The international migration of skilled nurses is a continuing phenomenon in the global market in health care. This trend has impacted on the nurses, the countries involved, and the world economy in general. The higher need for professional skills due to global scarcity in the health sector has created more job opportunities hence the ease of nurses to migrate from one nation to another. The higher demand for more skilled nurses has paved the way for greener pastures in the industrialized countries, for example for trained health workers from the Philippines. It is one of the major countries with the high number of health employee migration to nations like the United States.
According to an interview with Rosario May Mayor, she migrated from the Philippines to New York City in 1971 March. She was a young immigrant nurse who affirms that a nurse’s decision is influenced by their personal choices alongside with that of family members. She says that one’s situation in their country and the family background leads to one’s desire to migrate. Nurses lack job positions in their homeland, hence lack the opportunity for the nursing practitioner (Filipino Nurses, 2017). Nurses suffer poor working conditions and low wages and salaries which lure the HR health workers overseas.
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"Migrating to the US offered me the opportunity for advanced training and effective skills in my nursing profession together with traveling and independence to the full potential'," Mayor recalls. From an ordinary young nurse from Filipino, she was an integral part as a foreign-trained nurse in the United States. "I served as a leading healthcare consultant, health system specialist, and as the President of Nurses Association of America (PNAA) before I retired," she says (Filipino Nurses, 2017). In the Philippines, nursing is perceived as an old practice guideline. Health restrictions and boundaries are one of the drives as to why nurses look for foreign employment for the deployment of more knowledge and learning.
Migration of nurses is a transmittal that contributes to the national economic value, the reason behind the government’s support on the labor export policies. It is a perceivable mechanism for the survival of many migrants’ families in the country as the breadwinners. Regardless of the advantages of migration of nurses, there is exploitation of workers, discrimination at the workplace, overworking, and the breach of human rights (Filipino Nurses, 2017). The sophisticated working environment with the new technology with the change in time and the high living standards is a significant challenge.
One of the most difficult challenges is to adjust to the new surroundings. May remembers of her first experience in New York City “it was a cold morning.” (Filipino Nurses, 2017). There is the culture shock, and one has to transition to the values and language of the American people to avoid embarrassments. One of the best aspects has to be the fact that the Filipinos quickly had access to American passports at the time May migrated to the US.
In line with the written works, migration of nurses in the foreign nations helps to boost the economy of their country of origin. It offers better and extensive opportunities to advance in their career paths through the impartation of knowledge (Career Moves, 2010). The nations like the Philippines may suffer inadequate professional nurses when many relocate to countries where they can earn good cash enough for their families’ survival back in their homeland. There is a high ethical issue on the higher possibility of exploitation of nurses in the foreign nations.
May’s story is consistent with the ongoing global trends in the health sector today. Immigrant health workers move to industrialized nations to seek for more favorable conditions for better quality life back at their country of origin (Career Moves, 2010). This, however, contributes to the growth and development of their native country’s economic status. Nurses travel and make an impact on their career ladder by assimilating and learning a more improved system which in turn is a form of change to the developing countries.
References
Career Moves and Migration: Critical Questions. (2010). International Council of Nurses . Retrieved from http://www.icn.ch/images/stories/documents/publications/guidelines/guideline_career_ oves_migration_eng.pdf
Filipino Nurses in the USA – Yesterday and Today. (May 18, 2017). PassportUSA: Health Care Organizations for Nurses. Retrieved from https://passportusa.com/filipino-nurses-in-the usa/
