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Recruiter to continue hiring nurses despite US row

March 27, 2007

Updated 22:03:38 (Mla time)
Leila Salaverria
Inquirer

THE US-BASED SentosaCare will continue to recruit nurses from the Philippines, despite the company's ongoing legal battle with Filipino nurses who allegedly left their jobs in health care facilities in New York City.

"We still have great confidence in Filipino nurses. We've had very good experience with many Filipino nurses. They are hardworking when they come to America. And they are able to climb the corporate ladder. We take great pride in that," said SentosaCare's chief operating officer Bent Philipson in a press conference Tuesday.

In September last year, 28 Filipino nurses alleged that they were duped into working in hospitals in New York City without receiving the pay and benefits that the Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA), SentosaCare's local counterpart, had promised them.

The nurses, most of whom were licensed doctors in the Philippines (including medical board topnotcher Elmer Jacinto), filed a complaint with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and with the National Labor Relations Commission that led to the suspension of SRA's license.

A month later, the suspension was lifted. In a privilege speech, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. named former Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor as SRA's padrino (godfather).

Meanwhile, several nursing home employers in New York filed labor and administrative complaints against the 28 Filipinos for not honoring their contracts and endangering the lives of the patients they left behind.

Of the 28 Filipino nurses who left their jobs, 10 have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and child endangerment charges, including Jacinto.

According to Philipson, the 28 nurses who left the health care facilities are only a small portion of the many Filipino nurses that SentosaCare has successfully placed in the United States.

He also defended Defensor who was criticized for having intervened on behalf of SentosaCare.

Philipson said SentosaCare officials only wrote to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because the Philippine consul officials in New York refused to listen to their side. The letter was referred to Defensor.

SentosaCare officials claimed that they asked Consul General Cecilia Rebong to conduct an investigation of the incident and to talk to other Filipinos. However, Rebong refused to heed their request.

In spite of what happened, Philipson said SentosaCare would continue to focus on recruiting nurses only from the Philippines. The company also refused to be affected by the recent controversy on the leakage in the nursing licensure exam.

Philipson said it was up to Philippine officials to resolve any issue and SentosaCare would abide by their decision.

Francis Luyun, SRA chief executive officer, said the agency was not suffering from any backlash from the controversy stirred by the 28 Filipino nurses.

There is no dearth of applicants, Luyun said.

There are 450 nurses in the Philippines awaiting deployment to the United States. They are just waiting for their visa, he added.

©2007 www.inquirer.net all rights reserved

Advantages of Hiring Filipino Nurses

Positives:
You will get a nurse on your staff who is very pleasant, possess a good work ethic, loyal, family oriented, and grateful for the opportunity.
Instead of contributing to the upward spiral with regards to salaries, your healthcare facility can legally guarantee positions to be filled for a pre-determined period. Locking in a nurse for a two- or three-year contract alleviates a lot of recruiting-effort anxiety required to land suitable candidates and increases the pool of available candidates in the market, which will in due course decrease the lateral movement by nurses to the highest bidder.
"Headhunting" nurses isn't a good idea! By utilizing the services of PhilAm, LLC you will save time and money over traditional recruiting methods and/or enlisting "traditional" nurse recruiters, which, while helping tremendously to fill open positions, contribute to the cause of increasing fixed costs for healthcare facilities by upping the ante with regards to the commensuration necessary to get a nurse to move over from another institution (and possibly to retain your existing ones), and reducing or eliminating travel nurses whose requirements for travel and accommodations severely adds to fixed costs.

No one has to re-state the obvious with regards to the market for nurses these days except to point out the severe shortage has lead to a cycle whereby nurses are moving laterally to the highest bidder, causing many sleepless nights for hospital nurse recruiters who have had to establish aggressive and exhaustive recruiting methods to find suitable staff.

Imagine having five nurses leave your healthcare facility to work at "Hospital A." {Of course we can understand the primary reason nurses move: the compensation package.} This starts the cycle in motion which forces your institution to replace those five nurses, perhaps from "Hospital B", which creates the same problem for Hospital B, who in turn raids Hospital C for five nurses and the on and on until the cycle spins out of control much to the chagrin of recruiting managers and upper management at healthcare facilities nationwide.

Taken from: http://philamllc.com/advantages.html
vantages of hiring Filipino nurses through PhilAm, LLC. Filipino nurses, Philippines recruiting, Filipina, nursing shortage, Allied Healthcare professionals, foreign recruitment, international recruiting, ilities, hospitals.

Nurse Care Review Center Philippines

We have been in the service for the past fifteen years and the pioneer review center in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. We are the first and only review center in Davao City were most the of the review centers are in Manila. We have gained expertise in conducting highly-effective, quality programs with the best Manila Professional Reviewers and has maintained a consistent passing rate of 95%. Moreover, NCRC encourages professional and spiritual values through our series of empowerment sessions. Here at NCRC, we value not only your success in your exams but also your continuing success in your chosen profession. We balance not only the mind, but also the heart.

NRCR has four branches the Southern Philippines, namely; Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Zamboanga. We have helped thousands of nurses pass not only the Nursing Licensure Exams but also US based exams like CGNFS and NCLE-RN. We also helped nurses pass their English Proficiency Exams like TSE, TOEFL and IELTS.

We have gained its prestige to thousands of nurses with its updated and highly developed review programs. The programs which not only build confidence, but also designed to equip them of the theories and skills needed to pass comprehensive and mind-boggling exams.

NCRC takes on the challenge of helping nurses pass the recent and more difficult exams by maintaining its quality and standards. Now, as it launches its new program and materials, Nurse Care will surely be the most updated and most effective Review Center in the country today.

Visit their site: http://www.nursecare.com.ph/

Philippines to appeal US nurse ban

The Philippine government is to appeal a move by the US to ban some 17,000 nurses who passed the 2006 nursing examination amid allegations of mass cheating.

The United States Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) issued the temporary ban this week insisting that Filipino nurses retake sections of the 2006 examination where mass cheating took place.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday ordered Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to appeal the decision.

The order comes after a nursing review centre disclosed it had leaked answers to some students who took the examinations.

The scandal rocked the country's medical profession and cast a shadow over the quality of its nurses, who are in high demand overseas, especially in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Some 42,000 students sat the nursing examination but only 17,000 passed.

Arroyo in a statement Saturday said she had ordered the appeal to "uphold the prestige of the country�s nursing profession and continue the deployment of Filipino nurses abroad."

She said the government has already provided financial assistance to the 2006 nurses who passed to retake the exams.

The president said all officials of the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), which overseas the examinations, found involved in scandal will be dismissed and criminally charged.

"All officials involved in the nursing exam leakage should be dismissed without benefits and criminally charged," she stressed.

The CGFNS said on its website on Thursday that "Philippine nurses who were sworn in as licensed nurses in the Philippines following their passing the compromised licensure exam of June 2006 are not eligible for a VisaScreen Certificate."

The Philadelphia-based CGFNS said that it sent a fact-finding mission to the Philippines in September 2006 to investigate the reports of irregularities in the nursing licensure exam.

The CGFNS investigation concluded that "those who received their license as a result of passing the compromised June 2006 licensure examination raises significant questions about the accurate assessment of the competencies of many of those individuals."

All foreign nurses must have a CGFNS-issued VisaScreen Certificate before being allowed to work in the US.

"The integrity of foreign licensing systems ultimately affects the health and safety of patients in the United States, a primary consideration of CGFNS in its role of evaluating candidates under US immigration law," the CGFNS said.

taken from : http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070217/1/46rg8.html

Philippines: Government Tailoring Nursing Sector to U.S. Demands, Health Activist Says

BY PHILIP PARAAN
Contributed to Bulatlat

Is the government tailor-fitting the country’s nursing sector to the demands of the U.S. market?

The secretary-general of the Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), Dr. Gene Nisperos, has posed this question following statements by government officials that the Arroyo administration is amenable to having the June 2006 nursing board examination passers be subjected to a possible third retake, as requested by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), a non-profit organization that screens foreign nurse applicants for visa certificates in the United States

In an announcement posted Feb. 14 on the CGFNS website, CGFNS chief executive officer Barbara Nichols said that the passers of the June 2006 nursing board examinations who intend to apply for VisaScreen Certificates should undergo a retake equivalent of Tests 3 and 5 – the portions of the nursing board examination affected by last year’s leakage scandal, and obtain a passing score.

U.S. immigration laws require the CGFNS to come up with decisions in cases like this. In this case, because passers of the June 2006 Philippine nursing licensure exam were found to have licenses that were “not comparable to a U.S. nursing license,” the Board was required to determine that a VisaScreen Certificate may not be issued to such individuals, Nichols said. However, they “gladly accept” the passing test scores of any nurse “who had the courage” to re-take the licensure exam – in whole or in part – in December 2006, Nichols added.

“CGFNS raises no question of their lawful right to practice nursing in the Philippines. U.S. immigration law, however, requires CGFNS to make a determination as part of the VisaScreen process about several elements of the visa applicants' education, training, license and experience – including their comparability to U.S. nurses,” Nichols said. “Finally, it should be noted that some stories in the Philippine media have confused the VisaScreen Certificate – issued pursuant to U.S. immigration law – with the CGFNS Certification Program (CP), which is provided to facilitate the licensure of foreign-educated nurses in the majority of U.S. States. The VisaScreen Certificate is required of all foreign-national nurses who seek occupational visas under U.S. immigration law – regardless of which State in the United States that they intend to practice.”

The announcement explicitly noted that applicants would not be eligible for the said visa certificates unless they comply with the retest order.

The official testing agency clarified that this requirement for re-examination does not try to revoke any professional license but is a matter of immigration requirement to obtain a working visa. The CGFNS explained this requirement is part of Section 343 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

Labor export policy

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has instructed Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to appeal this decision before the CGFNS. The government right now is worried that other nurse-receiving countries might follow suit and request a similar retake on the questioned areas of the test, government spokespersons said.

In a subsequent update posted Feb. 24 on the CGFNS website, however, Nichols said the CGFNS decision was final, precluding any possibility of appeal.

No less than Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has said that the Arroyo administration is willing to have the passers of the June 2006 nursing board examination retake the tests. This, he said, shows that the Philippines recognizes the request of the U.S. market. “(The retake) has nothing to do with the Philippine policy on these nurses anyway,” Gonzalez said.

Nisperos has hit the Arroyo government for giving in easily to the request for a retake of the June 2006 nursing board examinations for prospective VisaScreen applicants.

“Our government is now begging the U.S. to allow our nurses gain entry and work in the states, instead of addressing the mass exodus of nurses which is detrimental to our health system, and the reasons why they leave in the first place,” he said. “This is labor export to the hilt, mindlessly and shamelessly selling our nurses abroad and the way our government has been scrambling to please U.S. market demands, as if our whole nursing sector is now being tailor-fit to the need of America and no longer for our own people’s health.”

As of 2006, a nurse working in the United Kingdom, for example, sends home at least $1,000 a month based on data provided by Patricia Riingen, vice president of Western Union Philippines. In the U.S., nurses are estimated to earn around an average of US$ 4,000-6,000 a month.

Conversely, a nurse in the Philippines gets some P5,500-P16,000 ($113.94-$331.46 at an exchange rate of $1=P48.27) a month.

The Philippine Nurses Association led by it president Dr. Leah Paquiz is now trying to organize the whole nursing community to find ways to resolve this crises, which she describes as the worst to have ever hit the nursing profession.

“The U.S. has been poaching our nurses for decades and in droves, and a nursing education has long been seen as a ticket out,” Nisperos said, “This is (a crisis) of commercialized nursing education. In the end, it is compromising our own health care, which many believe is already precariously on the brink of collapse.
____________________________________
© 2007 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Publications. Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.

Nursing Shortage Growing Worldwide

Florence Nightingale wrote, "unless we are making progress in our nursing every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back." What would she have to say today about the ever growing shortage of nurses?

• Today there are over 100,000 vacant positions throughout the U.S.

• By the year 2020, that number expected to grow to 434,000.

• Worldwide, the shortage will expand to over 800,000.

Hospitals in the U.S. are offering bonuses of up to $14,000 for experienced nurses, and studies have shown that there has been a steady increase in RN employment over the past two years. However, the crisis is far from over. Fears are growing in Europe, and in poor nations, where nurses have jumped at the chance to partake in these bonuses.

Philippine Sources Being Drained

In countries such as the Philippines, where a nurse in the city makes about $150 per month, the financial gains in the U.S. have long lead these nurses to migrate. Patient loads and working conditions are much worse in their homeland. Therefore, conditions which seem to drive American nurses from the field, pale in comparison for these recruits.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration states that nearly 34,000 nurses went abroad between 1995 and 2000. What once seemed a bottomless source of qualified nurses has now created a shortage crisis in the Philippines.

Canadian Nurses Moving to U.S.

Canadian nurses have migrated south in search of financial incentives as well.

• In 1994 and 1995 over 12,000 Canadian nurses moved to the U.S.

• while less than 100 U.S. nurses moved to Canada.

With poor success in recruiting U.S. nurses, Canada turned to recruiting nurses from the UK. Part of the problem cited by the Canadian Nursing Association is that nurse positions in Canada are often not full time positions, an issue they will have to resolve if they hope to slow down their own shortage crisis.

Other Countries Deplete Philippine Nurses

Ireland once had a plentiful supply of nurses, but now looks to the Philippines to solve its shortages, further depleting nurses from the Philippines. The UK has turned to South Africa to recruit nurses thereby depleting their resources as well.

Lack of Qualified Nurse Educators Compounds Problem

As the nursing workforce continues to age, and qualified nurses leave the profession faster than they can be replaced, the crisis grows. The lack of qualified nurse educators compounds the problem with the inability to quickly train new nurses.
The one predictable factor is that qualified nurses will not find themselves unemployable in the foreseeable future.

Sources:
Canadian Nurses Association
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
Aiken, L.H. "Trends in International Nurse Migration" Health Affairs 2004,23(3):69-77 Link to Abstract(Sorry, you must register to view the article.)
Internation Council of Nurses Position Statement
Nurses Exodus Making Health System Sick

http://nursing.about.com/od/nursingsoftware/a/shortage.htm

The Philippine Nursing Industry

Nursing schools in the Philippines currently are capable of graduating about 41,000 new nurses a year. These nurses are graduates of a 4-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) course that, like the American nursing curriculum, is generalist in nature. After graduation, Filipino nurses tend to divide into two main groups: those who do general bedside nursing, and those who focus and train in specialized areas like open-heart surgery, kidney transplants, trauma, pediatric care, and psychiatric care.

With new nurses entering the workforce every year, the local supply of nurses exceeds the local demand so many Filipino nurses travel abroad to work. 13,536 Filipino nurses were deployed last year to jobs overseas - principally to Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. This statistic does not yet include nurses who travel to foreign countries, such as the USA or Canada, under an immigrant’s visa.

http://www.bondworldwide.com/explore/index.htm