THE EXODUS of Filipino nurses to “promise lands” will drain the country’s health-care manpower.
College of Nursing Dean Glenda Vargas expressed this concern in her discurso de apertura, the annual lecture that formally opens a new school year, last June 14 at the UST chapel. Vargas said that if the government would not create measures to prevent nurses from leaving, the country would inevitably suffer.
“The government and other health-care agencies should ensure that the needs of the local population will be met first before the needs of others abroad,” Vargas said.
Vargas said she’s wary that the Philippines would continue losing its health workers to more affluent nations in the coming years as the demand for nurses abroad soar.
“The demand for Filipino nurses this time will be a persistent, chronic need to meet the global shortage of nurses,” Vargas said. “Enrollment in nursing schools (in developed countries) is declining because (foreigners) are not interested in the job.”
Vargas said that the demand for nurses abroad began in year 2000 due to the low number of enrollees in nursing schools of developing nations. She added that the US Department of Health and Human Services projected that the demand for nurses in the US will continue to increase in 2020 by one million.
Vargas said developed countries such as the US, the United Kingdom and Ireland offer higher salaries to lure nurses from Third World nations to work there. She cited an Asia Times report in 2003 to show that the monthly pay for nurses abroad range from US$3,000 to US$4,000 (P159,000 to P212,000) as compared to the average monthly pay of most nurses in the Philippines which is US$169 (P8,980).
Vargas said the big disparity between the salaries offered abroad and in the country are enough to lure lawyers, businessmen, and lately, soldiers to enroll in Nursing programs. Vargas also pointed out that Filipino doctors leave their jobs to enroll in Nursing schools so they can work overseas. About 3,000 doctors are currently enrolled in Nursing programs, she added.
The demand for nurses in other countries has also resulted in the Nursing school boom in the country, with most schools having inadequate programs, Vargas said.
Vargas added that there are 450 registered Nursing schools in the Philippines, many of which are unregulated. As a result, many schools produce ill-equipped students.
“There are a big number of examinees, but the national passing rate only ranged from 44 per cent to 58 per cent,” she said.
The UST College of Nursing is not spared from the setbacks of the exodus of Filipino Nurses abroad.
According to a report published by the Varsitarian in May 2005, the college in the last four years has lost 16 faculty members who have opted to work abroad. But the college continues to respond to the challenge, Vargas said.
The UST Nursing dean Vargas said that the college maintains the best faculty line-up among nursing schools. She added that the college observes a strict student selection program. She said these steps help maintain the satisfactory performance of Thomasian nurses in the national licensure exams. I. A. L. de Lara
