Stories tagged
‘nursing’

The global Filipina

One in every four foreign nurses in the world today is Filipino. Or more precisely, Filipina. The global demand for nurses has given rise to a boom in nursing education as tens of thousands of Filipinos, including medical doctors, are now taking up nursing so they can work abroad.

In all, the booming global services industry is providing job opportunities for Filipinos seeking employment overseas not just as health workers but also as caregivers, entertainers, domestic helpers, and chambermaids. The result has been the migration, in droves, of Filipino women who now make up 65 percent of those going abroad to work.

Read more… | Posted Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

Substandard nursing schools sell dreams of a life abroad

by Chit Estella

SMACK IN the heart of downtown Manila and around the Professional Regulation Commission can be found the country’s export processing zone for nurses. There, a dozen or so nursing schools and training centers have somehow converged and are thriving, mining the dreams of those aspiring to work overseas.

In one of these schools, students called upon to recite are admonished by the teacher to speak in English. “How can you work abroad if you can’t even answer in English?” the teacher tells them.

Read more… | Posted Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

Lack of nurses burdens an ailing healthcare system

by Chit Estella

LANI, a radiology technologist in a government hospital in Quezon City, remembers the time when she moved among the best in her department. “We used to have good senior nurses here,” she says.

Then, almost suddenly, her co-workers started leaving. “That whole year, I kept seeing resignation papers,” recalls Lani. Even the aides were disappearing, going off to London or the United States or elsewhere for good. Today, out of the 40 staff members that she had originally worked with in the department, only four have stayed behind. But even they—including Lani—have either applied or are planning to apply for work abroad.

Read more… | Posted Monday, March 21st, 2005