A leader in the overseas recruitment industry has proposed to tap Filipino nurses who have retired from their jobs overseas to augment the shortage in the local health workforce.

Lito B. Soriano, president of LBS Recruitment Solutions, Inc,, which had deployed more than eight thousand registered nurses to Saudi Arabia and other countries, pointed out that newly returned nurses mostly from the Middle East country of Saudi Arabia who were retired after serving more than ten years in highly modern government and private hospitals with International and American US hospitals standards accreditation and recognition.

Soriano made the call in response to the statement of newly appointed Health Secretary Dr. Ted Herbosa to use nursing graduates who have not passed licensure exams due to the shortage.

He said retired nurses would bring a wealth of competencies, experience, expertise, and specializations in their work abroad in the military and international hospitals in the KSA.

He added they could likewise be mentors to the nurses who have not passed the licensure exams but would be hired under the hiring program of the Department of Health.

“Most of these nurses worked in specialty wards like ICU, Post ICU, Surgery, Oncology, Cardio care, Hematology in their respective hospitals in many major cities of Saudi Arabia. “ A real brain-gain and pwede pa sila,” the industry leader stressed.

Soriano added that retired nurses may be willing to work in DOH hospitals where there is a current vacancy of over 4,000 unfilled items, as long as the salary may be competitive with current salary grades at the DOH.

Herbosa recently said they are looking at tapping nursing graduates without a license to combat the shortage in the local health workforce, noting that there are 4,800 vacant positions for nurses in the government

“Kinausap ko ‘yung PRC (Professional Regulation Commission) commissioner, one of the commissioners, gawin naman natin ‘yung mga may diploma maka-trabaho sa gobyerno and I’ll give them three to five years to pass their board exam,” he said.

The health chief said he would also initiate discussions with the Philippine Nurses Association to push for this plan.

If the law permits, the secretary said, private hospitals can do the same.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Yvonne P. Cervantes