Angelite Nurses

The possible deployment of Filipino health workers to Norway will increase the country’s intellectual capital and wealth, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said on Saturday.


Labor Acting Secretary Romeo Lagman made the statement after disclosing that Filipino nurses and caregivers may likely be deployed to Norway as soon as labor and health officials of Norway and the Philippines finalized talks on the matter.

“There are still apprehensions on the part of Norway particularly on the issue of ‘brain drain’ and the language training,” Lagman said in an interview.

“But we have 60,000 nurses produced every year, and enrollment for such course is not going down. We have an oversupply of nurses and we do not see a draining in our medical pool by increasing our deployment overseas,’’ he said.

According to Lagman, most European countries are now looking at the impact of social migration and do not want to take advantage of countries that are experiencing the brain drain phenomenon.
Norway labor and health officials are expected to visit the Philippines within the year to continue talks on ways to create employment for Filipino health workers.

Norway is open for employment and has huge requirement for nurses, said Lagman.
Should the deployment of Filipino nurses to Norway pushes through, he said the Philippines will be gaining so much not only from the job opportunities but also from the skills learned by the workers while in that country.
Currently, he said the country offers good compensation for health workers ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 per month.

Earlier, Norway had opened its doors to Filipino engineers and offering salaries ranging from $5,000 to $7,000 per month.

Apart from Norway, Lagman said Denmark is also open for Filipino workers although details on possible employment are yet to be discussed. - via www.mb.com.ph