Oversupply of Nurses in the Philippines Confirmed: 150K Unemployed Filipino Nurses
Two nights ago, news on TV confirmed the oversupply of nurses in the Philippines. Statistics on unemployment of Filipino (Pinoy) nurses hit a whooping 150,000 (estimated count). According to government sources, this figure is actually lower than the previous estimate of 400,000 unemployed (and underemployed) nurses in the Philippines but still confirms that there really exists an oversupply of nurses in the country.
An article about unemployment of nurses is directly related to the number of board exam takers (see Complete List of Nursing Board Exam Passers for June 2008). Another article I have written about this topic was “Oversupply of Nurses in the Philippines Largely Contributes to the Philippine Unemployment Rate” where the discussion focused on the rate of unemployment in the Philippines in general and the contribution of nursing graduates and registered nurses in the rate of unemployment in the Philippines in particular.
One of the threats of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) was closure of nursing schools if their performance in the Nursing Board Exam will not improve. This threat remained a word-of-mouth because so far, there had been no reports on schools ordered by CHED for closure. If there had been schools ordered by CHED to stop offering Bachelor of Science in Nursing, this author did not know about it. If there were schools, I doubt if their number is significant to minimize the enrollment of students in the degree program (BS Nursing).
The oversupply of nurses in the Philippines should be addressed right from the home level. This is because parents/relatives of the students are the ones forcing their child/ren to enroll in BS Nursing because of the “bright future” this course could bring someday. While this is true in some cases, majority of our Filipino nurses have not been that lucky in their quest for a greener pasture and overall success in their chosen field of specialization.
Hospital administrators and academician agree that the quality of Nursing graduates have long been declining. Quality of nursing education could also be blamed. Quality of nursing education is becoming lower each year and adding another year to the New 5-Year Nursing Curriculum in the Philippines is not a practical solution if the primary objective of this new curriculum is to control the growing number of enrollees per year.
Quality teachers (clinical instructors) should be employed and stringent screening of nursing students should be done becaue 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 the teaching-learning process more effective. 
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Tags: Nursing Curriculum, nursing education, nursing opportunities, Nursing Research, Oversupply of Filipino Nurses in the Philippines, oversupply of nurses in the Philippines, Oversupply of Philippine Nurses, Quality of Nursing Education in the Philippines
Kuya jessie
hi… long time no hopping na talaga ako. thanks for dropping me msgs sa blog
wala lang talaga akong maisulat lately 
hehe. lately na naging ka- habahaba.
anyway, actually I’m not in favor of students taking the course nursing sa ngayon. coz harapharapan na nga yung problema about the board exam passers, low demand of nurses, and the unemployment, cge parin. but yah, it cannot be blamed on the student alone kasi kung ang gusto naman ni daddy o ni mommy na magnursing si anak at pinipilit, mapipilitan talaga rin ang bata na kumuha ng nursing.
plus ito pang mga skul na nagoopen ng korsong nursing, pinagkikitaan at pinagsasamantalahan nila ang sitwasyon ngayon. dapat siguro i-cutoff na ung mga iskwelahan na magoopen pa ng ganitong course.
sana maipatupad rin ng CHED ung pagpapasara ng nursing schools na mababa ang performance.
dapat siguro hindi lang ung mga estudyante ang mapasama sa mga course orientation. dapat cgoro isama na rin ung parents… para malaman nila na hindi lang ang nursing ang nakakabuti para sa mga anak nila
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jessie Reply:
September 8th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Tessa,
Yan nga ang previous discussions ko – dapat hindi pilitin ng parents na kumuha ng BS Nursing ang mga anak nila kung ayaw ng mga anak mismo.
jessie’s last blog post..IWA MOTO’s Sexy Photo on the Cover of FHM Philippines (September 2008)
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Wala na tayong magagawa about this matter, kasi naman hundred of thousands of nursing graduates and passers na iion every year but the our hospitals both private and government control is not increasing its number thats why..
But from what i’ve seen mostly of the nurses of ours are with inclination of working aboard.
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jessie Reply:
September 8th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Juler,
Hindi naman totally wala dahil nasa academic sector tayo dito sa Ilocos where I interact with some school heads/deans. Consultant nga ako dito ng mga nursing schools about policies and research. Dito sa min, we do something about these issues. Ilocanos are not known to take things sitting down doing nothing. May mga pamamaraan kami dito to effect some minor changes dahil very conscious ang mga Ilocano particularly about Nursing education. First, we educate parents about these things – overgrowing population of BS Nursing students, impacts on unemployment rate, etc. So far, maraming magulang ang nakikinig. Kasi sa mga schools dito, may mga forums where we discuss issues in education. In some cases, I have been invited to participate and provide Statistics and give my insights on research, issues and trends in education, and the like.
Besides that, lahat ng problema may solusyon. Sa ngayon hindi pa epektibo ang mga solusyon addressing problems about the quality of Nursing education but as an educator, I do not want to look at the failures of our educational system from a distance. Involvement ang kailangan dito. Kasi kung lahat tayo eh titingin sa malayo, hindi natin makikita kung ano talaga ang mga problema and in turn, solutions to our own problems like the new Nursing curriculum, oversupply of nurses in the Philippines, etc.
Tulung-tulong lang dapat ang mamamayan para sa ikauunlad ng bayan. Lahat tayo may magagawa kung merong “WILL”.
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Quality education talaga for nurses di yung wala-wala lang diba? I don’t know why some take this course just to have a brighter future. This is a profession by heart and even if you will not get a bright future of taking or finishing nursing at least you have the quality knowledge to apply in everyday life or in situation that it’s applicable. Tapos ka nga nang nursing, wala ka namang sapat na kaalaman at dika pa aasenso. Kanino ba kasalanan yan, sa schools sa nag-ooffer ng walang quality o sa students na pumatol nalang basta nursing daw ang tinuturo kasi nakamura. Parehas diba? In my case, if I want to be a nurse, I will enroll in a school na talagang may quality, kilala at pinanggagalingan ng magagaling at maayos na serbisyo ng mga nurse.
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jessie Reply:
September 8th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Fren,
Yan nga ang tinututukan ko dito sa amin as a researcher. So far, gumaganda naman ang performances ng mga Nursing schools dito sa Ilocos Norte. Pero marami pa ring kahinaan ang educational system natin at kung susuriin eh lalong lumalala. Quality of Nursing education in the Philippines is really degrading in general.
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Not a good situation. something has to be done about this soon.
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jessie Reply:
September 8th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Shanker,
I just hope so in the near future, my friend.
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kasi naman Bebe, nag aral sila ng nursing para makapagtrabaho sa ibang bansa..tapos pahirapan namang lumabas..
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jessie Reply:
September 9th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Bebe,
Oo nga kaya ang first step para mabawasan ang nursing enrollment in the Philippines is to educate the parents/relatives about the harsh realities of nursing trends and issues. They shouldn’t really force their children to take up BS Nursing. In my interviews here, about 20% were only forced to take up Nursing because of their parents’ first impression of the “profitability” of Nursing as a career. Just imagine if, on a larger scale, 20% will not be forced to take up Nursing in the future. That means the population of nursing enrollees will also be cut down by 20% in the future. Well, that is if the preceding condition will be satisfied.
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There is a huge shortage for nurses in the USA. Why not try Nurse Finders that employs traveling nurses from all countries? Maybe if the diet of your country was less healthy you would have more sickness. Be happy you have a healthy country that does not require many nurses. The USA is in desperate need of nurses for all our old people, especially those with Alzheimers.
Raskel
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if u are a nurse in the philippines, ang hirap mabakante kasi pahirapan humanap ng magandang work sa mga hospitals sa dami ng kakompetisyon. when i went home to the philippines last year, i thought of staying and working there for a while. but it was just so difficult to land a nursing post in a good hospital. and so i had to leave again
im in the uae right now. i have been waiting for my US visa for ages. Even if there is shortage of nurses in the US, it is still so difficult to get there.
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Pizza Culver City Reply:
September 14th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
If you go through a nurse finding agency like a NURSE FINDERS they take care of how you get paid and you don’t have to worry about all the VISA stuff because you are considered a traveling nurse. Maybe someone should call them –look into it- and ask how to create a franchise operation for nurses in the Philippines. That might help the problem a bit. They go under different rules than being hired by a hospital or private doctor and they pay for relocation.
Raskel
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wow 150k is a lot of nurses, i don’t think these problems can be fixed in the hour with an easy solution.. all they can do is try to prevent it from happening again.I was extremely surprised with those numbers, never imagined it was that dramatic
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jessie Reply:
September 21st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Pedro,
actually 150,000 is just an estimate. i think the actual number is even higher.
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