Amid the looming worldwide shortage of nurse practitioners, Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo is encouraging high school graduates to pursue the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in college.
“The nursing job outlook is very promising. High school graduates should include nursing in their list of college options if they want a stable and lucrative occupation in the years ahead,” he said.
Meanwhile, an employment provider said local hospitals should hire retired and experienced nurses who have worked abroad to address the lack of registered nurses in the country.
LBS Recruitment Solutions Inc. President Lito B. Soriano, whose recruitment agency has deployed over 8,000 registered nurses to Saudi Arabia and other countries, said retired nurses bring a wealth of competencies, experience, expertise, and specializations in their work abroad in the military and international hospitals.
They can also be mentors to the nurses who may be hired under the DOH hiring program, Soriano said.
Last week, new Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said he wants to tap nursing graduates without a license to combat the shortage in the local health workforce.
Herbosa noted there are 4,800 vacant positions for nurses in the government.
“Nurses are in great demand while the supply is short, so we would urge both male and female high school graduates to consider taking the nursing career path,” Rillo said.
Thousands of high school students will graduate next month and enter college in August or September.
The World Health Organization, in its State-of-the- World’s Nursing 2020 report, projected that “without action, there will be a shortfall of 4.6 million nurses worldwide by 2030.”
In the Philippines, “the shortfall of nurses is expected to be 249,843 by 2030, unless greater investment is made now to retain them in the local health sector.”
Reacting to the WHO report, Rillo has been batting for a 75 percent increase in the minimum starting pay of nurses employed in government hospitals, in a bid to slow down their exodus to overseas labor markets.
He filed House Bill No. 5276 to increase the entry-level monthly pay of nursing staff in public Anticipating the impending shortage of nurses, the Commission on Higher Education in July last year removed the decade-old moratorium on the opening of new BSN programs.
