Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the Medical Field

This twenty-sixth day of Filipino American History Month brings information on Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the medical fields.

In 1907, the American colonial government established the first nursing school in the Philippines. This school sparked the establishment of other institutions and laid the foundation of what would become a mass migration of Filipina nurses to the United States of America and around the globe through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Most of these nurses would begin arriving in the U.S.A. after 1965, when a nursing shortage and reformed immigration laws facilitated their immigration.

Due to the strong American influence in the Philippine education system, first generation Filipino immigrants were at an advantage in gaining professional licensure in the U.S.A. According to a study conducted by the American Medical Association, Philippine-trained physicians comprise the second largest group of foreign-trained physicians in the U.S.A. (20,861 or 8.7 percent of all practicing international medical graduates in the U.S.). In addition, Filipino American dentists, who have received training in the Philippines, also comprise the second largest group of foreign-trained dentists in the U.S. In an article from the Journal of American Dental Association, 11 percent of all foreign-trained dentists licensed in the U.S. are from the Philippines; India is ranked first with 25.8 percent of all foreign dentists. The familiar trend of Filipino Americans and Filipino immigrants entering health care jobs is well observed in other allied health professional such as nursing, physical therapy, radiologic technology, and medical technology.

Similarities in quality and structure of the nursing curriculum in the Philippines and the U.S. had led to the migration of thousands of nurses from the Philippines to fill the shortfall of registered nurses (RNs) in the U.S. Since the 1970s and through the 1980s, the Philippines have been a source of medical professionals for U.S. medical facilities. The Vietnam War and AIDS epidemic of the 70s and 80s signaled the need of the American health care system for more foreign-trained professionals. In articles published in health and medical policy journals, Filipino nurses comprise the largest block of foreign-trained nurses working and entering the U.S., from 75 percent of all foreign nurses in the 1980s to 43 percent in 2000. Still, Philippine-trained nurses make up 52 percent of all foreigners taking the U.S. nursing licensure exam, well above the Canadian-trained nurses at 12 percent.

The significant drop in the percentage of Filipino nurses from the 1980s to 2000 is due to the increase in the number of countries recruiting Filipino nurses (European Union, the Middle East, Japan), as well as the increase in number of countries sending nurses to the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 60,000 Filipino nationals migrated to the U.S. every year in the 1990s to take advantage of such professional opportunities.

A wonderful study of the unique relationship between the professionalization of nursing and the twentieth-century migration of Filipinos to the U.S.A. can be found in Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History by Catherine Ceniza Choy. The book brings to light the complicated connections among nursing, American colonialism, and the racialization of Filipinos, as well as shows the challenges of the medical field, like the scapegoating of Filipino nurses during difficult political times, the absence of professional solidarity between Filipino and American nurses, and the exploitation of foreign-trained nurses through temporary work visas.

Fortunately, many examples of the medical community coming together exist, such as for medical missions to other parts of the world, free health clinics for the uninsured and underserved, and in response to racist remarks against the medical field, such as on Desperate Housewives in 2007.

The culture of American imperialism persists today, and continues to shape the reception of Filipino nurses in the U.S.A.