Filipino Health Workers Struggle in Filling Eldercare Gap
By Maricar C. P. Hampton (New America Media/Philippine News)

Nurse Edel Pimentel believes that Filipino health care providers will be especially able to deal with the demands of the 78 million aging boomers in the United States — plus their elderly parents — once they enter a healthcare facility, because Filipinos are “natural caregivers.”

In the Philippines, she said, “We tend to take care of our loved ones ourselves until they die. We don’t put them in nursing homes; we just don’t have that,” said Pimentel.

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Filipina Nurses See Long Visa Delays Despite Nursing Shortage
By Maricar C. P. Hampton (New America Media/Philippine News)

Hannah Baslio had a difficult time when she first came to the United States four years ago and took a job as a nurses’ aide in a large New Jersey nursing home.

After a year of back-breaking work with too many patients and frequent double shifts, Baslio—one of the thousands of Filipina nurses or aides providing care to U.S. seniors–eventually moved to Maple Hill, a small group home in Maryland. There, she not only earns enough to help her family back home, but she grew to care for the seniors “in memory of my grandma, it’s like taking care of my family.”

“You have to have the right kind of heart and a lot of patience for this job. It’s not easy but if you love your job it’s easier,” Baslio said.

For decades the United States has turned to Filipina nurses, such as Baslio, and those from other countries, especially China, the Caribbean and India, to fill its growing shortage of nurses and nurses’ aides. American long-term care companies actively recruit nurses from the Philippines because of its U.S. style health care education programs.

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New US health bill to push demand for Filipino nurses
By Jessica B. Natad (The Freeman)

CEBU, Philippines – The demand for Filipino nurses abroad, especially in the United States (US), is expected to surge in the coming years with US President Barack Obama’s signing into law the US ’ health reform bill.

“It’s just a matter of time. They (US) would need plenty of doctors and nurses to take care of some 26 million Americans who will be covered by (the US government’s health insurance,)” said Potenciano Larrazabal, president and chairman of the board of Cebu Doctors’ Group of Companies.

The US health reform bill benefits mostly households making less than four times the poverty level. Those without insurance in this group will become eligible to receive subsidies, according to a report.

Larrazabal said in an interview that the US will be able to absorb more nurses after Congress will be able to modify the retrogression law that the country is following in processing applications. The law, he said, is one factor that slowed down the entry of nurses to the US.

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Filipino nurses in US seek end to visa retrogression

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippine Nurses Association of America assured Filipino nurses dreaming to work in the United States that talks are going on between nurse communities and senators in the US to include in their health care reform the end of visa retrogression.

This would hopefully open more doors for employment of Filipino nurses that would fill the 15 percent shortage in healthcare personnel in many parts of the US.

PNAA President Leo Felix Jurado, during the opening of the 7th PNAA International Conference in Cebu yesterday, admitted that there are no available visas for nurses who are planning to work in the US.

Read the rest of the article at philstar.com.