ABS-CBNews: BPOs need accountants, nurses, engineers

MANILA, Philippines - The business process outsourcing industry offers job opportunities for new graduates and professionals, such as nurses, accountants and engineers.

Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) president and CEO Benedict Hernandez said the industry offers a hundred thousand IT-BPO jobs for financial analysts, engineers, accountants, doctors and nurses, artists, business graduates, and other professionals on its website WorkAbroadLiveHere.

BPAP launched the career portal to increase awareness of career opportunities in the IT-BPO industry.

BPAP senior executive director Gillian Virata said many still don't know that IT-BPO has 20 different segments, employs 640,000 Filipinos and generated $11 billion in revenues last year.

"We have jobs in IT, software development, customer service, finance and accounting, health care, legal, creative services, and engineering. New graduates and established professionals don’t have to go abroad for international, well-paying jobs," she said.

To attract potential employees, BPAP created a Facebook page and Twitter account. Hernandez said there has been a positive response from jobseekers so far.

"We are doing this campaign to address a potential talent gap that could impact growth of IT-BPO. There are a lot of amazing opportunities within the industry and the creation of the ‘Work Abroad. Live Here’ portal is just one piece of a larger campaign to acquaint graduates and professionals who are considering a career shift with opportunities in the IT-BPO industry," he said.

Last month, the ADB said it was giving a P27.3 million grant to support skills enhancement for the IT-BPO industry. The funding will go to training programs for college students and professors.

"The Philippines has been the global leader in providing customer relationship management (CRM) voice services since 2010. Now, non-voice services are rapidly expanding. This year, our goal is to generate 120,000 jobs to attain our goal of employing 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016. With the support from our government and the other institutions, we expect to meet that goal," Hernandez said.

Tight US market for nurses seen until 2020

Idle Filipino nurses now 300,000, says solon

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino nurses may have difficulty entering the US labor market until 2020, according to party-list Rep. Arnel Ty.

"Right now, they have ample supply of US-educated nurses," said Ty, the representative in Congress of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers' Association (LPG-MA).

In a statement, Ty cited statistics from America's National Council of State Boards of Nursing which show that the US produced close to a million nurses from 2006 to 2011.

Ty said the US demand for Filipino and other foreign nurses may start to recover in 8 years when thousands of US-based nurses would have retired.

The US first encountered a shortage of nurses in 1998. This created a surge in number of Filipino nursing graduates hoping to get a career in the US.

However, the gap has since been filled by the large increase in the number of American nurses, plus a deluge of foreign-educated practitioners.

Due to the huge oversupply of nurses in the Philippines, both the Commission on Higher Education and the Professional Regulation Commission have been urging high school graduates to shun nursing.

Late response

Ty blamed regulators for their late response to labor market conditions.

"They should be more aggressive in researching and projecting future labor market conditions, both here and abroad, to help guide young Filipinos as to potential career paths," he said.

"Regulators are just reacting to what is already happening, such as the apparent glut of nursing graduates. Their late advisories would be more valuable once these are predictive and instructive, rather than merely reactive," Ty said.

From 1995 to 2011, Ty said a total of 145,081 Filipino nurses sought to practice their profession in America by taking for the first time (excluding repeaters) the US licensure exam, or NCLEX.

However, Ty said that "from 2006 to 2011 alone, a total of 938,552 US nursing graduates also took the NCLEX for the first time."

Special jobs plan

Ty said he has been pushing for a new law that "would establish a special local jobs plan for idle Filipino nurses, now estimated at more than 300,000."

He has filed House Bill 4582, which seeks an expanded version of the Nurses Assigned in Rural Service or NARS, "the short-lived Philippine government project that enlisted nurses to improve healthcare in poverty-stricken towns."

Ty's said the Special Program for the Employment of Nurses in Urban and Rural Services (NURSE) "would mobilize a total of 10,000 practitioners every year."
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NLE Results: 22,760 pass nursing board

MANILA, Philippines—A total of 22,760 out of 67,095 passed the Nurse Licensure Examination, the Professional Regulation Commission announced on Thursday.

The examinations were given by the Board of Nursing in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Nueva Ecija, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga last December, the PRC said.

The board is composed of Carmencita M. Abaquin, chairman; and Leonila A. Faire, Betty F. Merritt, Perla G. Po, Marco Antonio C. Sto.Tomas, Yolanda C. Arugay and Amelia B. Rosales.

Nursing Exam Results for Dec 2011 A-B

Nursing Exam Results for Dec 2011 C-D

Nursing Exam Results for Dec 2011 E-H

Nursing Exam Results for Dec 2011 I-M

Nursing Exam Results for Dec 2011 N-R

Nursing Exam Results for Dec 2011 S-Z


Source: Inquirer.net

PRC sees more jobless nurses

By Mayen Jaymalin, The Philippine Star
Posted at 12/26/2011 8:30 AM | Updated as of 12/26/2011 10:05 AM

MANILA, Philippines - More nurses will be unemployed next year, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) said yesterday.

Marco Sto. Tomas, of the PRC’s Board of Nursing (BON), said the current number of 230,000 jobless and underemployed nurses nationwide is rising.

“Although enrollment in nursing courses is going down, there are still many in the pipeline, considering that 68,000 graduates just took the licensure examination this month,” he said.

Many registered nurses are now willing to work for free or even pay hospitals so they could work and gain the necessary experience to qualify them for employment abroad, he added.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has ordered the PRC, an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment to coordinate with other concerned government agencies and look into the condition of unemployed Filipino nurses.

The DOLE is also looking into coming out with new rules to regulate the “hiring” of nurse volunteers in hospitals and other medical facilities nationwide, she added.

No regulation exists to stop or penalize government and private hospitals from using the services of licensed nurses for free, Baldoz said.

Sto. Tomas said the PRC is now pushing for the implementation of the so-called Hastening Options for Productivity and Employment (HOPE) for Filipino nurses, he added.

“The program aims to promote entrepreneurship putting up their own business for Filipinos nurses who are now having difficulty finding employment,” he said.

The PRC and other concerned government agencies are exerting efforts to improve the lives of nurses, including the unemployed, he added.

Future Shock: Color-coded surgery

GMANews: More Pinoy nurses heading to Japan for licensure exam

Despite a devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan this month and the ensuing nuclear accident, a third batch of over 80 Filipino nurses are scheduled to go there on May 30 for a language training in preparation for that country’s tough licensure examinations.

In a press briefing, Japanese Ambassador Makoto Katsura said a total of 82 Filipinos will leave for Japan to undergo intensive Japanese language training there, after a two-month preparatory language course in Manila to be conducted by Japanese instructors.

“Although I have no doubts that you will be able to fulfill your duties and responsibilities as healthcare professionals in Japan, I am also aware that one of the most difficult obstacles for passing the Japanese nursing licensure examinations is the language barrier," Katsura said at the formal launch of the training course.

This is the first time that Japan is implementing a preparatory language course prior to the applicants’ departure for Japan. Only two of the 139 Filipino nurses in previous batches passed that country’s licensure exam.

Apart from the preparatory course, Japan has also revised its licensure exam for foreign nurses and caregivers to boost the passing rate of health workers.

The revisions include the use of English words for medical terms originally in Japanese, like diabetes, cataract and pulmonary tuberculosis.

Since 2009, the Philippines has sent a total of 139 nurses and 299 caregivers to train in Japan through the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) signed in 2006.

Various groups had earlier questioned JPEPA’s constitutionality before the Supreme Court, saying the treaty violates constitutional provision on trade, natural resources, labor, education, mass media legislation, public utilities and foreign policy.

The Japanese Embassy said it has been taking steps to help Filipino nurses maximize employment opportunities for Filipino nurses under the treaty.

“This demonstrates the perseverance and dedication of both countries to take initiatives in improving the standing of Filipino candidate nurses in particular, especially in successfully integrating them, through language," Katsura explained.

Nurses who fail Japan’s licensure tests in Japan can only re-take the exam within the period they are allowed to stay in Japan.

If they still fail the examination, the nurses would have to return to the Philippines to apply again for training.

Apart from the six months of paid language training, Filipino nurses and caregivers are employed in Japanese hospitals and care-giving facilities for three years and four years, respectively, to familiarize themselves with the country’s healthcare system.

During that time, nurses undergoing work-training receive an average monthly salary of 130,000 yen to 220,000 yen (about P68,000 to P115,000) For caregivers, the monthly salary ranges from 125,000 yen to 185,000 yen (about P65,000 to P96,000).—With Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMA News

Source: GMANews 3.31.2011

Melanoma Update: Yehey for Yervoy!

The drug company Bristol- Myers Squibb has gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Yervoy (ipilimumab) for the treatment of Melanoma, a very aggressive and often fatal form of cancer which is also the leading cause of death from skin cancer.

Although the complete course of treatment is quite expensive at the moment, we can only hope that in the near future it will become more affordable and be accessible to the majority of the population.

Here's the recent article from the New York Times: Yervoy, a Melanoma Drug, Wins F.D.A. Approval.