New Zealand: Luring or repelling Filipino nurses?

Filipino nurses express their concern regarding the changes in the requirements of nurses in NZ.

read the whole article here

Obama on Health Care

Hopefully soon we could find Obama's stand on hiring foreign nurses to work in the US.

Barack Obama will make health insurance affordable and accessible to all:
The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing healthcare system, and uses existing providers, doctors and plans to implement the plan.

Obama will lower health care costs:
The Obama plan will lower health care costs by $2,500 for a typical family by investing in health information technology, prevention and care coordination.

Promote public health:
Obama and Biden will require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and will increase state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Barackobama.com

Plan for Immigration

Barack Obama and Joe Biden's plan for immigration.
(for more information, visit barackobama.com)

Create Secure Borders
Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.

Improve Immigration System
Obama and Biden believe we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.

Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally
Obama and Biden will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

Bring People Out of the Shadows
Obama and Biden support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

Work with Mexico
Obama and Biden believe we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

Beware of Fake Jobs in US

The dean of the University of the Philippines Manila-College of Nursing, Josefina Tuazon said, “The US still needs nurses but it’s not giving out visas for nurses now. It needs to legislate to provide additional work-related permanent visas for nurses.”

Nursing guide

Gov’t doctors, nurses to get pay hike once 2009 budget bill OK’d

The government has allocated P20 billion to cover salary increases of all state workers, especially nurses and doctors, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said yesterday.
Funds for such purpose have not been included in the budget of line agencies like the Department of Health (DOH) because this was contained in the separate Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF), Andaya said, clarifying reports that government has not set aside a budget for nurses’ pay increases.
“In the case of the pay hike for DOH employees, the amount needed is not included in the agency’s proposed budget for 2009, but in the MPBF,” he explained.

Read more

Source: Philstar.com

RP Nurses in UK Want to Move to Australia

Employment opportunities and the promise of a high salary attract Filipino nurses to work in United Kingdom (UK). However, since UK is one of the most expensive countries in the world, what some perceived to be a high salary is actually just enough to get you by in this European county.

This is the reason why many Filipinos nurses in UK want to move to another country that can provide better living conditions and higher value for their money and they are targeting Australia.

Many Filipino nurses currently in UK want to transfer to Australia because they feel that they will be better off there. Aside from the competitive salary, it also has lower cost of living and favorable climate. Other Pinoy nurses in UK are eyeing Canada and Saudi Arabia as the country to migrate to.

The annual salary of a Filipino nurse is 24,000 pounds or more or less 2 million pesos. However, if you have a family to support and considering the high cost of living there; that seemingly huge amount is still not enough for the nurses in UK to afford a house they can call their own.

A study conducted in Britain confirms the poor quality of life in UK and the country has recently come to be regarded as the “Sick Man of Europe.” Even British citizens are leaving UK to migrate to another country.

An estimated 41,000 Britons left UK in 2006 to settle in other countries. The figure is said to be the highest number of mass departure in Europe.

Source: Nursing Guide

Saskatchewan and Japan Compete to Hire Foreign Nurses

The healthcare industry of Saskatchewan, Canada is facing labor shortage and they need to hire more foreign nurses to fill the demand. As Filipino nurses are known for their excellent work ethics and job performance, Saskatchewan seeks to hire the services of RP nurses.

However, aside from Saskatchewan, Filipino nurses are also in demand in other countries as well and one of them is Japan. The need for people to fill up job vacancies in the medical field and the aging population leave Japan no choice but to open its doors for foreign nurses and caregivers.

Japan seeks to hire healthcare professionals from the countries of Indonesia and the Philippines. A Washington, D.C.-based reporter for Japan's NHK, Masaru Takagi, said that a memorandum of agreement between Japan and countries of Philippines and Indonesia has recently been created and Japan would soon hire soon foreign nurses and caregivers.

Takagi said, "The first large group of health care workers from Indonesia is expected to arrive in Japan in early August. Nurses and caregivers are in demand especially in more rural areas, while hospitals are also seeking workers for the less desirable midnight shifts.

The deployment of foreign nurses is big news in Japan which had always been wary of any agreements that would allow the entry of expatriates in their country. Nursing organizations in Japan criticize that hiring of foreigners is not the best solution to address the labor shortage.

Foreign nurses to be deployed in Japan are advised to familiarize themselves with the Japanese language and culture to avoid culture shock and to make communicating with the locals easy. Hired nurses will also undergo six-month training and pass a national nursing exam in Japan within three years. Nurses who will fail the exam will be sent home.

On the other hand, Saskatchewan is active in its efforts to attract the entry of Filipino nurses. Representatives from the government of Canada (Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association and the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses) visited the Philippines last March and May to conduct a nine-day recruitment mission. An estimate of 300 new nurses was hired as a result of that trip.

Saskatchewan prefer Filipino nurses because of the excellent English skills and for being educated using an American nursing curriculum.

Source: Nursing Guide

Demand for registered nurses wanes in US, UK

Click here for more info.

Philippine school plans to acquire more hospitals

A Philippine school which also runs two hospitals in Quezon City plans to acquire two more medical facilities. Systems Technology Inc. (STI), which owns De Los Santos Medical Center and Del Mundo Hospital, plans to buy two more hospitals, one in Davao and another in Metro Manila.

The Davao facility has 100 beds while the Metro Manila hospital has 70, said STI, which also offers nursing courses. Monico Jacob, STI’s President and chief executive officer, said the school is also planning to acquire a network of hospitals with 2,000 beds.

De Los Santos Medical Center, located along España Avenue in Quezon City, was founded in 1949 by Dr. Jose V. de los Santos, the father of Philippine orthopedics. Meanwhile, the del Mundo facility, which has 107 beds, was named after Dr. Fe del Mundo, an internationally-recognized Filipino pediatrician.

Besides receiving the Ramon Magsaysay award for public service in 1977, she was also conferred the rank of a National Scientist in 1980. - Cheryl M. Arcibal, GMANews.TV

New Zealand needs Filipino Nurses

Good news for Filipino nurses aspiring to work in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
You could bring your family along with you to NZ.

Click here to watch the news video.

10,000 Filipino nurses took US licensure test -- labor group

A total of 9,837 Filipinos took the United States licensure examination for nurses for the first time from January to June 2008. These Filipinos dream to work in th US, like most people.
But with retrogression still on, are they one step closer to their dream?

read more at Inquirer

Nurses' rights

Why, even the apolitical nurses are also going to have their own SONA, except that this will be their State of the Nurses Address at 10 a.m. on Monday, just hours before Mrs. Arroyo delivers hers in Congress.

Read the whole article at The Manila Times

DEVELOPMENT DIALOGUE
By Nora O. Gamolo

Underpaid

By Gloria Jane Baylon

...Six years after the enactment of the Nursing Law, nurses (in government service) remain underpaid … many nurses are still receiving less than P10,000 monthly … way below the legal salary’ said Dr. Leah Primitiva Samaco-Paquiz, president of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA).

The Nursing Law’s Article VII, Section 32, clearly states that public nurses must be given the ’salary of not lower than Salary Grade (SG) 15,’ which is listed at P16,093 in the Compensation and Classification Act (R.A. 6758)...

read more


Source: thepinoy.net

Gov't fails to implement Nursing Act

Source: Malaya

THE Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) yesterday assailed the government over the continued non-implementation of the Nursing Act of 2002 (RA 9173) which should have given those nurses working in government hospitals higher pay.

PNA president Dr. Leah Samaco-Paquiz said that under RA 9173, a nurse working in a government hospital should be getting P16,093 a month in salary but the reality is many are getting less than P10,000 a month.

"What is taking them so long to implement this salary (upgrade)? We need to entice these nurses to work in public health and in government service by this simple request to provide them what is just and legal," Paquiz said, adding that the low pay is one reason why Filipino nurses leave for jobs abroad. "While salary is not the reason why nurses serve, the high salaries offered by foreign employment becomes more attractive to them. How do we expect these nurses to remain in government service with this kind of salary?"

PNA said it will send 1,000 of its members to join Monday's rallies along Commonwealth Avenue against President Arroyo when the latter delivers her State of the Nation Address at the Batasan. - Gerard M. Naval

False text messages

False text messages about the results of the June 2008 licensure exams for nursing have been flying about and the Board of Nursing has issued an advisory saying that there's no truth to them.

Increased salaries and benefits for Pinoy nurses in Saskatchewan

source: email from aredula@yahoo.com

This is good news to more than 300 pinoy nurses who will be deployed there starting next month. Some 50 pinoy nurses who are already there participated in the voting.

SASKATCHEWAN'S NURSES ACCEPT OFFER FROM SAHO

Nurses vote 78 per cent in favour of proposed deal
Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008
REGINA -- The province's nurses voted Monday to accept the final offertabled May 30 by the Saskatachewan Association of Health Organizations(SAHO), which bargains on behalf of the health regions.The more than 7,200 nurses, members of the Saskatchewan Union of Nursesvoted 78 per cent in favour of the proposed four-year deal which will see a general duty nurse's wage increase by nearly 35 per cent duringthe life of the contract....

Global demand for nurses falling, says PNA

For the last two years, there has been no increase in the domestic demand while global demand for licensed nurses has been consistently decreasing since 2004, PNA data shows.

Read more

RP nurses tricked to New Zealand jobs urged to tell on recruiters

Read this article from GMA News about migrants’ support group in New Zealand that is willing to provide assistance to Filipino professionals, particularly nurses, who become victims of false promises of recruiters and loan sharks, in taking their cases to court.

Filipino nurses a big win for Sask

Randy Burton, The StarPhoenix

It's hard to overestimate the effect of adding almost 300 nurses to the health system in a matter of months.
In one stroke, the provincial government and the health regions have made it more than one-third of the way to the goal of hiring 800 nurses over four years.
One recruiting trip to the Philippines has netted the province 297 nurses, who will begin moving to Canada over the next six months.

They will be spread across a number of different health regions centred in Saskatoon, Regina, North Battleford and Prince Albert. All of a sudden, the nursing crisis begins to look a lot more manageable.
The Saskatoon Health Region will be the biggest beneficiary of this influx with the addition of 105 nurses.
Naturally, there will be significant challenges in settling this many people in Saskatchewan's tight housing market, but given the present nursing shortage, that's a good problem to have.

Read more

France set to hire Nurses & IT pros

France wants to hire thousands of “competent Filipino workers,” including nurses and information technology professionals.

French Ambassador Gérald Chesnel said discussions on the possible signing of an agreement are underway as his government has already expressed its intent to open his country’s doors to skilled Filipino workers to address France’s labor market needs.

“We are in the process of discussions with the Philippine government. We have already signed the letter of intent and we hope to sign the formal agreement this year,” he said.
Last February, Brice Hortefeux, French Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity, and Co-Development, expressed Paris’ interest in forging an agreement with Manila to address the needs of its labor market.

The parties involved in the signing are the French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity, and Co-Development, the Department of Labor (DoLE) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The Philippines is among the Asian countries qualified under the third-category quota policy set by the Attali Commission. Countries in the third category are those with which France has “traditional links,” including several Asian and African nations.

Chesnel said his government has softened its immigration laws benefiting Filipinos who intend to work in France.

“Those who are coming are people who can be useful to France and who can be also usefully trained and useful to the Philippines when they come back. Our policy is not to make brain drain. We think the best thing we can do is to have your competent people to come to France to work for six, nine, 10 years and then they go back to the Philippines,” he explained.

Chesnel said under the new immigration system, the Filipino workers will leave 20 percent of their salary with either their employer or government and they will get it when they go back to the Philippines. “There’s certain condition they have to use the money to create their own enterprise,” he said.

Needed in France are those engaged in electronics, IT professionals and particularly nurses who, he said, “we don’t have enough in France.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs records showed that there are about 65,000 Filipino workers in France, half of whom are illegally staying.