POEA exec: With 'no new grads' policy, future of Pinoy nurses in US seems bleak
“There has been progression of eb3 visa for entry of foreign nurses.” POEA Deputy Administrator Libby Casco told GMA News Online in an email on Wednesday.
According to the US Embassy website, eb3 visas are presented to people who have job offers in the US.
Casco issued the statement when sought for comment on a CNN report saying new registered nurses "are coming across thousands of job postings with an impossible requirement: no new grads."
"It's a problem well documented by the nursing industry. About 43% of newly licensed RNs still do not have jobs within 18 months after graduation, according to a survey conducted by the American Society of Registered Nurses," CNN reported.
Casco explained that the "the trend is expected to continue under the current scenario and therefore presents bleak prospects for our nurses,” she continued.
She attributed the US nursing jobs scenario to "retrogression," meaning that no visas are available for foreign nurses to enter and work in the US due to oversubscription.
“The policy of US employers is a result of the recession where employers stop new hiring and maintain existing employment of it's nursing staff,” Casco said.
“With the tight labor market because of stiff competition of fresh grads and experienced nurses also looking for jobs, they would naturally prefer someone with experience,” she continued.
Top destination of Pinoy nurses
In 2010, Saudi Arabia was the top destination of Filipinos with 8513 nurses deployed to that country.
The second top destination, UAE lags behind with only a mere 473 nurses deployed according to data from the POEA.
This statistic was confirmed by Marc Dupaya, a recruitment Manager of staffing provider Abba Personnel Services in another interview with GMA News Online.
“The top destinations for Filipino nurses is the Middle East with Saudi and the UAE leading the market,” Dupaya said.
On the other hand, only 83 nurses were sent to the US during that year.
Dupaya said that demands for nurses in the US and Canada have slowed down since 2006.
43% unemployment rate
Meanwhile, the CNN report said 43 percent of fresh graduate nurses in the US have not landed a job upon 18 months of receiving their license.
“The process has become more and more discouraging, especially since hospitals want RNs with experience, yet nobody is willing to give us this experience,” nursing job seeker Ronak Soliemannjad told CNN.
Being hired as a fresh graduate is nearly impossible even though health care is one of the largest sectors for job growth in the US since the recession.
The same recession which drove health care job growth up is also the reason for the difficulty that fresh nursing graduates who are looking for jobs in the US are experiecing according to Peter Buerhaus.
Buerhaus is a registered nurse and economist teaching at the anderbilt University School of Nursing. He co-authored a paper showing the statistics of the nursing market when the economy is weak.
73,000 nurses resigned each year due to various reasons such as childbearing and retirement before the recession.
However, the recession forced this figure to change dramatically due to financial uncertainty faced by the American workforce.
900,000 to retire this decade
However, Buerhaus is expecting another nursing shortage in the near future because older nurses are scheduled to retire within the decade and baby boomers are expected to need more health care services.
He noted that almost 900,000 nurses in the US are over the age of 50.
For Dupaya, she is skeptical whether this number of retirees in the US will be sufficient to curb the need of jobs by Filipino nurses.
“It's a good thing but there are 72,000 to 75,000 newly licensed nurses in the Philippines per year,” she pointed out.
“These are just the newly licensed nurses in the Philippine,” Dupaya reiterated.
The Philippines sent 12,082 nurses overseas in 2010 based on POEA statistical data. - VVP, GMA News
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