The province of Saskatchewan in Canada is planning to hire full-time nursing and laboratory staff from the Philippines in 2022, a report from a Canadian news service said Thursday, January 6 (PH time). According to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, the Saskatchewan Health Authority will hire up to 150 healthcare professionals from the Philippines to fill a huge gap in the sector's labor force battered by the ongoing pandemic. Officials, however, expressed surprise that the number is set at 150 considering there are more than 1,000 vacancies in the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).
Why Saskatchewan Province in Canada Is Looking to Hire More Filipino Healthcare Workers
"We could not be without our Filipino nurses," Saskatchewan Union of Nurses President Tracy Zambory was quoted as saying by the report. "They are a gigantic asset and we could not run without them. We just have to make sure that we are taking lessons from the past."
As many as 800 new nurses were hired by Saskatchewan officials when they flew to the Philippines for a hiring blitz in 2008. However, the report said that many of the nurses did not end up staying in the country as they were "not used working in a radically different country and environment."
For the 2022 efforts, experts say that making sure it is a sustained project should be a priority. "When we were there in 2008, we did not prepare the workplace. We did not prepare those incoming health care professionals for our style of health care," said Barb Cape, president of the Service Employees’ International Union West.
The report cited data from Statistics Canada that showed that, as of 2016, nearly a quarter of nurse aides, orderlies, and similar professionals in the province were immigrants. This was more than twice the share of newcomers working in all other jobs. The same study found that nearly 30% of such professionals across Canada were Filipino and that the vast majority were women.
As of 2016, which is the latest available data from a census, there were about 837,130 people in Canada with Filipino ethnic origin. The Philippines is also the the top source of immigrants to the country, bringing 188,805 (or 15.58% of the total) new immigrants to the country, followed by India, China, and Iran.
Most of the Filipino and Filipino-Canadian population in the country are concentrated in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba, where more than 90% of them reside and work.
Hey, Spotters! Check us out on Viber to join our Community and subscribe to our Chatbot.