I The PNA likewise asked the.

The PNA president also disclosed that United States, home to almost
250,000 Filipino nurses in the past years, stopped issuing work visas this year because the quota
requirement for migrant workers has already been reached. There were 21,000 Filipino nurses seeking
employment in the US in 2007.

1. Highly commercialized nursing schools – Students are still being advised to take onNursing because they
and their parents believed that becoming a nurse abroad is their ticket to escape poverty. Success stories
of Pinoy nurses abroad are being flaunted everyday by nursing schools to attract more and more students to
boost their earnings. And one way or another, someone from the family has direct link or relation to
someone who is making big bucks abroad that only solidify the intent of the students to take on nursing.
The result – more and more high school graduates are now flooding these nursing schools as the preferred
college course. Tens of thousands also end up taking the nursing board exams. The high board passing rate
also encourage the students to take on the course.

2. Practical Nursing programs – Not many people know on the onset that Practical nursesend up to be
the nursing assistants to registered nurses here and abroad. The proliferation of practical nursing programs
from various nursing school institutions, which is a vocational course to begin with, has attracted even more
students to easily jump into the nursingboom.
False advertising plays the part on the oversupply. Students are led to believe that Practicalnursing course
is their shortcut to going abroad than taking the full 4-year course. But recent reports showed that graduates
of practical nursing are having a hard time finding jobs abroad contrary to what has been advertised when
they are enrolling in those practicalnursing schools.
This has raised concerns at PNA which warned students to be very careful taking on this course as it is not
a guarantee that they will get working visas or immigrant status in the US for example.

Now with all unemployed nurses around, how will the government deal with this oversupplysituation? This
will definitely add to unemployment rate in the future if and when the government will not take action as early
as now to curb the impact of this impendingoversupply as well as the effect of deteriorating demand in
the nursing profession here and abroad.
MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines has oversupply of nurses this year as
“world-class schools” in the country continue to produce thousands of nurses and
some diploma mill schools churn out countless of practical nurses.

University of the Philippines College of Nursing Dean Dr. Josefina Tuazon and Philippine Nurses
Association National President Leah Paquiz disclosed that the oversupply of nurses is fast becoming the
country’s problem even as deployment abroad may be the “first choice” for these graduates.

Tuazon explained that due to the numerous nursing graduates this year at 67, 728, hospitals have to get
volunteer nurses -- a lot better because they are not paid -- to accommodate the fresh graduates.

High number of graduates of Practical Nursing, a two-year course that focuses on the basics of nursing,
aggravates the unemployment problem, Tuazon stressed.

“There is no local demand or positions for practical nurses within the Philippine Health Care Delivery
system particularly in the light of the oversupply of nurses and subsequent unemployment of graduate
nurses,” PNA’s Paquiz revealed in a written statement distributed to the media recently.

Schools offering Practical Nursing have mushroomed in the country overnight as they promise overseas
employment that may await the graduates of this two-year non-degree course. The promise of work abroad,
however, is not true as foreign employers prefer the four-year college-degree nurses who passed the
Licensure Board Exams, Paquiz added.

The farthest thing that these practical nurses can reach is become nurse assistants, Tuazon noted.

The PNA likewise asked the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) of the Department of Education to
put a stop to other schools’ offering the Practical Nursing program.

The PNA “strongly objects to the institution of the Practical Nursing program and vehemently rejects the
proposed ladderization of the nursing curriculum,” the PNA statement said.

The PNA president also disclosed that United States, home to almost 250,000 Filipino nurses in the past
years, stopped issuing work visas this year because the quota requirement for migrant workers has already
been reached. There were 21,000 Filipino nurses seeking employment in the US in 2007.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration deployed a total of 13, 525 licensed nurses around the
world in 2006. Of this number, 12, 263 are females and 1, 261 are males.

Saudi Arabia employed some 5,600 Filipino nurses, the highest so far of all Middle East countries in 2006.

Japan has 1.1 million Filipino nurses and licensed caregivers in 2005.