Not having better pay, keeps the doctor away

Born in the Philippines and having moved here in the U.S. when I was 7 years old, I've neglected to keep track of what's going on in the other side of the world. I haven't been back to Philippines since the age of 12, making that 10 years ago, so it really caught my attention when CNN reported that the Philippines are losing doctors. The CNN news segment titled, "Doctor Drain," talked about how Filipino doctors leaving their jobs to become nurses in the U.S.

For the past three years, 5,000 Filipino doctors have migrated to U.S. to become nurses, said Philippine Secretary of Health Dr. Jaime-Galvez Tan in an article CBSnews.com
"Doctors no longer want to train as a resident or to become specialist, but they'd rather take nursing as a specialty and then move to the U.S.," Tan told CBS.

One of the biggest hospitals in Manila had 152 interns last year, now it only has five, according to the article.

So why the big move?

Better pay. According to an article from San Francisco Chronicle., doctors are paid less than $500 a month in the Philippines. Whereas, here in the U.S., nurses could typically make $40 an hour.

This interests me, not only because I'm originally from the Philippines, but because both of my parents are nurses, with my dad being a nursing professor. They both see the trends in both hospitals and nursing homes that the numbers of Filipino nurses are increasing. My dad mentioned that the hospital he works in, Baptist Medical, has just hired new nurses who were also M.D.'s.

There is also a shortage in the profession of nursing. The San Franciso Chronicle article states:

"The greatest shortage is among registered professional nurses, which comprise the largest segment of all health professionals," said Phyllis Hansell, dean of Seton Hall University's College of Nursing. "Currently, there are 2.6 million nurses in the U.S., and it is forecast that by 2010 an additional 1 million will be needed. Nurses will be required in all health care settings."

Recruiters have found a dependably supply of nurses in the Philippines, where salaries are low, unemployment high and English fluently spoken.

This is good news for health care in the U.S., but bad news for a third-world country like the Philippines. The economony isn't exactly booming and with this type of shortage, it puts more people and healthcare at an even higher risk.