‘Pinoy nurses seeking jobs in US increasing’

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino nurses seeking employment in the US are increasing in number again.

Cebu Rep. Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. said a total of 2,952 nurses took the US licensure examination from January to September this year, up by nearly 11 percent from 2,662 in the same period in 2012.

“We hope that as the American economy starts to pick up, the hiring of Filipino nurses by US hospitals, clinics and nursing homes will likewise spring back,” he said.

Filipinos are among the most eager jobseekers in the US, Gullas said.

Analysts previously predicted that the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, would help revive America’s demand for foreign nurses.

Gullas welcomed the Department of Health’s plan to “regularize” by next year the employment of 22,500 nurses taken in as contractual workers under a program to improve the delivery of health care services to poor and underserved communities.