NURSES PUT OFF BY LACK OF RESIDENCY

Healthcare professionals looking elsewhere because of difficulties settling down in the city state

Amid growing global demand for foreign nurses, Singapore has a competitive edge owing to its proximity to source countries and relatively painless application process, according to healthcare workers and experts.

Singapore is also attempting to replace nurses lost to other nations during the Covid-19 pandemic – including by dangling bigger pay packets – but retention is an issue, with some saying they were eyeing moves abroad because of difficulties settling down in the city state.

According to the Singapore Nursing Board, foreign-trained nurses who wish to work in Singapore must sit for a licensure examination and undergo a competency assessment.

This is unlike other countries such as the United States or Britain, where foreigners seeking employment may also need to take extra steps such as an English language test.

The cost of each test typically ranges between US$180 and US$325, depending on where they sit for it, which may deter some from applying to such countries.

“Nurses have many more options today than they had previously because the pandemic has compelled everyone to basically prioritise nurses,” said Jeremy Lim, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. He said being close to their family while working overseas was another important consideration for foreign nurses.

“Many of the nurses come from the Philippines or from regional countries, and people leave their home countries to earn money but they still want to be reasonably close to home,” Lim added.

“So Singapore, frankly, benefits from our proximity to the Philippines, to India, to Myanmar, as opposed to the US, to the European countries, and we have an intrinsic edge when it comes to recruiting foreign nurses.”

Last month, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung announced that Singapore would add close to 4,000 new nurses to its workforce by the end of next year.

This would make up about 10 per cent of the current nursing workforce, and is 700 more than the total number of nurses onboarded last year.

Of these 4,000 nurses, a higher proportion will be foreign – with a ratio of about 60:40 local – to make up for the slowdown in foreign nurse recruitment because of Covid-19-related border restrictions over the past two years.

Singapore recorded an increase in attrition rates among local and foreign nurses in the public sector last year, compared with 2020.

Among the locals, the attrition was 7.4 per cent last year, up from 5.4 per cent the previous year. For foreign nurses, attrition more than doubled year on year to 14.8 per cent last year.

Nurses working in the city state cited the challenges of making Singapore their permanent home as a factor in prompting them to look elsewhere.

“I have colleagues who have left or who are planning to leave because it’s very hard for them to settle down,” said Mei (not her real name), a 32-year-old Myanmese national who works as a nurse in a public hospital in Singapore.

“In other countries, there is the hope that in two years, you can bring your family over and can purchase a house and start a life there,” she said.

Mei, who is married to a Singaporean and has been working in the country for more than a decade, told CNA that her application for permanent residency had been rejected eight times. She is currently in the process of appealing the latest rejection.

“I have no plan to go yet because I’m married to a Singaporean, but these are the factors that are pushing a lot of foreign nurses to go overseas.”

The situation is similar for Indian national Paul (not his real name), a nurse in a public hospital in Singapore for the past four years.

The 29-year-old decided to relocate to Singapore after working for three years in India as a nurse.

“I chose to come to Singapore because it is nearer to India compared to other countries,” he said. “My parents are old and have a lot of medical problems so if I had gone to a European country, which is quite a distance away from India, it would take too long [to return].”

Healthcare workers interviewed for the story cannot be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media.