Nurse Migration and Its Implications for Philippine Hospitals

Background: 'Push' and 'pull' factors motivate Filipino registered nurses (RNs) to leave for employment in foreign countries making the Philippines the leading source country for nurses overseas.

Objective: To assess the current RN-staffing situation in Philippine hospitals.

Design: A self-administered survey was mailed to a sample of 200 Philippine hospital chiefs of nurses.

Results: According to respondents, the majority of RNs in their hospitals (73%) were aged 40 years and younger and female (85%); government hospital RNs earned higher wages than private hospital RNs; and on average, RN vacancy rates and RN turnover rates were lower in government hospitals than private hospitals. All respondents reported no difficulty recruiting RNs with less than 12 months of work experience. However, recruitment of more experienced RNs was somewhat or very difficult for private hospitals compared with government hospitals. Higher salaries, better benefits and good career opportunities were identified as most effective incentives for both recruitment and retention.

Conclusions: RN staffing in government hospitals is more favourable than in private hospitals as measured by employment tenure, vacancy rates, turnover rates and ability to recruit and retain more experienced RNs. On average, respondents reported over half (59%) of total RN turnover was the result of nurse migration overseas.