KSA starts recruiting, training 2,000 Filipino nurses

MANILA, Philippines — Saudi Arabia is now in the process of recruiting 2,000 Filipino nurses and has announced 1,000 scholarships for Saudi girls to address the shortage of specialist nursing staff. Online news site Arab News (www.arabnews.com) reported Friday that the Health Ministry aims to meet the "urgent" requirement for 10,000 nurses. "A number of seats for Saudi women have also been reserved in premier health institutions in Jordan, Australia, the US, Britain and Bahrain, to enable them to pursue specialist nursing training," said Dr. Munira Al-Osaimi, MOH's director general of nursing. The report said the Ministry of Health is seeking to increase the number of Saudis in the nursing sector to 60 percent within the next five years. It is also offering advance training to nurses who have graduated from Kingdom's medical colleges. Al-Osaimi said Saudi Arabia's health service is critically understaffed in areas including neonatal, intensive care, emergency care, and pediatrics. She said the overseas course slots have been selected for convenience rather than the quality of the degree on offer. These scholarships are part of a widespread campaign to attract more Saudi nurses to work in this field, she added. Chita Cilindro, regional director for the Manila-based Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), said the recruitment by the Saudi Ministry of Health is in cooperation with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). "The recruitment process was assisted by POEA, an attached agency of DOLE, and the Saudi Embassy in Manila," she said. Cilindro also called on the applicants to approach the recruiting agencies as early as possible. She pointed out that the candidates must be graduates in nursing with or without work experience. She said there will be no placement fees and that the salary range will be between SR2,250 to SR4,000. - GMANews.TV