DOLE eyes more jobs for Pinoy nurses in Japan

MANILA, Philippines - To provide more jobs for Filipino nurses, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is intensifying Japanese language training for those wishing to work in Japan.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said very few Filipino nurses are being hired in Japan because of their inability to speak and write the Japanese language.

Baldoz noted that only 1.2 percent of foreign nurses, including Filipinos seeking employment in Japan, have passed the required licensure examination there because of difficulty in understanding medical terms written in Japanese.

To address the problem, Baldoz said, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Japan recommended an intensified Japanese language skills program for Filipino nurses.

POLO-Tokyo Officer-in-Charge and Welfare Officer Maria Luz Talento said the language program would focus on communication skills more than simply language skills.

“Even though candidate nurses and caregivers are able to speak Japanese, which clearly benefits their hospitals and/or welfare institutions, it cannot make up for an inability to communicate verbally and in writing with their co-workers and immediate superiors in their place of work,” Talento explained.

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

She pointed out that 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.

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

However, Talento belied published reports that 18 Filipino nurses and caregivers went back 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 and health reasons.

“Filipino nurses training in Japan did not reveal, in any way or manner, that they are being discouraged by their slim prospects of passing the Japanese licensure examinations,” she said.