Fewer Pinoy nursing grads seeking jobs in the US

The number of Filipino nursing graduates aspiring to practice their profession in the United States plummeted by almost 52% in the first quarter of 2011, according to a lawmaker.

Only 1,454 Filipino nursing graduates took the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) from January-March this year compared to 3,024 graduates in the same period last year, said Rep. Arnel Ty of party-list Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association (LPGMA).

According to Ty, the number of Filipino nursing graduates taking the NCLEX for the first time indicates how many are trying to enter the profession in the US.

NCLEX is a licensure exams administered by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing (USNCSBN).

Citing USNCSBN statistics, Ty said that in 2010, the number of Filipino nursing graduates who took the NCLEX for the first time dropped by 37 percent to 9,789 compared to 15,382 in 2009.

The statistics has prompted Ty to file a bill seeking to establish a special jobs plan for the country’s growing number of unemployed and underemployed nurses.

The jobs plan would be an expanded version of Nurses Assigned in Rural Service (NARS), the short-lived Philippine government’s project that enlisted 10,000 nurses to improve healthcare services in the country’s 1,000 poorest municipalities, according to House Bill 4582.

Ty said nurses now comprise the country’s second-largest group of professionals following teachers. Nurses are also the nation’s biggest group of unemployed skilled workers.

“The country now has tens of thousands of nurses who are either totally jobless or performing work that has nothing to do with their specialization," Ty said.

He said the problem has been “aggravated by America’s lingering economic difficulties," which has lessened both the demand for Filipino nurses as well as their desire to seek employment in the US.

NURSE program

Last week, Health Secretary Enrique Ona urged incoming college students to avoid taking up nursing.

Ty’s bill proposes to establish the Special Program for the Employment of Nurses in Urban and Rural Services or NURSE.

The program is aimed at delivering additional public healthcare services to depressed areas of the country.

With the program, a total of 10,000 nurses would be mobilized annually to poor municipalities in the Philippines.

Each practitioner will receive a monthly stipend not lower than the amount commensurate to Salary Grade 15.

Nurses engaged under the program must not be over 35 years old and must have a valid PRC-issued registered nurse license. - VVP, GMA News

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