KEY POINTS:
Filipino nurses who cannot obtain registration in New Zealand are asking the Nurses Society to help them find jobs overseas.
But they are being turned away because overseas nursing authorities have also stopped registering Filipino nurses and are echoing similar concerns over nursing qualifications from the Philippines, the society says.
"It is easier to get a fresh nursing graduate from Kenya registered, than someone from the Philippines," said society director David Wills.
He said the nursing society, which has placed 10,000 nurses in countries such as Britain, the United States and Singapore since 1994, was being approached by at least four Filipino nurses every day wanting to find work overseas - but finding them work has become "almost impossible".
"Australia may be the last option, because other countries like Canada and Singapore have questioned the Philippines qualifications," said Mr Wills.
"We have reached a stage where we have found it pointless to process any Filipino nurse who does not have Western country experience."
Mr Wills said most of the Filipino nurses were keen to work in Canada or the United States, but although many had the qualifications, they did not have nursing experience.
A qualified nurse from the Philippines, who wanted to be known only as Estelda, was one of those who had been turned away by the Nursing Society, and said she was "getting desperate".
"I don't know what to do. I have no more money, and I have a degree which I am told is useless," said Estelda.
"Besides paying thousands for my nursing degree, I also paid $8000 to my recruitment agent to come to New Zealand to work as a healthcare assistant. I am a qualified nurse, and it is so unfair to be told that I cannot be registered as a nurse anywhere when there's a global shortage of nurses."
The New Zealand Nursing Council says has questioned the quality of nursing qualifications and training programmes in the Philippines after nursing student numbers there boomed from 30,000 in 2004 to 450,000 last year.
