The Philippines is not the only viable source of competent nurses in the world, according to Dr. Fely Marilyn Lorenzo of the Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies-National Institutes of Health of the University of the Philippines.

“International employers are starting to look at India and China for nurses,” Lorenzo said during a press conference held at the second Philippine Nursing Competitiveness Conference last Friday at the UP.

“These employers are seeing that Filipinos are less inclined to agree to work for long hours unlike nurses from Indonesia and Bangladesh who are willing to work for long hours, for lesser money,” she added.

She also said that because of the economic crisis, the demand for nurses is slowing down. As few as eight nurses are deployed out of the country every month now, she said.

However, she noted that Filipino nurses are still the most desired among foreign employers because technically, Filipino nurses are better than those from other countries.

Meanwhile, the Professional Regulation Commission-Board of Nursing (PRC-BON) is now closely working with the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) in monitoring nursing schools in the country to ensure that they meet the standards in nursing education.

Earlier, CHEd announced that it has warned 152 nursing schools/colleges around the country that failed to pass the commission’s standards and have regularly produced flunkers in the annual licensure examinations.

“The board of nursing is very active in implementing the nursing standards in education and we’ve been closely collaborating with CHEd’s Technical Committee in Nursing Education in (TCNE) in order for the standards to be in play,” PRC-BON’s Carmencita Abaquin said.

“We have agreed on a developmental process to address this problem,” she added.

The conference, which started Friday and ended Saturday, gathered nursing educators and professionals to discuss and find solutions to problems the Philippine nursing industry is facing today.