Amid emigration fears, QC solon reiterates need to hike nurses' pay


At a glance

  • Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo says the best intervention that Congress can do amid the migration of Filipino nurses is to increase their pay for jobs here at home.

  • Rillo notes that a record 11,013 nursing graduates from the Philippines took the United States (US) licensure examination for the first time during the first quarter 2023.


FB_IMG_1679675737041.jpg Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo (Facebook)



Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo is insisting that the best thing Congress can do amid the emigration of Filipino nurses is to increase their pay for jobs here at home.

“We maintain that the most effective intervention is for Congress to substantially increase the base pay of public nurses,” Rillo said in a statement on Monday, May 1.

This was stressed by the neophyte solon even as he noted that a total of 11,013 homegrown nursing graduates took the United States (US) licensure examination for the first time from January to March this year. He said this was a "record figure".

“In the January to March quarter, we saw the highest number of Philippine-educated nurses taking the NCLEX for the first time, without counting repeaters,” Rillo said, citing newly released figures from the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (USNCSBN).

The 11,013 represents a surge of 200 percent when compared to the 3,714 Filipino nursing graduates that took the NCLEX, or National Council Licensure Examination, for the first time in the same three-month period in 2022, according to Rillo.

Rillo has been batting for the passage of House Bill (HB) No.5276, which seeks to boost from P36,619 to P63,997 the minimum base of nurses in government hospitals.

Under Rillo’s measure, the lowest base pay of public nurses would be raised by six notches to Salary Grade 21 prescribed under the Salary Standardization Law of 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) previously projected that “without action, there will be a shortfall of 4.6 million nurses worldwide by 2030".

In the Philippines, the WHO said the shortage of nurses is expected to be 249,843 by 2030, “unless greater investment is made now to retain them in the local health sector".

Meanwhile, the latest numbers from the USNCSBN show that a total of 2,907 nursing graduates from India also took the NCLEX for the first time from January to March, along with 1,758 graduates from South Korea.

A total of 767 nurses educated in Nepal and 680 nurses schooled in Puerto Rico likewise took the NCLEX for the first time last year.