Afternooon with Nurse Julius

Oh shoot! I'm an UNEMPLOYED NURSE! 

So  what, I am not the only one whose staying at home resting my fat ass. There are thousands of Filipino nurses like me out there, either unemployed or underemployed.

According to the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC), at least 287,000 of the previous nursing board passers remain underemployed (see I am not alone!). The latest batch of 37,513 nursing board exam passers comprises 13 percent of the population of currently underemployed nurses (and more are coming! They are coming to rule the call center companies!).

Every year, hundreds of nursing schools produce thousands of nurses in the Philippines; recent reports put the number of new nursing graduates at 40,000. However thousands of RNs are jobless due to the surplus in supply. Hospitals are full and nurses don’t know where to go, so what can you do to increase your chances of finding a job?   

Here are a few tips to increase you chance of being employed.

Attend training programs in major hospitals. Many hospitals host programs for training nurses in a variety of specialties such as Ward Nursing, Emergency Nursing, Maternal & Child Nursing, Critical Care Nursing, Dialysis Nursing and Operating Room Nursing. These programs are intended to develop the skills of professional nurses. They are prepared according to established standards of nursing and are organized by veteran and highly knowledgeable nurses in the clinical setting. Consider only hospitals that are recognized for their excellence and are considered training hospitals, so that you won’t waste your time, effort and money.

Sign Up for medical and surgical missions. International and local charitable organizations conduct medical and surgical missions in various parts of the country all year round. These missions are great venues for skill development and enrichment, since most of the missions offer technical and educational sharing to empower the local counterparts that they visit. Nurses who participate in missions are carefully selected and screened to give surety that they are clinically capable in their field, so novice nurses will surely learn from them. 

Submit an application to as many hospitals as possible. Competition in the market is tough. Remember those 287,000 previous nursing board passers, they are your rivals. Thrashing those more than a quarter million is a big challenge. Submit your application letter, along with all of your credentials, to every the hospital in your area. Many applications are lined up for interviews as soon as there are vacancies. Make sure to leave a positive impression when you submit your applications to the Director of Nursing or Human Resources. Dress appropriately. Start acting like a professional as early as now! Always be in your best attitude. Remember, no matter how smart you are if you do not look professional enough, your answers meant nothing to the interviewer.

   

Attend continuing education courses and seminars. Construct your career and resume dynamically. Nursing organizations and other bodies conduct training courses, skill development programs and seminars, and new trends and advances in technology and in science are continuously being discovered. Equip yourself with the basic skills necessary, such as IV Therapy, Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support Training. These courses are very much essential for nurses to learn so that they can respond to specific emergency situations inside or outside of the hospital. Nurses need to continue to learn – learning does not stop when you graduate from nursing school! We must update our skills with new techniques and apply evidence-based concepts in our job. Potential employers are impressed with nursing applicants who yearns continuing education. You may also like to enrol in graduate school and earn your Master’s Degree in Nursing. Don’t be a Generic Nurse. Make a difference. Being different makes you stand out among others.

 Hunt for jobs abroad through the internet.

Using the World Wide Web to search for a job is becoming increasingly popular and opens up the door to many more opportunities in the Middle East, Australia, Europe, Canada, other areas of Asia, and the UK. However, it should be noted that the demand from countries such as the UK and US has declined; quotas for visas in the US are filled for the time being and the UK is now looking more towards local healthcare professionals. In addition, foreign employers do prefer nurses with a four-year nursing degree rather than a two-year degree, so it is important to consider advancing your education. For Filipino Nurses this is an advantage since our Nursing Education System requires one to take nursing for four years in the BSN Program.

The hunt for a good paying nursing job can be difficult, but everyone has a chance if you follow these suggestions and remain proactive in your search. 

iKnow, iCare, iNurse.