A Quezon City congressman has underscored the need to "aggressively retain" nurses at the public hospital level.
This, after Quezon City 4th Rep. Marvin Rillo noted the over 100 percent increase in Filipino nursing graduates who took the United States (US) licensure examination, also known as the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX).
A total of 8,128 nursing graduates from the Philippines took the particular examination for the first time from January to June this year, in hopes of obtaining employment in America.
“The 8,128 represents an increase of 129 percent when compared to the 3,550 Filipino nursing graduates that took the US licensure examination, or the NCLEX, for the first time in the same six-month period in 2021, excluding repeaters,” Rillo, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, said in statement.
“The numbers, released only last week, strongly indicate that a growing number of Filipino nurses are raring to practice their profession in America, mainly on account of record-high paychecks there,” he noted.
“We really have to invest more aggressively to retain our nurses in public hospitals – to discourage them from leaving for higher-paying jobs abroad after practicing only for one or two years here at home,” Rillo stressed.
For the whole 12 months of 2021, a total of 9,788 nurses educated in the Philippines took the NCLEX for the first time.
Rillo earlier filed House Bill (HB) No. 5276, which seeks to increase by 75 percent – from P36,619 to P63,997 – the minimum base of nurses employed by the government.
Under Rillo’s bill, the lowest base pay of nurses working in public health institutions would be raised by six notches to Salary Grade 21 prescribed under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) of 2019.
“Private hospitals in the country also have to spend more money to keep their nurses. Otherwise, they are bound to lose more nurses to foreign employers,” the neophyte solon said.
Last month, the Department of Health (DOH) said public and private hospitals in the Philippines need of a total of 106,541 nurses to fill vacancies.
“Even in America, we were told that a number of U.S. states are also losing nurses to corporate agencies deploying ‘travel nurses’ to other states facing (nursing) staff shortages,” Rillo said.
“Travel nurses in America are receiving offers of up to $3,000 in weekly pay, or around P177,000,” the lawmaker from Quezon City noted.