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Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - MANILA: Filipino nurses who have been advancing their careers in Saudi Arabia say the Kingdom has offered them not only professional development, but also ways to enhance their skills and education.

There are an estimated 130,000 nurses from the Philippines employed in Saudi Arabia. Many of them began working before passing board exams — a process which in their home country takes many years.

In the Kingdom, nursing jobs have allowed them to be professionally active and continue their education at the same time.

“I worked only as a volunteer nurse in the Philippines before coming to work here,” said Mashora Salwang, a native of Zamboanga Del Sur in the southern Philippines, who has been working in Riyadh since 2010.

“Saudi Arabia has given me more opportunities than working in the Philippines ... Saudi Arabia has also given me the opportunity to advance my knowledge. When I worked here at King Fahad Medical City, I had the chance to travel to attend conferences locally and internationally.”

Salwang was among the top performers in this year’s licensure examination conducted by the Philippine Board of Nursing for health professionals working abroad.

Others who took the exam — and passed with flying colors — also link their success to working in the Kingdom.

“Saudis admire the work ethics of Filipinos ... They gave me the opportunity to start my career here, and there are also opportunities for growth,” said Joan Abiera, a nurse from the Bicol region working in a dermatology clinic in Riyadh.

“I moved here in 2009, so I’ve been working in Saudi for almost 15 years now. Before that, I worked as a nursing assistant in my province.”

For Aileen Rodriguez from Nueva Ecija, also a top performer in June’s nursing board exams, working in Saudi Arabia has been a way to develop an international career.

“If you are aspiring to work as a nurse (abroad), first choice is Saudi Arabia because you can get a lot of career opportunities here,” she told Arab News.

“Some nurses also come to work for a few years to acquire experience and then transfer to another country.”

Rodriguez has been working in Riyadh for the past eight years as a private duty nurse.

“My patient is the one who cheers me (on) when I’m studying, she keeps pushing me to do my best,” she said.

“The family of my patient, they are very good to me. They are treating me as one of them ... Saudi is accommodating to Filipinos.”

There are about 1 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, the fourth-largest group of expats in the Kingdom. They are also a main source of remittances to the Philippines.

Michael Angelo Mendoza, from Roxas City in the western Capiz province, has been working in Saudi Arabia for the past 10 years.

He chose the Kingdom to reunite with his father, who moved to Saudi Arabia for work when he was a young boy, but it was the job opportunities that made him stay.

He is a nurse in the dental and dermatology department at a clinic in Riyadh. “I find Saudi Arabia a safe place for workers to build their career,” Mendoza said.

“Filipino nurses have already made a good impression worldwide as really good in delivering quality nursing or healthcare services. And here in Saudi Arabia, they offer good salary, good compensation, and Saudi is now open and there are a lot of Filipino communities here.”

The Kingdom has been the top choice for Filipino nurses working abroad since at least 2021, according to data from the Philippine Department of Health.

“Their hospitals have really advanced technology and it’s really a good opportunity for us nurses to experience the new technology that they are using here,” Mendoza said.

“It’s really a good opportunity for us to experience and assist in these cases to learn and earn more experience. Now I’m living my dream to be a professional nurse and I also want to impart my knowledge like the professors I have met here in Saudi Arabia.”