Filipino nurses’ exodus
By Carlos H. Conde
International herald Tribune
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2004
PIKIT, the Philippines — For the past eight years, Mary Jane Maximo has ministered to the people of this small town as head nurse at its only private clinic. She has seen the violence and felt the pain visited upon Pikit’s residents; last year she watched as a government campaign against Muslim insurgents devastated the town and worsened its already extreme poverty.
Before the year ends, however, Maximo, a 29-year-old mother of one child, will be gone. She will leave the Cruzado Community Hospital and head for Saudi Arabia, where she will earn five times what she is making now.
Maximo is among the thousands of Filipino nurses and doctors who seek jobs abroad every year, leaving behind poorly staffed hospitals and clinics, particularly in rural areas, where the shortfall in medical personnel is worst.
Posted on October 19, 2004, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories | Comments (2)
