4,034 Filipino nurses sought US jobs in 2013

House Assistant Majority Leader and Cebu First District Rep. Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. yesterday said that a total of 4,034 Philippine-educated nurses took the US National Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for the first time in 2013, in the hope of obtaining gainful employment in America.

“It was the first time since 2007 that the number of Filipino nurses taking the NLCEX increased year-on-year,” Gullas, vice chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education, said in the Philippine News Agency online.

The NCLEX refers to the National Council Licensure Examination administered by the US (National Council of) State Boards of Nursing Inc., the PNA online report said. Gullas said the 4,034 Filipino nurses who took the NCLEX for the first time in 2013, excluding repeaters, marked an increase of 9.8 percent over the 3,673 who went through the same examination in 2012. He cited data from the USNCSBN. “We have high hopes that once the world’s largest economy starts to fully recover, the healthcare labor market there will also begin to grow again, thus allowing more Filipino nurses to practice their profession in America,” Gullas said in a statement.

The 2007- 2008 global financial crisis sent the US economy into deep economic slowdown that drove many hospitals and nursing homes, especially those wholly or partly funded by federal and state agencies, to cut back staff and cease hiring new nurses, he said.

He said the number of Filipino nurses taking the NCLEX for the first time is considered a reliable indicator as to how many of them are trying to enter the profession in America.

GULLAS