Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Pacita Concepcion Francisco, charge nurse at the Urgent Care Unit at American Mission Hospital. At the age of 24 she left her home town in Nueva Ecija in the Phillipines to work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She continued to work there for the next 27 years.
Two years ago she moved to Bahrain in search of better job prospects and the opportunity to join her family who also worked on the island.
Today she lives in Manama with her daughter Princita Francisco, also a nurse at a hospital in Riffa, her son, Afren Francisco, an IT engineer at the ministry of interiors and her daughter-in-law, Jasmine Francisco, an office assistant in a private company.
She said: "I left the Philippines with a nursing degree and two years experience in a government hospital. I opted to become a nurse because of the job opportunities it offers. There is also a lot of flexibility. You can enter any aspect of the profession. I could become a full-time nurse, a teacher or join a sales team selling medical equipment."
She agrees that most people choose nursing as it offers many job opportunities both in Middle East and in the West. She said: "Today a graduate staff nurse with two years experience can begin with a basic pay of $600. Combined with overtime and allowances she can earn a monthly salary of BD600 in Bahrain.
"Nurses are attracted to Western countries too for the attractive salaries and the immigrant visas they offer. Young people today are especially interested to grow professionally and travel the world."
Working as a nurse is a challenging job she said. It is particularly so in the Middle East where the culture can be very inhibitive. She said: "In Saudi we are provided with an accommodation in the hospital compound and we could move out only in a group.
"Bahrain is comparatively a free country. We can travel anywhere and move about freely."
