400,000 licensed nurses have no jobs in RP – PRCBy Mayen Jaymalin (Philippine Star: September 1, 2008)
Nearly half a million licensed Filipino nurses are now out of jobs.
The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) reported that the country now has an oversupply of 400,000 licensed nurses.
“Both public and private hospitals could only accommodate 60,000 positions, so right now we have an oversupply of 400,000 nurses,” said PRC Commissioner Ruth Padilla.
Padilla pointed out that the country produces 100,000 licensed nurses annually, but there are no additional positions created in both government and private hospitals nationwide.
She, however, expressed confidence that a lot of employment opportunities abroad are available for those licensed Filipino nurses who cannot find jobs in the country.
“We will not have difficulty meeting the high demand for nurses abroad because we have an oversupply. We welcome opportunities outside the country,” Padilla said.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) earlier reported numerous job orders for Filipino nurses overseas, particularly among highly developed countries.
POEA said the high demand for Filipino nurses is expected to continue for years because of the aging population in many highly developed countries.
But the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) said the country now has an oversupply of nurses because of the continuing decline in the hiring of Filipino nurses overseas.
For the past years, the PNA said the demand for nurses in key destinations like the United States and the United Kingdom has declined due to US visa retrogression and the shift in UK’s policy.
Padilla, however, said the government is now negotiating for agreements that would allow the hiring of Filipino nurses in various countries.
Methink, the national government should raise the budget allocation to the health sector for the upgrading of provincial or regional hospitals nationwide. This would give Filipino nurses the required training and experience for local employment and deployment abroad. They should do this instead of allocating big chunks of the trillion peso national budget to military airplanes that are "widow makers" and "flying coffins."
The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) should also start doing its job by upholding the rights of nurses instead of collecting annual fees for a membership that doesn't benefit nurses. It should make its presence more felt than just be quasi doomsayers among unemployed nurses.
Lastly, parents and high school seniors should think twice about pursuing a degree in nursing. Not only the capital outlay of nursing education is tremendously costly but the return on investment is uncertain.
(Photo from the October 2, 2007 Oathtaking of Nurses at the Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City.)
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