The Modern Image of the Pilipina Nurse

How They are Stereotyped and How they are Needed
Article by Paola Rodelas
January 17, 2009
Culture

Maybe someone in your family is/was a nurse. Maybe you have family friends who are nurses. Or perhaps you are a nurse, want to be a nurse, or have been pressured to take up the field. Either way, if you are Pilipin@, chances are nursing has affected your life one way or another. This is not a mere coincidence: the U.S. establishment of hospitals and nursing schools in the early 20th century, the deliberate American recruitment of nurses in the Philippines, and the Immigration Act of 1965 (which gave top priority to skilled professionals looking to immigrate to the US) are some of the reasons why there is a large population of Pilipina nurses in the United States.

It is no wonder that nursing is still a glorified occupation in the Pilipin@ community, with nursing being the reason why many Pilipin@s were given the opportunity to live here in the first place. It's viewed as both lucrative, noble, and secure, with the idea that the health care industry is always looking for employees. If I hadn't expressed a strong desire to become a professor one day, I'm sure my parents would have pushed me to be a nurse.

However, many members of the Pilipin@ community are unaware of the grim reality that Pilipina nurses face. By 2014, the U.S. will need 1.2 million new nurses in order to take care of the aging baby boomer population. However, the U.S. is unprepared to process the influx of visa applications from Pilipina nurses because the process has been made more stringent thanks to post-9/11 policy making. Despite the current need for health care professionals, the U.S. health care industry has been laying off nurses, with Pilipinas at the brunt of this.

While this article from HYPHEN addresses many key issues about what the Pilipina nurse faces, she fails to address how this affects the Pilipina, or the Pilipin@ community in general.

I went to a friend's family's house for Thanksgiving last year and ended up having a lengthy conversation with her grandma about Art History (my major and her's.) Then during dinner, she asked me what ethnicity I was, so I told her I was Pilipina. She replied, "Oh really? Are you going into nursing? Pilipinas make great nurses," despite our half-hour conversation about me being an Art History major. And while I think the comment was "innocent" and she believed she was paying me a compliment, this comment speaks a lot.

The Pilipina nurse is a well-known stereotype, and many Pilipin@s don't question or protest this because of the relative prestige attached to nursing. Like any stereotype, it is still dangerous to fall into. Focusing on how well-off Pilipina nurses are keeps one from noticing the fact that there are few Pilipin@s in the higher positions of the health industry, or in high positions of other fields. While I do believe that nursing is a highly respectable and admirable career that requires a lot of hard work, this is not the only thing Pilipin@s are capable of doing.

It also keeps one from failing to see how poorly the health industry is doing and its negative impacts on Pilipina nurses. After reading these facts, I am now pretty anxious to see whether my father (who has been back in school for the past four years to get a nursing degree, lured by the "job security" and salary) will be able to find a job [NOTE: With that said, I refer to "Pilipina nurses" in this article to bridge it with the stereotype, but I do know that there are many hard working Pilipino nurses out there.] 

Finally, think about how many Pilipinas immigrate to the U.S. to become nurses. Who is left in the Philippines to nurse the sick? And while the term "brain drain" is problematic in that many professional Pilipin@s who do remain in the Philippines take offense to it, it is undeniable that both skilled and unskilled labor is lacking in the Philippines and will continue to be this way if the U.S. and other countries continue to lure Pilipin@s out with better job prospects. 

While I can offer a few (admittedly broad) solutions to the various problems I bring up here - improving the Philippine economy and job market, reforming the Philippine education system, providing career mentorship for Pilipin@ youths that doesn't focus on the health industry - I admit that I do not know all of the answers (or if these would even work). But it is still good to think about it and discuss, rather than falling into the trap of believing in the glorified stereotype of the Pilipina nurse.

SOURCES:

Espiritu, Yen Le. Home Bound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities, and Countries. Berkeley: University of California P, 2003.

Filipina Nurse Slow-down in the States

US demand for nurses to rise in '14

Comments

jeffy87's picture

"Focusing on how well-off Pilipina nurses are keeps one from noticing the fact that there are few Pilipin@s in the higher positions of the health industry, or in high positions of other fields. While I do believe that nursing is a highly respectable and admirable career that requires a lot of hard work, this is not the only thing Pilipin@s are capable of doing."

As a senior undergraduate about to move onto graduate school, I wholeheartedly agree with these few sentences. On my campus, I'm part of a support program for minority students wishing to pursue careers in science research. Everyday, when I ascend to the 4th floor my the lab building where I work, my mind inevitably wanders to the nursing profession? Why?

Well, as I ascend the stairs, I notice a surprising lack of Pilipin@s in the building. And when I think about, "Where are the Pilipinos in science research?", I remind myself that the good majority of my Pilipin@ peers are mostly all working towards a BSN.

Again, nursing is a noble profession, but growing up, I wasn't given the opportunity or resources (nor was I even encouraged) to explore career options outside nursing, medicine, and engineering. I didn't even understand the concept of graduate school until my third year as an undergraduate! If I hadn't joined my current minority support program, I would not have discovered how much I enjoy scientific research and would probably be applying to Med school.

By jeffy87 on May 7, 2009 - 4:33pm
TheMonFrere's picture
Blood doesn't beget career. That being said, like many of you, the nursing profession was all around me in terms of family and family-friends. It's not the only profession that we're capable of mastering, but it's also no less noble. The Filipino angle aside, the nurse is an important position because it is the nurse who directly interfaces with the patient. It is the nurse who provides the care and empathy that the doctor cannot. Both doctor and nurse are vital, but the patient is at ease with her condition and her doctor only because of her nurse. A few years ago, I landed myself in a hospital for a couple of weeks. My condition was an anomaly, doctors were stumped, and I was scared and confused. Luckily, this happened in San Francisco, and many of the nurses who kept me company were Filipino/Filipina, so it was like being surrounded by extended family. Of course, there were nurses from other ethnic groups as well. In fact, one of my favorite nurses was an African American woman whom Central Casting would love to have as their go-to Big Boned Sassy Black Woman. I'm happy that my culture has such a prominent face on such a noble profession. We are certainly capable of doing other things, but here we excel, too.
By TheMonFrere on February 3, 2009 - 1:43pm
filipinobot's picture
We dont vote during election. Mahirap na ang buhay, filipino find ways to get out the Philippines. To find a better life. Most of our professionals are gone. Nurse OUTSIDE the Philippines? contradicts the true mission. kawawa naman ang pilipinas.
By filipinobot on February 1, 2009 - 7:27pm
aryxvladimir's picture
The modern image of Pilipino nurse would definitely mean someone who wanted to venture the health field and work abroad to gain lucrative and well-paid opportunities. Thus, many nurses have flown out of their nest to migrate and invade other nests to gain better pays. In the Philippines, nursing school also have been promoting their courses that would encourage students to take up the course for reasons that they would eventuall land a good job outside the country after completion of the course. Whew, The brain drain problem has been affecting the Philippines. Also, the nurses were not the only ones who has been aggraviating the problem but the good teachers as well. Many of my university professors have transferred to good schools outside of the country. Including myself, I have ventured a teaching opportunity here in China. Whew, the modern images of skilled and unskilled workers have been changing drastically. I plea that the government would in turn find ways to save the massive immigration to other countries. ;_ roel
By aryxvladimir (not verified) on January 30, 2009 - 3:00am
janice's picture
The Filipina Nurse IS a stereotype and at the same time, it's a (modern) image rooted in a history of migration, tracing back to an impoverished nation, illuminating processes of inequality and creates an image that only highlights economic instability in the U.S and the Philippines. I think that this entry points out significant moments in (migration) history and successfully weaves in a more personal narrative. It can seem as though nurses' personal reasons and individuals stories that necessitate choosing a career in nursing aren't presented as thoroughly, but we get a different take on a personal story, which is the author's own circumstances. We need to take a deeper look at how nursing has been racialized or at how our own aunties/sisters/selves/moms might be relegated to a career as a result of things like "brain drain" or outsourcing. This is all a microcosm of harsh choices that we Pilipinas/os make.. or maybe it's representative of the choices already made for us. We always have to forge our own spaces and it seems that it's not any different with careers or majors or the stories we tell. Thanks everyone for the food for thought.
By janice on January 27, 2009 - 11:33pm
Kevin Cross's picture
It seems hard to understand the reason behind the Pilina nurse being stereotyped. There are a lot of Filipino nurses in America and they are really doing their jobs the best way they can. Of course, like everyone else, they want to succeed in their profession and not just based their decisions to be a nurse on other driving factors like migration.
By Kevin Cross (not verified) on January 25, 2009 - 3:34am
Cristine Lacerna's picture
While it is true that the author of this article managed to provoke a few thoughts about Filipino nurses, it did not exactly lived up to its title's promise of "Modern Image of a Pilipina Nurse." At least, I hoped it did not. Because, although some points raised have a ring of truth in them, it appears that the image of a Filipino nurse being painted here is that one of a victim of circumstances. That nursing is a choice made with regard for nothing but migration and economic reasons is a perspective that achingly lacks not only of thorough inquiry but sensitivity as well. Adding in the end that progress is had when Filipinos no longer yearn to be nurses is a point that could be deemed insulting and unfair to all the Filipino nurses who went into nursing for reasons just as complex and necessity-driven as those that drive one to major in Arts History and long to be a professor.
By Cristine Lacerna (not verified) on January 23, 2009 - 10:30pm

Sign in or Register to post a comment.