THE number of Nursing graduates who have registered to take the US licensure examination this year has more than doubled compared to last year, according to Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo, vice chair of the House committee on higher and technical education.
He said 18,104 Nursing graduates have registered to take the US National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) from January to June this year.
“The number is 123 percent higher compared to the 8,128 Philippine-educated nurses that took the NCLEX for the first time (without counting repeaters) in the same six-month period in 2022, in a bid to practice their profession in America,” Rillo said.
Rillo also said fresh Nursing graduates have spent some P200 million to take the exam this year, noting it costs $200, or P11,000, for a graduate to register to take the NCLEX which is administered by America’s National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).
He said about 46 percent of Philippine nursing graduates pass the NCLEX on their first take.
Rillo renewed his call for Congress to pass his bill that seeks to increase by 75 percent the starting base pay of public nurses who are being “pirated” by other countries.
Under Rillo’s House Bill No. 5276, the starting monthly pay of nurses employed by the government would be bumped up to P63,997. In the Senate, Sen. Sonny Angara has filed Senate Bill No. 638 which seeks to raise to P51,357 the entry-level monthly salary of public nurses.
Public nurses currently receive a starting monthly pay of only P36,619.
Newly appointed Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa earlier disclosed that 4,500 permanent positions for nurses remain vacant in over 70 hospitals run by the Department of Health because there are no takers.
The vacancies do not include unfilled nurse positions in hospitals run by provincial, city and municipal governments.
The Free Workers (FFW) pushed for a starting salary of P65,000 for nurses in both private and public hospitals.
FFW President Sonny Matula said healthcare professionals nationwide need a “substantial wage increase” to convince nurses to stay in the country.
“We must stem the brain drain. We need to give our nurses compelling reasons to stay in the Philippines and not seek greener pastures abroad,” he said.
The United Private Hospital Unions in the Philippines (UPHUP) said wage disparities “are severe and unjust.”
“Nurses, regardless of their employment sector, merit higher compensation given their crucial role and the intense physical and mental strain of their profession,” said UPHUP convenor Manuel Payao.
UPHUP noted private sector nurses receive a daily wage ranging between P610 in the National Capital Region (NCR) and P431 in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
In contrast, nurses employed in public hospitals receive a monthly salary of P35,000. — With Gerard Naval
