The government said it formulate new efforts to address the nursing shortage in the Philippines and support countries seeking to hire Filipino healthcare professionals.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. discussed updates with the Private Sector Advisory Council-Healthcare Sector Group and government agencies at Malacañan Palace on creating a resilient healthcare system.
PSAC Healthcare Sector Lead Paolo Borromeo highlighted the Clinical Care Associates (CCA) program, designed to help underboard nursing graduates pass their licensure exams.
“Just happy to say Mr. President that we continue building momentum for what we call clinical care associates’ program. The CCA program as you might recall is our attempt to help the thousands of underboard nurses, people who have graduated from nursing degree, but for one reason or another, they did not pass the test during their time,” Borromeo said.
The first batch of 457 CCAs is currently in board review programs, with recruitment ongoing for a second batch for the May 2025 exams.
Since 2022, there has been an increase in nursing board passers due to a recalibrated curriculum. An Enhanced Master’s Degree in Nursing Program will launch in August at 17 pilot higher educational institutions (HEIs) to produce more nursing educators.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) are negotiating bilateral agreements with countries willing to subsidize the education of Filipino nursing students for future employment. Austria is one of the countries collaborating with the Philippines on this initiative.
Local government units (LGUs) are also encouraged to adopt hospitals and implement measures to address the nursing shortage.