MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The governement urges Filipino nurses to look for jobs in Saudi Arabia, instead of the United States. Saudi Arabia has now emerged as the largest oil producer as well as nurse recruiter, getting ahead of US, said Trade Union Congress of the Philippines secretary-general, Ernesto Herrera

With the launch of Saudi's Nitaqat Program, priority is given to Saudi nationals over foreign nationals to increase employment of their local people. This however, is not a threat for Filipino nurses, household workers, skilled laborers and skilled construction workers because very few Saudi nationals have this kind of job or profession.

As of last year, there are over 8,771 nurses who were deployed to Saudi Arabia. Only a total of 3,660 nurses were deployed to other nurse-recruiting countries namely Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Kuwait, Qatar, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Jordan and Bahrain.

Generally, the qualifications required for a nurse to work in Saudi Arabia are to have a professional license ( PRC license) and at least one to two years of hospital experience as staff nurse. Salary ranges from 25,000 – 50,000 Php a month depending on years of experience and area of specialty. In addition, accommodation, food and transportation are all provided by the employer.

For the list of legitimate agencies, you can visit POEA's office to get a list of agencies recruiting nurses to Saudi.