The nursing demand particularly in the US triggered an astronomical nursing enrollment in the Philippines, touted to be the one of the world's largest supplier of nurses,which also resulted to mushrooming of nursing schools. Although nursing education is quite expensive many are still lured -even doctors are becoming nurses- hoping for a greener pasture in the land of milk and honey. Most are willing to spend a dizzying amount of money just to be a licensed nurse in the US. In fact, the Philippines and India are two leading countries that have a significant number of license US nurses and even qualify for immigration. Unfortunately, the immigration was swamped with too many applicants and with the slowing down of their economy, it further resulted to delays and then retrogression was implemented. It was a sudden twist of fate that deter the hopes and aspirations of those hoping to migrate and work in America.
It was indeed a big blow to the career plans of the nurses seeking to work and live in the US. The amount of time reviewing as well as processing for the documents are time consuming and financially draining. It was thought to be a worthy investment but turns out to be the other way around. Although painful but life moves on and wait for the lifting of retrogression.
On the other hand,until now retrogression still lingers and it is predicted to stay longer as the US economy is slowly recovering from the economic blows. Many of these US bound nurses are left with no choice which either they stay and wait for their priority dates to be processed or they seek other avenues to seek greener pasture.
Once retrogression is lifted, it is expected to be another boom years for nursing!
