I read an article written by former Labor Secretary Pat Sto. Tomas at the ABS-CBN website. She explains in her article that the supply of Filipino nurses has skyrocketed while the demand has actually gone down. Not only that, it’s really hard for a nurse these days to go abroad and become an OFW because of the requirements of foreign hospitals.
2 Years Experience Requirement
The requirement of foreign hospitals is that nurses should have at least 2 years of experience. The problem is that fresh graduates of Nursing will have a very difficult time trying to find local employment because the nurses just outnumber the openings in all of the hospitals in the country. According to Sto. Tomas, 261,000+ nurses passed the examinations in the last 5 years. However the total number of nursing jobs available in the country is only 150,000. Out of that 150,000, I don’t know how many slots are actually open for hiring. Because they can’t find work locally, fresh grad nurses will end up doing either of the three things:
1. Work for FREE in certain hospitals or at insanely low pay just so they can get 2 years of experience. In some cases, nurses even have to PAY hospitals so they can get the experience.
2. They wait… and wait… and wait… in vain.
3. Give up nursing altogether and do something else.
The environment is not good for Nursing right now in the Philippines because of these conditions. If you’re in High School and you want to become a Nurse because it pays well, please think twice. If you’re not passionate about being a Nurse, then you’ll just end up doing a bad job or be mediocre at best. If that’s the case then the ones who excel will be the ones to get the jobs and you’ll end up wasting hard earned money for tuition fees and reviews. I agree 100% with Secretary Sto. Tomas. Nursing is a big risk right now.
For those who are currently enrolled in nursing or who have graduated but have no jobs yet, you can’t afford to just be resigned to your fates. Find out what your passion is and go after it. You might want to try out being an entrepreneur. There are so many businesses these days that you can get into that will even be more rewarding for you. What’s important is that you have a back-up plan and that you can act on it should your original nursing career fails.
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Very much agree Sir.