Pinoy nurses may apply for nursing jobs in Japan online - POEA

The Philippine Star
January 18, 2009 12:00 AM

Filipino nurses and caregivers aspiring to work in Japan may now register online.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said Friday “applicants need not go to the POEA office because they can already register at the POEA Website

POEA chief Jennifer Manalili said applicants should wait for POEA e-mail for further instructions and only those who meet the minimum qualification shall receive the notification through e-mail.

Those who qualify, Manalili said, will have to submit the POEA e-mail notification and other necessary documents at the POEA main office in Mandaluyong or its nearest office in their respective regions.

Applicants for nursing positions must prepare their resumé, valid passport, college diploma, transcript of records, employment certificate indicating at least three years’ hospital experience, board certificate, and Professional Regulation Commission identification card.

Manalili said Japanese employers would shoulder the placement fee and language training for those who qualify.

Earlier, the POEA announced that Japan is hiring at least 1,000 Filipino nurses and caregivers in the next two years. Deployment will start by the end of April or early May.

Manalili said those who qualify for the jobs would undergo six months of language and culture training in Japan during which they will receive an allowance of $400 or more than P21,000.

After the training, Filipino nurses and caregivers are allowed to stay in Japan for three years to work in hospitals and other medical facilities.

During the three-year period, Filipino nurses can take the Japanese licensure examination.

Filipino caregivers will receive a monthly salary of $1,600, while nurses will get higher pay.

Saudi needs 60,000 staff, nurses for its hospitals

Although this piece is good news, I say if given a choice, Filipino health workers should try their luck first in countries like the US, UK and Ireland were their welfare as foreign health workers are properly addressed and insured.

This is not to say that going to the Middle East is bad but culturally and historically when a foreign worker found himself/herself in a difficult situation in a particular Arab country were trial is involved; their rights as well as receiving a fair one is often neglected and overlooked by both the host country and the Philippine government representatives alike.

But wherever one decides to go in pursuit of his/ her dreams, just bear in mind this old adage, "Do your best and God will take care of the rest."


A TOP Saudi Arabian hospital is interviewing Filipino nurses here to fill 60,000 hospital positions in the Kingdom in the next six months, an executive said yesterday.

“Even with the economic crisis, the demand for nurses and other medical staff in the Middle East is very high and very urgent,” said Lito Soriano, a senior officer of LBS E-Recruitment Solution.

“Unlike in the United States, the projected need for nurses in the Middle East is immediate.”

Soriano said the King Fahd Medical Center was only one of many Saudi hospitals looking for Filipino nurses, and that its officials were here to interview candidates.

He said King Fahd had only recently hired two Philippine recruitment agencies to fill up its vacancies.

“The top priorities in Saudi are security and health,” Soriano said.

“Its ministries of defense, aviation and health, which operate government hospitals, are doing the hiring not just for nurses but for technical medical workers like x-ray technicians, respiratory technicians and the like.”

Soriano said Saudi Arabia was paying $600 to $1,000 a month in basic salaries “on top of free housing, free transportation and yearly vacation.”

The Kingdom had only recently increased its inflation allowance to 10 percent from 5 to preserve its workers’ purchasing power, he said.

Soriano, also executive director of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, said his group was urging President Arroyo to grant indefinite visas to foreign principals employing Filipino workers.

Mrs. Arroyo recently signed Executive Order 758, which grants indefinite visas to foreign businessmen who hire 10 or more Filipinos for their businesses here.

Soriano said his group hoped the President would extend the same privilege to foreigners recruiting for their respective countries. Michael Caber with Arlie Calalo