NEWS

UK, US, Still Open for Filipino Nurses
09 January 2009

United Kingdom and United States have opened its doors again to Filipino nurses.

In his interview with The Philippine Star, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Marianito Roque said that after a year, UK is again hiring Filipino nurses for their hospitals and retirement homes. “For a while there has been no vacancy for Filipino nurses in UK, but because of the aging population there, they realized they need our Filipino nurses to take care of them,” Sec. Roque adds.

On the other hand, several US-based recruitment agencies have announced that they will be hiring Filipino nurses come 2009 despite the economic crisis in the US.

According to Philip Leonard of St. Georges Recruitment International Inc., in his interview with Inquirer.net, representatives from the Cambridge Healthcare in Maryland will come to the Philippines and interview applicants to fill in 600 job vacancies for nurses and physical and occupational therapist.

Mr. Leonard adds that the demand for nurses is high such that selected qualified applicants can enjoy benefits such as relocation bonus, migration of spouse and children under 21, 36-hour work-week in 12-hour shifts, "lucrative" over-time pay, US standard benefits and options, and paid legal, licensing and testing fees. Interested applicants may apply at rhose@sgrii.com.

DOLE recently met with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to determine the situation of the nursing sector here in the Philippines. Both government agencies verified if there is a shortage or surplus of nurses in the country so that the government could initiate suitable solutions. Through this, the Secretary hopes that more Filipino nurses will be recruited to work abroad.

Trabaho.com. thanks its following sources:

Jaymalin, Mayen, The Philippine Star. UK reopens market for Filipino nurses (Posted December 4, 2008) Retrieved December 6, 2008 from
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=421088&publicationSubCategoryId=200
Re posted at Yahoo! Philippines News at
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20081204/tph-pinoy-nurses-uk-541dfb4.html

Jaymalin, Mayen. The Philippine Star. UK re-opening door for nurses (Posted December 5, 2008) Retrieved December 6, 2008 from
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=421329&publicationSubCategoryId=204

Uy, Veronica. Inquirer.net US demand for Filipino nurses still high (Posted December 5, 2008) Retrieved December 6, 2008 from
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20081205-176345/US-demand-for-Filipino-nurses-still-high