“There are 37,679 nurses who passed the licensure examination last July and these board passers will compete for jobs with an estimated 160,000 unemployed nurses in the country,” PNA executive director Maristela Abenojar said.

Due to the continuing rise in the number of jobless nurses, Abenojar said many nurses are forced to work and receive only “certificate of volunteerism” and “training experience” as payment.

While the number of unemployed nurses on the rise, Abenojar said an average of 8,000 to 10,000 health professionals leave the country to work overseas.

“What aggravates this situation is that the proposed health budget for 2011 has allotted a decreased budget for public hospitals and subsidy for indigents,” Abenojar said.

To avert further growth in the number of jobless nurses and improve the dismal working conditions of those employed in local hospitals, the PNA is now closely working with British parliamentarian David Amess.

Amess went to the country for a 10-day visit during which he met with concerned government officials and discussed plans to provide more and better employment for licensed Filipino nurses.

In his meeting with Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Amess recommended the allocation of additional budget for primary and secondary hospitals and create more positions in public health services, particularly in rural areas.

Amess also suggested the enactment of legislative measures prohibiting the hiring of “volunteer” nurses for a fee and just continue the government program deploying nurses in poor communities.

The British parliamentarian was also able to convince the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to look into the working conditions of Filipino nurses employed in Japan as well as provide sufficient protection for all those who are working overseas.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz cited recent reports that no foreign applicant passed last year’s exams and only 1.2 percent of foreign applicants passed.

An article on the Labor Department website said this was due to the difficulty of the examinees in understanding kanji and technical terms written in Japanese.

Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Tokyo officer-in-charge and welfare officer Maria Luz Talento said the language program should focus on communication skills more than simply language skills.

Talento said that while candidate nurses and caregivers are able to speak Japanese, they have problems with oral and written communication with their co-workers and immediate superiors in their place of work.

She said the Japanese culture has a specific set of regulations and principles about the proper manner of communicating, especially within and across workplaces.

Variations in communication methods can lead to difficult interpersonal relationships with the place of work, which in most instances, result in unavoidable cross-cultural misunderstandings, she added.

Talento said an occupation-specific language and communication skills training program is necessary not just to redress conflict and prevent miscommunications, but also to obtain jobs and keep them as well.

She said a successful occupation-specific language and communication skills training program should include some form of labor market support.

This includes orientations about workplace diversity, the Japanese legal system, and Japanese workplace culture with topics on verbal and non-verbal communication, work values and expectations, and work relationship.

Meanwhile, Talento clarified reports that 18 Filipino nurses and caregivers went home after becoming discouraged by their slim prospects of passing the national examinations for their profession.

She said the OFWs returned home mainly because of personal (family) and/or health reasons.

Citing interviews made with the OFWs, she said most of them even suggested that their participation to their first examination was a “valuable learning experience for them to get a feel of the examinations.”

Talento said the OFWs did not indicate they were discouraged by their slim prospects of passing the Japanese licensure examinations. - via GMANews.TV

Hundreds of nurses and caregivers from Indonesia and the Philippines have been allowed to work temporarily in rapidly ageing Japan, but they have to pass the Japanese language test if they hope to stay longer than a few years.

To respond to rising complaints that the tests are discriminatory, the health ministry has also decided to simplify the wording of some of the exam questions ahead of the next test in February, ministry officials said.

“We have decided to review the exams because they place an extra burden on foreign applicants,” said Yoko Shimada of the ministry’s nursing section.
“English translations will help foreign nurse applicants read and understand the national examinations well, and we consider it’s appropriate.”

Historically, Japan has imposed tight limits on immigration but has allowed several hundred certified nurses and care-givers from Indonesia and the Philippines into the country to help make up a shortage of heal-thcare workers.

Those who hope to stay longer than three years in the case of nurses, and four years in the case of caregivers, need to pass the examinations, forcing them to quickly learn thousands of Japanese characters and medical terms.

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A complete list of passers released by the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) on Friday showed that only 41.4 percent of the 91,008 examinees passed the exam given on July 3 and 4.

The PRC said the exam’s topnotcher was Rayan Abogado Oliva of ADNU, who had a score of 86.8 percent.

In a television interview, Oliva said he felt “mixed emotions” upon hearing the news that he topped this year’s set of exam passers.

“I was happy. I was excited. I was proud,” he said in an interview aired over GMA News’ “24 Oras.”

Oliva was followed by Aileen Ancanan Austria of the De Los Santos-STI College, Inc. (86.40 percent); Allyce Joana Toledo De Leon and Anna Vanessa Ang Gan of the University of Santo Tomas (both with 86 percent); Alyssa Leonila Dela Silva Guiam of the Centro Escolar University-Manila (85.80 percent); and Charmaine Camacho Gauiran of the Remedios Trinidad Romualdez Memorial School (85.6 percent).

They are joined by 85 other passers, most of whom had tied scores, in the list of the Top 10 passers.

While ADNU produced this year’s topnotcher, the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila, Saint Paul University in Iloilo, and Chinese General Hospital College of Nursing and Liberal Arts in Manila were No. 1 in the passing rate.

UP Manila and Saint Paul garnered a 100 percent passing rate while Chinese General received a passing rate of 99 percent.

Meanwhile, the PRC said the examination results of five examinees will be withheld until the PRC determines their “liabilities” under the rules and regulations governing the licensure examination.

The July 2010 nursing board exam was held in Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga.

Requirements

The examinees who successfully passed the board exams should personally register and sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals.

They are required to bring the following:
* a duly accomplished oath form or “Panunumpa ng Propesyonal”

* current community tax certificate (cedula)

* 2 pieces passport-size pictures (colored with white background and complete name tag)

* 1 piece 1″ x 1″ picture (colored with white background and complete name tag)

* 2 sets of metered documentary stamps

* 1 short brown envelope with name and profession indicated on it

They are also required to pay the initial registration fee of P600 and annual registration fee of P450 for 2010 through 2013.

The oath-taking ceremonies for successful examinees who took their examination in Manila will be held before the Philippine Nursing Board on September 20 and 21 at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City.

The regional oath-taking schedules will be posted on the BON website.

The July nursing board exam was held in Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga.

The PRC said those who will take their oaths must come in their white gala uniform and wear their nurse’s caps and white duty shoes.

They must not wear earrings or a corsage and their hair must not touch the collar.

Tickets for the oath-taking will be available at the Philippine Nurses Association office at 1663 F.T. Benitez Street, Malate, Manila from September 1 to 20, 2010 on a first come first serve basis.

Amess is one of 9 parliamentarians participating in the VSO Parliamentarian Volunteering Scheme this year.

An advocate of nurses and caregivers, he will be staying in the country for 2 weeks to advice the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) on the promotion of management support and improvement if salaries and working conditions for the nurses in the country.

Amess will also be meeting with Philippine government officials to discuss investment in the health workforce.

He personally selected the Philippines as his destination for volunteer work because he believes that Filipinos are among the most hardworking and finest nurses in the world.

VSO is the world’s leading independent international development charity that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. Now on its 3rd year, the program sends UK Parliamentarians to developing countries to help advice community organizations regarding advocacy and campaigning.

“I’m delighted to see such an experienced and respected parliamentarian as Mr. Amess coming to experience life in Philippine society close-up. It’s especially appropriate that he should be focusing on the needs and issues of the nursing profession, given that a large part of Britain’s quarter million Filipinos are themselves engaged in nursing in the National Health Service (NHS) and care homes,” said British Ambassador Stephen Lillie. - via abs-cbnNEWS.com

Former RN Learning Center student Leticia Nicasio is worried that other schools, knowingly or unknowingly, may be involved with the center’s alleged scam.

“I just want them to be aware of Mr. Jun Enterina transacting business to schools over there. Schools in Manila, schools in the Philippines, I’m not mentioning any schools, but I hope the CHED will issue a circular being explicit about the distance learning especially about nursing,” said Nicasio.

Nicasio sent complaints to the Attorney General’s office and the Board of Registered Nursing since last year, angry about the RN Learning Center.

Last winter, Luisa Najera spent $20,000 and joined a group of students along with the school’s founder Junlou Enterina for a month long trip to the Philippines.

She was expecting hands on clinical training, but instead, she found herself in the classroom.

“When we got there, they told us they’re not going to give us clinical. They give us algebra, they give us chemistry, both those classes, and they didn’t give us clinical,” said Najera.

When Najera returned to California, she said the school recommended she needed to take more classes to get her RN license. She quit the school instead.

Though one flier says the school is not accredited, former students claimed that school officials verbally promised them chances to take the NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) test and get their RN (registered nurse) licenses.

Chau Nguyen said he was already skeptical about the school when they offered him a chance to go to the Philippines.

“They promised me after I finish over here; you can do the NCLEX, go to the Philippines, come back, and then take the NCLEX over here. But I don’t want to take too much risk because they told me you had to pay $20, 000,” Nguyen said.

Enterina denied any wrong doing, but has agreed to pay back $500,000 dollars to students. That penalty may increase as the attorney general continues to investigate the case. However, the attorney general’s office says Philippine schools are out of their jurisdiction and will not investigate the relationship that Philippine schools had with Enterina. - via www.abs-cbnnews.com

One of San Francisco’s biggest hospitals, Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center, is engaged in systematic discrimination against the hiring of Filipino registered nurses, the California Nurses Association, joined by Filipino community and church groups and leaders, charged Thursday.

The groups are calling for an investigation by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

In a letter to the Commission Wednesday, CNA filed a complaint charging Sutter and CPMC with employment discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin.

Additionally, CNA Wednesday filed a class action grievance against Sutter and CPMC, which also operates St. Luke’s Hospital, for contract violations in a systematic policy of discrimination. CNA also called on Sutter Health to intervene and direct its affiliate CPMC to cease and desist the practices of employment discrimination.

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The caregivers, who care for the elderly and disabled in their own homes, are paid by the government through the In-Home Supportive Services.

Most of the 3,000 caregivers in San Mateo County care for their own family members, for which they get paid $11 an hour.

But a $90-million budget deficit has forced government officials to consider cutting the caregivers’ salary from $11 to $8 an hour.

“Our job does not only require us to care for the sick and disabled. We also cook for them, clean for them, make sure they have their medicines. $8 an hour is not enough for the kind of work that we do,” Fe Astero said.

Protesting caregivers said it’s not fair that San Mateo County officials are willing to pay high-priced consultants up to $80 million, and yet propose to slash their already low salaries.

“It’s not right. We help our patients. But the government does not want to help us,” complained Juliet Castillo.

Protesters said it will only cost San Mateo County $3 million to keep their salary at $11 until 2012. They added the county can afford this because it has a rainy day fund worth $200 million.

“What they’re giving us is already not enough. But we’re just asking for them to keep our salary at $11 because we understand the economic crisis. They need to meet us halfway,” Dan Olarte said.

Filipino caregivers said they would be forced to look for other jobs if their salaries get cut.

The cuts could also displace about 4,000 elderly and disabled patients. It would cost taxpayers $55,000 per patient who gets care in a facility, five times more expensive than in-home care.

Caroline Valle, a former caregiver and now a representative for the caregivers’ union, pointed out: “It does not make sense for government officials to cut the caregivers’ salary when these caregivers save taxpayers’ money. California will just end up with more debt if they keep cutting in-home care.”

If negotiations fail with San Mateo County officials, the caregivers’ salaries could get cut within the month.

“Economically, I cannot survive in the Philippines just being a nurse,” Buenaflor said. “I have a family that I have to support.”

Working as a nurse at a senior living facility in the Philippines, Buenaflor was paid $10 an hour. With two young daughters at home and an extended family back in her homeland to support, it was a “tough” time for her, she said.

“But as long as you work hard, you will be rewarded,” Buenaflor said of her philosophy.

Now, she is the president and chief executive officer of Life Home Health Care in Skokie, an agency that provides nursing at-home services to patients. Her company ranks in the top 6 percent in home health agencies in the United States and employs between 50 and 60 nurses, mostly Filipinos and many of them Skokie residents, she said.

FULL STORY

A match made in heaven, one might think. Over the past two years Japan has attracted about 1,000 caregivers from the Philippines and Indonesia under separate Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the two countries. They were to spend three or four years working in Japan, then pass a stiff qualifying exam to stay.

The first exam results this summer were extremely embarrassing both to Japan and to the countries supplying the health workers. Of the approximately 1,000 Filipinos and Indonesians who took the exam, exactly three passed the test, a pass ratio of a little more than one percent! Those who failed had to go back to their home countries.

Japan has always been torn over the question of importing more migrant workers into their country. On the one hand it feels a certain duty to extend a helping hand to Asian countries, and it certainly has a growing need to find more workers willing to perform jobs that Japanese called the “three Ks” – kitsui (difficult), kitani (dirty) and kiken (dangerous). Care giving, and to a lesser extent nursing, fits into the kitani category, since it involves feeding, bathing changing the diapers of elderly Japanese.

On the other hand, the Japanese genuinely don’t like immigrants.

The irony is that the caregiver program was designed in part to counter the bad publicity and ill-will Japan has earned for an earlier program designed to attract Asian migrants under the 1990s Japan International Training and Cooperation Organization.

Nearly 200,000 Asians have come into Japan, many of them Chinese, ostensibly to learn technical skills, but the program has been criticized as simply a way for Japanese factories to exploit and abuse cheap labor. This dark side of the of Japan’s labor was highlighted recently in a New York Times article.

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