Introduction

Filipino nurses are highly in demand all over the globe. It was cited by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the largest exporter of Registered Nurses to foreign countries. You can find them in almost all parts of the world with most concentration in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Middle East, Australia, Africa, South America and other Asian countries with an estimated total of about 250,000 worldwide. This is because they are known to be highly-competent, hardworking, flexible and patient-oriented professionals. This is a bitter-sweet success for Filipino nurses because working abroad means financial stability and better standard of living. However, working in other countries as nurses is not totally a glamorous job. They have to withstand racial discrimination, unfair labor practices, adopting to different cultures and being away from their beloved family in exchange for that.

For the past decade, emigration of Filipino nurses has notably increased. But aside from the higher pay offered by jobs abroad, exodus of Filipino nurses from the Philippines was also influenced by a variety of factors. These include but not limited to the fragile economy, high unemployment rate, massive contractualization, unregulated nurse-patient ratio and very low salaries and wages. Thanks to the nurses still working in the Philippines, the healthcare system is still functioning.

The massive exit of well-experienced Filipino Nurses from the Philippines resulted not only in the deterioration of the nursing care services in the clinical setting but also of the quality of education in the academe. If this trend goes unchecked, it could lead to the so called “brain drain.”

Other countries like the U.S. recognize that nurses cater to culture-diversified clients thereby an effort to train and prepare their nurses to this challenge has been initiated and maintained. Sending exchange nursing students to other countries like the Philippines is becoming popular nowadays. Continuing education and seminars on transcultural care are also a common practice.

In order to keep Filipino Nurses at pace, transcultural nursing should be adopted openly. Madeleine Leininger’s Culture Care will be a good addition to Filipino nurses’ skills and knowledge in the delivery of healthcare services worldwide. It advocates the utilization of intercultural communication and the need for appropriate culture-sensitive care. Mastery of Leininger’s Theory can help Filipino nurses become more effective and stay globally competitive.

In the future however, some offshore nurses are still hoping that there will come a time that working abroad would only be just an option and not a necessity to have a decent and respectable life. Whether this will ever happen, we play a big role in the realization of that outcome.