Filipino nurses now highly sought after in these developed nations

Opportunity abounds for Filipino nurses.

Sept. 13, 2022

Filipino nurses now highly sought after in these developed nations

Reports have revealed that Filipino nurses should prepare to enjoy plenty of career opportunities in several developed countries around the world, including the likes of Germany, the U.S., and Singapore.

A story by GMA News cited Ruru Global Recruitment Services, which claimed that a healthcare firm based in the U.S. was seeking to hire 1,000 nurses and 200 medical technologists, with nurses in particular standing to make up to US$7,025 (or PHP400,000) a month, not inclusive of a US$1,000 (PHP56,760) signing on bonus.

Recently, new Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also revealed that there was a high demand for Filipino nurses in Singapore (among other healthcare vacancies), with the number of job openings said to be in the thousands.

The German Embassy in Manila, meanwhile, said that the country was also looking to bring in 600 nurses under its Triple Win program, with applications open to professional nurses holding at least a year of experience. Applicants will also be given the opportunity to receive free German language training as part of the program.

This demand for Filipino nurses isn't all that surprising considering that the government had then disallowed healthcare professionals from being deployed in other countries due to the needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, overseas hospitals were made to struggle with insufficient staff despite the spike in cases.

Locally, this move had also been previously unpopular with nurses, who felt that they'd been deprived of the chance at better livelihoods.

But later, the Filipino government decided to replace the ban with a deployment cap that would allow 7,500 healthcare workers to leave and find work abroad.

Also, the overall positive response and commendable attitudes by Filipino healthcare workers during the pandemic has so far drawn plenty of praise from foreign countries, so much so that they have now become highly sought-after.

The Philippines has long been a major supplier of nurses, with around 316,000 professionals working outside of the country as at December 2021.

Recently, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) also reported that while countries such as Saudi Arabia, Britain, and Japan have been the top destinations for Filipino nurses, the pandemic has also created demand for such individuals in countries like Hong Kong and Singapore, where in 2021, over half of the migrant nurses were Filipinos.