Monday, September 22, 2008 Rationalization of nursing schools pushed
RECRUITMENT leaders asked the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) to look into the number of nursing schools without hospital linkages and zero passing rates in the licensure exams.
Lito Soriano, a recruitment owner, agreed with newly-installed Ched Chairman Emmanuel Angeles that the commission cannot just close down nursing schools without hospital facilities needed for the training of nurses.
Those in the recruitment industry instead proposed that Ched rationalize the nursing schools here.
Angeles however realizes that certain nursing schools are performing below par and their graduates just contribute to the oversupply of nursing graduates who cannot enter hospitals since their schools were not able to give them the necessary training and experience in a hospital environment.
Soriano, whose agency LBS E-Recruitment specializes in the deployment of nurses to a number of military hospitals in Saudi Arabia, traces the surplus of unemployed nurses to the proliferation of nursing schools that do not have hospitals for their nurses to get the on-the-job training.
Many of the nursing schools, he added, are also unable to provide the training needed by the nurses and end up jobless despite passing the board exams.
He also concurs with Jackson Gan of FAME that many nurses are very selective in their choice of work opportunities with most of them opting to apply in US hospitals.
Graduating high school students are advised that if they want to work overseas and earn dollars, they should take up vocational courses whose graduates are now in demand and receive even higher salaries than white-collar jobs.
Those interested in the medical field were told to look into medical technology courses like x-ray, cardio, respiratory, CT scan or MRI technicians as there are in demand locally or abroad.
"Their pay scales are comparable or even higher than nurses and since nursing is already a very crowded field then OFW children should make the most of what their parents are toiling for by going into courses that are in demand," Soriano said.
He added that the USA's demand for nurses has not slackened and the drop in nursing students in the USA is contributing to the lack of nurses in US hospitals and care homes.
It is the immigration process, which takes a long time due to the new measures imposed by the US Department on Homeland Security, said Soriano.
Nurses who are able to get employment also lack experience in specialized fields like ICU, med/surgery, nicu, emergency cardiology, dialysis and cardiac care, which are sought by foreign hospitals. (MSN/Sunnex)
