National Nurses United

Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN and CNA/NNOC vice president, gives a presentation to 2,500 Filipino nursing students about the realities of working abroad. Educating Overseas Nursing Students ursing students at Lyceum of the Philippines University are no strangers to people from abroad visiting their campus to talk about working overseas. Their typical callers, however, are nursing recruiters trying to lure them to relatively low-paying jobs in the United States, the United Kingdom, or even the Middle East. In contrast, the visit from Zenei Triunfo-Cortez in January carried a very different message. Triunfo-Cortez, an RN at Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco and CNA/NNOC vice president, gave the class of about 2,500 nursing students a four-hour reality check in her talk titled the "Global Preparedness and Competitiveness of Filipino Nurses." Triunfo-Cortez had been asked by the university to give a presentation to the students, and she took the opportunity to educate them about their rights as nurses, patient advocates, and workers in the United States, and to describe what role as a union and professional association CNA/NNOC has been playing in supporting nurses. "I prefaced my talk by saying that I was not there to recruit them, just to educate them," said Triunfo-Cortez. "I wanted to provide them orientation so that they won't N MARCH 2007 get exploited. Whether we like it or not, they will end up outside of the Philippines." The sad reality for many countries around the world is that their nursing students leave almost immediately after graduation to seek work in higher-paying, industrialized nations. The Philippines are one of the top sources of nurses in this regard. Though the exodus of nurses often deprives their home countries of qualified medical providers, the financial incentives to work abroad are overwhelming, said Triunfo-Cortez. For example, RNs in the Philippines typically earn $60 to $100 a month. Even if a recruiter offers only $15 per hour—as one from Texas did recently—the pay difference is exponentially higher. Many parents encourage their children to enter nursing because they're practically guaranteed a job overseas. And the Filipino government does not object, because the national economy relies on the money nurses working abroad send home. Triunfo-Cortez estimated that of the 2,500 students she addressed, likely 75 to 90 percent would leave after graduation. Despite the high numbers of Filipino nurses working overseas and their youth (graduates are usually 19 or 20 years old), W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G they rarely receive any information about prevalent working conditions and pay, what to expect, what kinds of resources are available to them in their country of employment, how the healthcare system is structured, and their role as patient advocates. TriunfoCortez said her visit may have been the first time nursing students at the school received that type of orientation for the United States from someone who was not an employer. Triunfo-Cortez also introduced the students to the concept of a union of professionals, something unheard of in the Philippines, and the history of CNA/NNOC's workplace, nursing practice, and legislative accomplishments—such as minimum staffing ratios. "They were amazed about how we as nurses don't just provide patient care, but go out in the streets and talk to legislators, that we lobby for how we think things should be," she said. The university asked Triunfo-Cortez to return to speak at the students' graduation, and they are also discussing making her talk a recurring event. "It was an eye-opener for them," she said. "I felt very good and fulfilled that in a small way I was able to give them that piece of education, and they got it." —staff report REGISTERED NURSE 7

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