9,195 Filipino nurses sought United States jobs in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 9,195 Filipino nurses hoping to land jobs in the United States took the US licensure exam from January to September this year, a party-list group representing overseas Filipino workers said yesterday.

“The number is up 30 percent versus the 7,119 Philippine-educated nurses who took America’s eligibility test,” former congressman John Bertiz, who chairs ACTS-OFW Coalition of Organizations, said.

Citing US National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (NCSBN) figures released on Oct. 30, Bertiz said a total of 1,064 Indians, 805 Puerto Ricans, 638 South Koreans and 623 Nigerians also took the licensure test.

The NCSBN administers the examination for registered nurse. The exam, which costs $200 (P10,200), is the final step in the US nurse licensure process.

The number of foreign-educated nurses taking the test is considered a reliable indicator as to how many of them are trying to enter the profession in America.

Bertiz said Jamaicans, Canadians and Cubans also compete with Filipinos in America’s nursing labor market.

He welcomed the recent Supreme Court ruling which upheld the validity of a 2002 law that pegged at P30,531 (Salary Grade 15) the monthly base pay of nurses employed by the Philippine government.

The salary level public sector nurses are entitled to is 48 percent higher than the P20,754 (Salary Grade 11) they are currently receiving.

However, Bertiz said the considerably improved starting pay is not expected to hold back Filipino nurses from seeking “vastly superior standards of living overseas, especially in North America.”

“We have many young, upwardly-mobile nurses and other health professionals who really want to live and work overseas, mainly in America and Canada,” he said.

He said the P30,531 monthly base pay, when annualized, amounts to only P396,903, including the 13th month pay.

“The P396,903 is roughly equal to just 10 percent of the P3.65 million (or $71,730) annual median pay of nurses in America,” Bertiz added. – With Mayen Jaymalin, Delon Porcalla.