Thursday, October 02, 2008

♥speech♥

The Oversupply of Pinoy Nurses

Nursing. One of the “in-demand”courses in the country. Because of the increased demand of nurses all over the globe, most especially in US, UK, Middle East and other Asian countries, more Filipinos are attracted to take up Nursing. Aiming to live in “greener pastures”, they took up nursing because of the bright future this course could bring someday. But, is this applicable for all?

Majority of our Filipino Nurses have not been that lucky in their quest for greener pasture and overall success in their chosen field of specialization. Latest statistics showed that of the 70,000 nursing graduates who passed the Nursing Board Exams in 2007, half of them are still unemployed. Today, an estimated 150,000 Pinoy nurses are unemployed and under-employed, according to government sources. This is because of the continuous proliferation of Nursing Schools producing more and more graduates. Also, products of “ladderized nursing education” who are known as Practical Nurses add to the oversupply problem.

Truly, Philippine Nursing Schools are producing more graduates than the job market demands, resulting in an oversupply.

If there is truth to this report, then this is very alarming. The Philippines got too excited about the demand of nurses worldwide, that today, there are too many nurses than the healthcare institutions can handle. Our country has so many nurses that new nursing graduates are finding it hard to find jobs. The competition among nursing graduates is so stiff that local hospital can now afford to hire nurses for free.

Another proof that we have too many nurses is that the quota requirement for migrant workers in America for this year had been reached. Also, UK is starting to rely again on their local health workers. These two countries are said to be the “key destinations” of most nurses who will work abroad. The impending future of too many nurses posed a serious problem for the country that should not be ignored. It is about time for the government take action on the proliferation of many schools offering nursing courses- most of which do not even meet the criteria set by the Commission on Higher Education Standard.

The government and CHED must monitor and be strict against new nursing schools and even on courses that offer two-year Practical Nursing Program. Most foreign employers still prefer the four-year-college-degree nurses who passed the Licensure Board Exams. So why choose the two-year course then?

Nursing schools should also have strict admission requirements. Only those who qualify should be admitted to the nursing education.

Quality teachers (clinical instructors) should be employed and stringent screening of nursing students should be done because I strongly believe that to overcome the oversupply of nurses in the Philippines, quality education should be improved by way of improving the quality of educators as well as the quality of educands. This way, the population of nursing enrollees will go down and good clinical instructors will educate better a manageable number of students, making the teaching-learning process more effective.

The bottom line is, Nursing Schools must then produce skilled and competent graduates. Emphasizing more than quantity, we should focus more on producing quality nurses, and not view nursing as a surefire way out of poverty.

Sources:

www.filipinonursesnews.com

Oversupply or shortage of nurses? DOLE wants to know ? article from Philippine Daily Inquirer by Margaux Ortiz, July 29, 2008

www.gmanews.tv

Oversupply of nurses plagues RP

By Gloria Esguerra Melencio
Asia News Network
First Posted 20:47:00 04/03/2008

http://globalnation.inquirer.net ? article on Global demand for nurses falling says PNA

http://jpsimbulan.com/2008/09/05/Oversupply-of-Nurses-in-the-Philippines-Confirmed-150K-Unemployed-Filipino-Nurses

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yan po ang nagawa kong one-point speech para sa English 3 namin. grabe nabuburat na ko niyan sa grammar hahaha. hmmm..ok ba? Hehe

bukas na namin idedeliver ang speech na yan at kahapon ko lang nalaman na kelangan pala eh memorized at hindi read speech. so gudlak naman sakin, buti na lang sinulat ko yan kahit papaano eh madali ko siyang mamememorize..