This is from the Star Phoenix Saskatoon. The Philippines has a surplus of trained workers in numerous areas with not enough jobs in the Philippines for them, so as the article mentions families expect some of their children to go abroad and remit money to help support the families at home. Pensions are often small in the Philippines or non-existent for most. There are already quite a few filipinos on the prairies especially in cities such as Winnipeg. This is from statscan:
Tagalog replaced Ukrainian as the second leading non-official mother tongue in 2001. Its population rose from 17,850 to 20,460, and in 2001 it represented 14.9% of Winnipeg's allophones.
Wednesday » March 12 » 2008
Sask. recruiters lure 297 Filipino nurses
Saskatoon Health Region will get 105 new hires
Darren Bernhardt
The StarPhoenix
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Despite warnings about the cold winters, nearly 300 nurses from the Philippines have jumped at the chance to live and work in Saskatchewan.
The nurses were recruited by a health-care delegation that spent nine days, Feb. 28 to March 8, in Manilla. They are expected to begin working in health facilities around the province in the next three to six months.
"We will be bringing them over in smaller groups in order to settle them in, make a smooth transition, and make sure they get a good start," said Mark Dahlgren, a nurse manager from Parkridge Centre in Saskatoon, who was part of the delegation.
Of the 297 nurses coming to Saskatchewan, 105 will be employed in the Saskatoon Health Region and another 21 in North Battleford's Prairie North Health Region. The Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region is hiring 66, the Sunrise Health Region is getting 63 with another two pending, the Prairie North Health Region will have 21 and the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region is expecting 31.
The new recruits are going to make a difference for nurses who are currently working many hours of overtime "and telling us they're tired," said Dahlgren.
But removing 300 professionals from the Philippines took some care to ensure those health facilities weren't depleted, either, he added.
The Saskatoon Health Region developed an ethical guideline, which was adopted by the other regions as well. It stated no more than 10 nurses would be recruited from a single hospital and of those, no more than three from the same unit.
"It is a ground-breaking approach that we believe has set an international standard for recruitment," said Dahlgren. "When you're going into another country, it is imperative to act ethically and ensure you don't leave their system in chaos."
The consideration was much appreciated by Filipino officials, who thanked the delegation, he said. During the interviewing process, as job offers were made, the hallways erupted in cheers with families hugging and crying in joy, Dahlgren said.
"Families want to see their young people going abroad and making a better life for themselves then sending money back home (to the Philippines)," he said, noting the Philippines trains nurses specifically to work abroad.
The delegation included members from the health regions, the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses and the Ministry of Health and Government Relations. They explained the province's climate to prospective employees and showed them pictures, making sure they knew what to expect.
"They shuddered at the temperatures but were excited," said Dahlgren. "They thought the images of frost on the trees and the frozen river were beautiful."
The challenge now will be to find places to live in a tight housing market. There is a group from the health region working specifically on finding lodgings, said Dahlgren. That's another reason the nurses are coming in small waves.
"Having a planeload with all of them coming at once would not be a good idea," Dahlgren said.
Though he hasn't heard any complaints yet, Dahlgren expects some people might object to workers being recruited from other countries for jobs local people could be trained to perform. The problem is, there just isn't enough nurses here to fill the need, and many Saskatchewan graduates are also recruited to other countries, he said.
"I hope the people of Saskatchewan embrace them (nurses from the Philippines). They want to come here and are very well trained," he said.
The recruitment strategy is part of the Saskatchewan Party government's election promise to bring 800 more nurses to the province over four years. The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses has estimated there are between 800 and 1,000 vacant positions in the province and more than 1,400 practising nurses will be eligible to retire by 2010.
The delegation convened in Regina Tuesday to report its success.
"We are seeking every creative option for securing health professionals in a highly competitive environment across North America," said Saskatchewan Health Minister Don McMorris, who will be attending a recruitment fair in Alberta on Sunday.
dbernhardt@sp.canwest.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc..
Showing posts with label Recruitment of Philippines Nurses for Canada.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recruitment of Philippines Nurses for Canada.. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Hundreds of Philippine nurses recruited in Saskatchewan
This is from the Canadian Press. It is really not fair that the Philippines should in effect be subsidizing the Canadian health care system. The least we could do is to provide funds to Philippine nursing programs to help defray their costs. More of the nurses would be hired in the Philippines if hospitals had the money to pay them. The university my wife's niece graduated from would not hire her. The best they could offer is that she work as an unpaid volunteer to gain experience!
Hundreds of nurses from Philippines recruited to ease Sask nursing shortage
21 hours ago
REGINA — Saskatchewan's government has moved to ease the province's nursing shortage by recruiting nearly 300 new nurses from the Philippines.
But Health Minister Don McMorris, who announced the hirings Tuesday, cautioned that the problem is far from addressed.
"Don't ever get the impression that this fixes a problem because it certainly doesn't," said McMorris.
"This would be an ongoing effort."
In late February, a delegation that included officials from the government, five health regions, the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association and the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses went to the Philippines. The goal was to try to woo nurses with competitive wages and a compensation package.
Saskatchewan is currently short 1,000 nurses, according to the nurses union. Hundreds more are expected to retire over the new three years.
The Saskatchewan Party government has promised to hire 800 more nurses in its first term of office.
"This is only a small part of it," McMorris said of the recruitment trip. "This certainly doesn't fix the whole issue of the shortage that we have. We still have to do a lot of work on retaining our graduates."
McMorris said it was too early to say if there would be another trip overseas.
It appears the success of this one was also a matter of lucky timing. One official said a number of the new hires were originally heading to the United States.
"But given the current political environment with the upcoming election, they've actually closed much of their borders to many of these people who were recruited," said Bonnie Blakely with the Saskatoon Health Region.
"They (Philippines) had already started to expedite the process to the U.S., and now have said that if that's not going to be a market open to them, they'd like to come to Canada."
The province will pay the nurses as much as $5,000 for relocation and travel costs.
Health officials say the recruitment will not cause a brain-drain in hospitals in the Philippines. They say 100,000 nurses were trained in the country last year and 47,000 of those passed their exams. However, only 15 to 20 per cent were hired in the Philippines.
"They train more nurses than what they need," said McMorris. "It just so happens we're one of those countries that need the people that they're training."
Hundreds of nurses from Philippines recruited to ease Sask nursing shortage
21 hours ago
REGINA — Saskatchewan's government has moved to ease the province's nursing shortage by recruiting nearly 300 new nurses from the Philippines.
But Health Minister Don McMorris, who announced the hirings Tuesday, cautioned that the problem is far from addressed.
"Don't ever get the impression that this fixes a problem because it certainly doesn't," said McMorris.
"This would be an ongoing effort."
In late February, a delegation that included officials from the government, five health regions, the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association and the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses went to the Philippines. The goal was to try to woo nurses with competitive wages and a compensation package.
Saskatchewan is currently short 1,000 nurses, according to the nurses union. Hundreds more are expected to retire over the new three years.
The Saskatchewan Party government has promised to hire 800 more nurses in its first term of office.
"This is only a small part of it," McMorris said of the recruitment trip. "This certainly doesn't fix the whole issue of the shortage that we have. We still have to do a lot of work on retaining our graduates."
McMorris said it was too early to say if there would be another trip overseas.
It appears the success of this one was also a matter of lucky timing. One official said a number of the new hires were originally heading to the United States.
"But given the current political environment with the upcoming election, they've actually closed much of their borders to many of these people who were recruited," said Bonnie Blakely with the Saskatoon Health Region.
"They (Philippines) had already started to expedite the process to the U.S., and now have said that if that's not going to be a market open to them, they'd like to come to Canada."
The province will pay the nurses as much as $5,000 for relocation and travel costs.
Health officials say the recruitment will not cause a brain-drain in hospitals in the Philippines. They say 100,000 nurses were trained in the country last year and 47,000 of those passed their exams. However, only 15 to 20 per cent were hired in the Philippines.
"They train more nurses than what they need," said McMorris. "It just so happens we're one of those countries that need the people that they're training."
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Search for nurses heading to Manila
This is from Canada.com. There should be some aid program associated with recruiting health care workers from developing countries. It is very expensive to train nurses. The Philippines seem to be a global center for training employees for other countries. There is some advantage to the Philippines in that oversease workers remit huge sums to the Philippines to aid families at home survive. At the same time, Philippine hospitals themselves are short of nurses not because of lack of supply but because of horrible pay. We have a relative who recently graduated as a nurse but the sole work in her area as a nurse involved working for nothing so that she could get experience and then apply to work overseas! She ended up working as a nanny in the Netherlands. We hope she can come here later this year and at least start work as a health care aide if not a nurse.
Search heading to Manila
Pamela Cowan, Leader-PostPublished: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Building on the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region's recruiting success in the Philippines last year, a Saskatchewan delegation hopes to sign up 300 nurses when it travels to Manila next week.
During a recruiting trip to the Philippines in November, the RQHR offered jobs to 80 registered nurses.
"We know that there is a huge shortage of nurses in Saskatchewan that can't be addressed overnight but certainly recruiting from other jurisdictions provincially or internationally is a good plan," Health Minister Don McMorris said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.
At a Feb. 7 career fair, a couple of student nurses told McMorris that they'd like to stay in Saskatchewan but only B.C. Health had been in Saskatoon to do a presentation to the nursing students.
"I inquired through the ministry immediately about that concern and they told me that wasn't quite right, that they have talked to the classes in the past and I said, 'I want to make sure that we're doing that with all of the classes - whether it's the ministry of health or the health authorities,' " McMorris said.
McMorris plans to hire 800 registered nurses in his government's first term of office. He said that filling the province's nursing needs with home-grown talent is a priority but it is a slow process so the province will continue to recruit foreign-trained nurses.
"If we get 300 nurses from the Philippines and there are more that are interested, it will be a while before we say, 'That's enough,' but our Saskatchewan grads do not have to worry -- there's more than enough work for them," he said.
Laura Ross, Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Health -- Nurse Recruitment and Retention, and two Saskatchewan Health recruitment agency officials will accompany staff from five health regions to Manila. The delegation's trip is scheduled from Feb. 28 to March 8.
Search heading to Manila
Pamela Cowan, Leader-PostPublished: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Building on the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region's recruiting success in the Philippines last year, a Saskatchewan delegation hopes to sign up 300 nurses when it travels to Manila next week.
During a recruiting trip to the Philippines in November, the RQHR offered jobs to 80 registered nurses.
"We know that there is a huge shortage of nurses in Saskatchewan that can't be addressed overnight but certainly recruiting from other jurisdictions provincially or internationally is a good plan," Health Minister Don McMorris said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.
At a Feb. 7 career fair, a couple of student nurses told McMorris that they'd like to stay in Saskatchewan but only B.C. Health had been in Saskatoon to do a presentation to the nursing students.
"I inquired through the ministry immediately about that concern and they told me that wasn't quite right, that they have talked to the classes in the past and I said, 'I want to make sure that we're doing that with all of the classes - whether it's the ministry of health or the health authorities,' " McMorris said.
McMorris plans to hire 800 registered nurses in his government's first term of office. He said that filling the province's nursing needs with home-grown talent is a priority but it is a slow process so the province will continue to recruit foreign-trained nurses.
"If we get 300 nurses from the Philippines and there are more that are interested, it will be a while before we say, 'That's enough,' but our Saskatchewan grads do not have to worry -- there's more than enough work for them," he said.
Laura Ross, Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Health -- Nurse Recruitment and Retention, and two Saskatchewan Health recruitment agency officials will accompany staff from five health regions to Manila. The delegation's trip is scheduled from Feb. 28 to March 8.
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