No takers for nursing jobs
Written by post on April 24th, 2010Source Philippine Daily Inquirer
DAVAO CITY—AT LEAST 5,000 JOBS ARE open for nurses in the Middle East, but there are no takers in the Philippines despite the huge number of unemployed in the profession, a labor department official said on Monday.
Ofelia Domingo, assistant director of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) in Southern Mindanao, said concerns about security were the main deterrent for the country’s unemployed nurses to grab employment in the Middle East.
“The common perception among Filipino nurses is that going to the Middle East is not safe. They are afraid,” she told reporters here.
Domingo said a large number of Filipino nurses would rather go to the United States, Canada and non-Middle East countries.
But she said strict regulations in other countries resulted in only a small number being accepted in health-related jobs there and the increasing number of unemployed nurses in the country.
“Jobs in the US and other countries are only for qualified nurses,” Domingo said.
But she said that instead of blaming nurses for choosing to remain unemployed than accept jobs in the Middle East, the government has taken steps to help them.
Among these, Domingo said, is the Project Nurse program, under which unemployed nurses could opt for training in the rural areas while earning P8,000 per month.
Another aims to help unemployed nurses form cooperatives and associations that would provide healthcare services, she said.
President Macapagal-Arroyo recently launched a program that sends nursing graduates to rural areas to both earn skills and income while awaiting postings abroad.
The program came at the height of fears of massive layoffs as a result of the international financial crisis that gripped the United States and Europe. Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao
Tags: nursing middle east
