Many give up their careers in China because of low pay and few benefits
Nurse Song Yan would have sought a job in another country if not for her family and child.
"I work at least nine hours a day and overtime from time to time, and get meager pay," said the veteran nurse who has practiced the profession for at least 20 years.
"The working environment here is noisy, crowded and sometimes even chaotic," said Song, a senior nurse at the chest surgery department of Xuanwu Hospital Capital Medical University in Beijing.
For young nurses, the work is even tougher. "They usually have to work extra to gain patients' trust," she noted.
Many simply give up.
In some big departments with about 100 nurses, about 10 quit each year because the job is so physically and mentally demanding.
Some, usually younger ones, who have good command of a foreign language, have begun to go abroad for a decently paid nursing job, she said. "I have a family and a child to take care of, otherwise I'd also like to go."
Countries like Singapore, Japan and Saudi Arabia have begun to tap other countries for competent nurses because they cannot produce enough of their own to meet needs.
Singapore's healthcare system is expected to recruit about 1,000 to 2,000 foreign nurses annually to meet rising demand for healthcare prompted by a rapidly ageing population and China has become an outsourcing site of rising importance.
According to Lou Qinghong, manager of the Sino-US International Nurse Training Company, Chinese nurses are "newcomers" compared with nurses from English speaking countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and India, which have been the first choices for international employers.
The agency based in Beijing helps train Chinese nurses for employers in other countries.
"Finding jobs abroad is becoming popular among Chinese nurses. Many nursing schools have opened English nursing courses, and many training agencies like us are promoting programs for Chinese nurses to work abroad," he said.
"Back when we started the business in 2005, we saw US employers come to Beijing to interview nurses and promise to help them and their family members get green cards as long as the nurse meets the qualifications to work there," Lou noted.
The frenzy declined after 2009, when the United States stopped issuing employment visas for foreign nurses whose academic qualifications were lower than a bachelor's degree, but Lou emphasized his agency's business is "stable" since the demand by hospitals in other countries such as Singapore and Saudi Arabia remains strong.
According to him, some Chinese nurses used working abroad as a "springboard" to finally settle down there.
Judy Duan, 33, said that when she was as a contract worker in a public hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, from 2004 to 2007, her salary was less than 3,000 yuan ($490) a month, and her bonus and healthcare reimbursements were much lower than for "officially employed" colleagues.
In 2007, she passed the examination to become a registered nurse in Singapore and began to work there.
She worked in the long-term care unit in two hospitals and earned more than S$1,680 ($1,370) a month.
But challenges such as language accompanied the higher salary.
"Chinese nurses are very proficient in nursing skills. But Singaporeans speak English with a heavy accent. I also needed to communicate with co-workers from the Philippines, India and Myanmar," she said.
"Instead of Mandarin, many Chinese in Singapore speak Cantonese and Teochew dialects, which I found hard to understand," she noted.
In May 2010, she applied to immigrate to Canada, moved there with her family in March 2012, and is now applying to take an exam to become a registered nurse.
"Unlike in China and Singapore, a registered nurse here (in Canada) is a respected occupation and pays much more," she said.
Duan, who now lives in Ontario, considers herself lucky.
"I and my husband got permanent residency in Singapore in January 2008, whereas it got harder for my friends who later went to work there to obtain the status," she said.
"People came to Canada to work as nurses from around the world. Doctors and teachers emigrating from China are also willing to get a nursing degree and work as a nurse there if they don't find a job that suits them."
Stephanie Gu, 29, who is taking a nursing course in Melbourne, Australia, also finds herself accompanied by other aspiring Chinese students.
