December 2011. That’s thousands of new nurses added to the 297,809 unemployed ones as of September 2011. With the huge surplus of nurses fighting for limited employment opportunities, both local and foreign, it’s not surprising that many…

THE number of Filipino nurses wanting to work in the United States dropped by 42 percent to 5,630 in 2011 from 9,789 the year before, a former labor leader and now a lawmaker said Monday.

THE Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Thursday said that it might close down popular courses being offered by higher education institutions (HEIs)—accounting, education and nursing—next year.

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill prohibiting the collection of fees from nurse trainees by public and private hospitals and similar institutions. House Bill 5445 seeks to put an end to the practice of some hospitals that charge trainees huge amounts, ranging from P10,000 to…

KYOTO—“It’s like taking a nursing course all over again, but this time, in Japanese.” That is what Filipino nurses here told Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz when they met on Sunday and asked the labor chief for help in hurdling the national nursing board exams of Japan.

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a bill prohibiting public and private hospitals from requiring cash payment from registered nurses who want to gain work experience.

The Department of Health (DoH) announced the ongoing recruitment and deployment of 11,500 nurses to DoH-Hospitals and health facilities under the 2nd Batch of the Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service or RNheals II.

HOSPITALS that collect fees from registered nurses who render free services for work experience may soon be slapped a penalty of P500,000.

Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay is calling on the government to take more aggressive action toward the rising number of unemployed nurses in the country following the drop in the demand for health care professionals overseas.

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.

TOKYO (via PLDT)—Japan has agreed to review its procedures for the entry of Filipino nurses under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement following the very low rate of successful applications three years since the agreement was signed, President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the “the most aggressive recruiter” of Pinoy nursing professionals and personnel.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino nurses should look for jobs in Saudi Arabia, according to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippine Nurses Association is against the plan to stop the volunteer program in hospitals that take in registered nurses who want work experience to get the needed employment certificates to work abroad.

MANILA, Philippines – Health Secretary Enrique Ona on Thursday said he wants the Department of Health to craft a residency program for nurses in an effort to stop the practice of “forced volunteerism” where nurses must pay a fee in order to receive training and get experience in public and private hospitals.

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines – The Aquino administration is hiring 12,000 additional nurses and midwives to fill up the vacancies in hospitals and beef up health personnel in clinics and health centers in rural areas.

A FORMER president of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) branded as toothless paper tiger the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) directive for a moratorium on enrollment in nursing.

Sen. Edgardo Angara urged Department of Health Secretary Enrique Ona to find immediate solutions to the growing unemployment of nursing graduates which has already ballooned to 287,000. “This is a pervasive misemployment and job mismatch,” during the Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC) Meeting last Thursday.

Job opportunities in Sweden may be opened for Filipino nurses after Vice President Jejomar Binay met with Swedish officials there earlier this month. The Vice President met and discussed with Speaker of Parliament Per Westerberg and issues concerning the Filipinos living in Sweden.

Some 20,000 potential job openings for the elderly care sector in Australia may await Filipinos wishing to work as healthcare providers abroad.

THE number of Filipino nurses taking the United States licensure examination for the first time (excluding repeaters) is always considered a good indicator as to how many of them are trying to practice their profession in America.

A lawmaker is pushing for a special local jobs plan for the growing number of unemployed Filipino nurses, estimated by the Department of Health at more than 200,000. In House Bill 4582, LPG Marketers Association Rep. Arnel Ty proposed the creation of a jobs plan would be expanded version of the Nurses Assigned in Rural…

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Filipino nurses eyeing job opportunities in Australia will have to wait for at least two years as the Australian government announced it will hold off applications for foreign nurses beginning this year until 2013. Austrialian Ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith explained that this was due to a consolidation movement of…

At the Cagayan State University, registered nurses constitute an entire section of the freshman class of the College of Medicine. Only a few years ago, they would have been queueing up at the United States and United Kingdom Embassies and then jubilantly celebrating the visas that then came so easily. But hard times have fallen…

These life savers may soon need aid themselves if substandard practices continue unabated… MANILA, Philippines — Several years ago, the nursing profession was a flourishing industry and Nursing as a course was most in demand. Not anymore today.

The third batch of 71 Filipino nurses left for Japan yesterday to undergo intensive Japanese language training to further boost their chances of passing the country’s tough licensure examinations.

The government will look for other programs that could help nursing graduates get jobs after college, Malacañang yesterday said amid growing number of unemployed nurses in the country.

Manila, Philippines – The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) yesterday said hundreds of thousands of nurses remain jobless because of a saturated market and expressed hope that those who enroll in nursing this school year would do so for love of the profession.

The number of Filipino nursing graduates aspiring to practice their profession in America plummeted by 52 percent in the first quarter of this year, after nose-diving by 37 percent in 2010, a congressman said on Sunday.