Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110561

Margarita E. Perrin, RN and Amy Hagopian, PhD. Department of Health Services/School of Public Health, University of Washington, Box 354982, Seattle, WA 98195-4982, 206-731-8875, mperrin@u.washington.edu

The Philippines is a major source of nurses for wealthy countries experiencing nurse shortages. It has been documented that the recruitment of Philippine nurses for foreign markets results in the departure of the country's most experienced and well-qualified nurses, thus eroding the quality of health care delivery in the country. Hospital understaffing has been reported in the Philippines, resulting from restricted budgets for health care in general and for nursing services in particular. In addition to low wages, the profession also suffers from a poor social image and lack of enforcement of labor laws and nursing standards. These factors, along with an active government policy that promotes nurse export, drive registered nurses (RNs) to seek employment overseas for higher wages and better working conditions. We asked hospital nursing directors in the Philippines to respond to a mailed survey to a) describe the hospitals and the nursing workforce issues they face, b) describe the demographics, training levels and pay schedules of hospital nurses, c) enumerate the staffing ratios, vacancy rates, turnover rates and skills mix for Philippine hospitals, c) understand the attitudes of nursing directors towards nurse migration and the magnitude of the challenges they face regarding nurse recruitment and retention, and d) identify the recruitment and retention strategies that nursing directors use and find most successful.

Learning Objectives:

• • • Describe the demographics and pay schedule for the hospital-based nursing workforce in the Philippines.
  • • Enumerate the staffing ratios, vacancy rates, turnover rates and skills mix for Philippine hospitals.
  • • Relate the attitudes of nursing directors towards nurse migration and the magnitude of the challenges they face regarding nurse recruitment and retention.
  • • Describe the recruitment and retention strategies that nursing directors use and find most successful.

Keywords: Nurses, Hospitals

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation