US still short of Filipino licensed practical nurses

Despite the fact that the Philippines has remained the top supplier of nurses to the United States, the country is still unable to fill in the demand for vocational or practical nurses, specifically.

Gregory Tyrone Howard, president of the National Federation of Licensed Practical Nurses of America and chairman of the Commission on Graduates of the Foreign Nursing Schools-Licensed Practical Nursing Standards Committee, disclosed this information in a press conference yesterday at the Cebu Country Club.

Howard cited that 30.2 percent of nurses working in the US today are from the Philippines, but that these are registered nurses. "Philippine government gives very little focus on the ladderized nursing program in here, nor has ignited the desire for students to take up vocational nursing," Howard said. "The Nurses Act in your country has always worked in favor of those who take up the four-year course. Only to realize that nurses for bedside care are the ones really in demand in the US - one who is trained to give 100 percent attention to terminally ill patients or those on life support systems," he added.

Howard underlined that "licensed practical nurses are in demand in the hospitals in the US, like in Louisiana for example, but a few Filipinos are hired to fill in the position."

There is a demand ratio of 1:6 for licensed practical or vocational nurses under the direction of one registered nurse, he stressed.

Meanwhile, Engr. Arturo "Art" Lacuesta, founder and president of the Philippine Paramedical and Technical School-Davao campus explained that the Philippines sends a few LPNs to the US because there is no common standard for such training in the country.

"It would be very nice if we could work together to drumbeat the government so to make a revision on the current Nurses Act, to include provisions for the development of the ladderized nursing program, create community awareness of the advantages/gains of vocational nursing, or to push for a separate legislation that would value practical nursing education," Lacuesta said.

Howard is in the country on the invitation of PPTS to be its commencement speaker for the graduation of its first 40 students. According to Lacuesta, LPNs are not recognized in the Philippines because it is not included in the Philippine Nurses Act. At present, he added that the standard that the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority uses does not conform with the US standard.

"Our job description here (for LPNs) does not match that of the US. Some institutions here even consider our LPNs nursing aides, which is unfair," Lacuesta said.

LPNs are nurses who undergo 12 to 18 months rigorous training in patient care and assist the registered nurses, who supervise the nursing shifts and sections. - Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV