By Lara Charmaine Lagorra
It was the moment everyone had been waiting for: the results of the 2025 Nursing Licensure Examination. Across the country, students screamed, cried, and collapsed into each other’s arms as screens lit up with rows of names. Campuses erupted in applause, social media was filled with celebratory posts, and board passers called their homes in tears—finally seeing years of sleepless nights paid off.
The Philippines has always taken immense pride in its nursing board passers. In it are stories of triumph where thousands of new nurses, schools topping national lists, and a fresh wave of graduates are ready to serve those in need.
But beneath the celebration lies an upsetting truth, one that has defined Philippine healthcare for decades: the country continues to produce world-class nurses for a healthcare system breaking under its own weight.
This year, the Philippines posted a record-breaking 40,692 or 90.04-percent successful examinees, and it continues to stand out as the world’s leading source of nurses, thanks to standout factors that set its graduates apart.
Filipino nurses are known worldwide for their strong work ethic, rigorous training, and cultural grounding in care and compassion. Honed by nursing schools in the country, they are trained to master core skills and embody emotional discipline required for patient care. These qualities, in turn, have made them top candidates abroad, where their competence often exceeds expectations.
However, Filipino nurses continue to face an underfunded healthcare system, stagnant wages, job order contacts with lack of benefits, and crushing workloads in their own country. Thus, the paradox persists: we train nurses not for our nation, but for the world. And every departure leaves our own people to suffer.
Public hospitals operate with nurse-to-patient ratios far beyond safe limits. Instead of the Department of Health (DOH) guideline of 1 to 12, many nurses manage 1 to 20 on average, sometimes even spiking to 1 to 50 in overcrowded wards.
With too few nurses on duty, shifts stretch to 16 hours, often without overtime pay—a normalized expectation in many facilities. Everyday, they perform the impossible just to keep units running.
Infrastructure is another strain where many hospitals still operate with outdated equipment, crumbling facilities, and shortages of basic supplies like medicines, first-aid materials, and machines.
The Philippines averages only 0.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people, far below the ideal 1.5. In 27 provinces, that number falls even lower. Patients wait hours or days for beds, and referrals from rural areas often end in further delays of long lines outside the hospital.
Salary also remains another major fault line. While Salary Grade 15 is the level provided to nurses with a monthly salary of ₱33,000 to ₱35,000, many do not receive this due to contractual arrangements.
Some do not receive proper compensation due to their ranking in the hospital, while others are contracted to work as Job Order or contract-of-service staff, earning far less and facing job insecurity with no benefits and delayed allowances.
For those who do receive the standard rate, the amount is still not enough to cover bills and basic needs in a country where inflation keeps driving prices higher, and the cost of living continues to outpace wages.
Post-pandemic fatigue continues to weigh heavily on healthcare workers, where burnout has become the norm instead of the exception. Many experienced nurses have resigned due to overwhelming workloads, emotional strain, and unsafe working conditions. Their departure worsens the shortage, forcing remaining staff to take on even heavier duties.
For many, the only viable path to stability in the field is leaving the country. While local salaries barely cover basic needs, nurses abroad can earn up to ₱300,000 per month, especially in countries like Australia or the United States.
In 2024 alone, more than 28,000 Filipino nurses took the U.S. licensure exam—a clear sign of the ongoing drainage in the Philippines.
This migration is further encouraged by government programs like the DOH Nurse Deployment Project, which critics say ends up training nurses for foreign systems rather than strengthening local hospitals.
Despite these challenges, Filipino nurses continue to excel on international stages. Their competence is unquestionable. What does remain in question is whether the country can create a healthcare system worthy of its dedication.
Meaningful change must include better compensation, humane working conditions, stable employment, and genuine government investment in public health infrastructure. Without this, even the best-trained nurses will continue to leave—not out of lack of patriotism, but out of practicality and survival.
The Philippines will continue to celebrate perfect passing rates but unless the system changes, these celebrations will mask a deeper crisis of a country slowly losing its most valuable resource in the medical field, one departure at a time.
Ultimately, our nurses are the backbone of our healthcare. Despite the rising numbers of registered nurses, the system that needs them most continues to undervalue and overburden them.
Until that is fixed, perfect passing rates become visible cracks in how broken our healthcare truly is.
