A total of 10,290 Filipinos took the US National Council Licensure Examination for nurses from January to September this year, former senator and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines secretary general Ernesto Herrera said.
The figure surpassed the 9,181 Filipinos who took the NCLEX for the first time in 2005.
The Philippines topped the five countries with the highest number of first-time NCLEX examinees. India came second, with 3,036 takers, followed by South Korea, 1,522, Canada, 726, and Cuba, 381.
Citing statistics from the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Herrera said the 10,290 Filipinos accounted for 8.6 percent of the 119,579 candidates who took the NCLEX for the first time in the nine months to September.
A total of 148,305 candidates, including 28,726 repeaters, took the NCLEX in the three-quarter period, he said.
The 10,290 Filipinos accounted for 33.4 percent of the 30,767 foreign or non-US trained nurses that took the NCLEX.
The NCLEX is the final step in the nurse licensure process in the US. The number of NCLEX examinees is “a good indicator†of how many US as well as foreign nursing graduates are trying to enter the profession in that country, Herrera said.
Herrera earlier identified at least nine US states that are now “eagerly recruiting†Filipino nurses and other health professionals — California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and New Jersey.
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