Labor Undersecretary Carmelita M. Pineda made the announcement during a farewell reception for them hosted by Ambassador Antonio P. Villamor and wife Rose Marie at their residence inside the Diplomatic Quarter. The delegation left for the Philippines on Thursday night.
The new initiative was agreed after talks with Ministry of Health (MOH) officials led by Deputy Health Minister Ali Al-Qahtani.
Pineda and her delegation, which comprised 10 deans of leading nursing schools, visited local hospitals and primary health care facilities to observe and gather information for the training program, which will be conducted in the Philippines.
"A training center will be established in the Philippines and a Saudi representative will come to monitor the program’s implementation," Pineda said.
The delegation wound up their visit to the Kingdom on Thursday afternoon after visiting the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center.
"The MOH and our delegation have their respective drafts (of plans specifying how the program will be implemented). There are issues on which we don't agree but we hope that these will be eventually ironed out. The two drafts will be merged for the program implementation," Pineda said.
She also noted that while the MOH had been dealing directly with agencies or health care institutions involved in conducting training in other countries, in this case it was dealing with the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment.
Pineda added that the training program would be equivalent to a six-month work experience in a hospital.
"A Filipino nursing graduate who undergoes the training will need only one year and a half work experience, because the Kingdom usually requires two years work experience when hiring nurses," she said.
Filipino nursing graduates who undergo the training program will be assured of work at MOH hospitals and primary health care centers in Saudi Arabia.
"They will also be assured of higher salaries compared to the current rates of hospitals and primary health care centers in the Kingdom," said Pineda.
Pineda and the nursing college deans said that during their visit, they met other Filipinos who were in good posts such as head nurses and program directors of clinical nursing, among others.
"It is very inspiring to hear good words about Filipino nurses. In all the hospitals we visited, the Saudi administrators and doctors were all praising them. We heard only good words about them," said Josefina A. Tuazon, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing.
She said, however, that hospital administrators and doctors have noted that Filipino nurses lack assertiveness while at work.
Pineda described the agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines as a “landmark.”
"It opens up more opportunities for Filipino nurses, many of whom have been going to other countries like the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, although many still want to come and work in Saudi Arabia," she added.
There are some 80,000 Filipino nurses currently working in hospitals and health care facilities in Saudi Arabia, according to the 5,000-member Filipino Nurses Association in Saudi Arabia.
