THE Philippines produced a total of 37,098 new registered nurses in 2024. However, there is no assurance that all of them will practice their profession, or that they will do so within the country, according to Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo.
“Largely due to the pressure to survive, some of them will likely try to seek immediate employment, even if it means taking on other jobs and not practicing nursing,” Rillo, vice chairperson of the House committee on higher and technical education, said in a statement on Thursday.
Rillo noted that, in the past, many nurses ended up working as real estate agents, insurance agents, or car sales agents, while others pursued careers in business process outsourcing.
“We are not paying our new nurses enough to encourage them to practice their profession,” Rillo said.
The country is currently facing a growing shortage of nurses, partly due to slower production and partly due to nonstop overseas migration.
The Philippines now has a shortage of 127,000 nurses – a number expected to increase to 250,000 by 2030, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to data from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), the 37,098 new nurses produced in 2024 was roughly the same as the 36,525 produced in 2023.
However, Rillo pointed out that these numbers are still low when compared to the average of 63,800 new nurses the country annually more than a decade ago.
“We must invest more in our nurses if we want to retain some of them in the local health sector,” Rillo said.
Rillo also noted that a significant number of new nurses have already set their sights on overseas employment.
Rillo has championed the welfare of Filipino nurses. He is the author of House Bill No. 5276, which seeks to increase the basic monthly pay of entry-level nurses in government hospitals by 74 percent, or to P70,013 (Salary Grade 21).
Currently, entry-level nurses at Department of Health (DOH) hospitals receive P40,208 (Salary Grade 15) in basic monthly pay.
In the Senate, Sen. Raffy Tulfo has also been advocating for the passage of his Senate Bill No. 2694, which seeks to increase the basic pay of entry-level nurses in public health institutions by 40 percent, or to P56,390 (Salary Grade 19).
Both bills seek to amend the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002.
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