MANILA: Iraq is interested to train its nursing students in the hospitals of Philippines, Arab media reported on Friday.
Baghdad’s envoy to Manila told Arab News that the interest was shown during a visit of Iraqi health ministry delegation to Philippines.
Iraq’s Deputy Health Minister Khamees Hussein Ali led the delegation and held discussions with Philippine officials to enhance bilateral relations with special focus on health sector after a 10-year gap.
Iraq Embassy Charge d’Affaires Dr. Khalid Ibrahim Mohammed in his remarks said that during talks Baghdad has proposed to send Iraqi nurses to Manila for training.
He added that nurses will get a one-year training in Philippines. The health ministry’s delegation also proposed to send the faculty members of Iraqi universities to higher education institutes in Philippine to make them familiar with the nursing curriculum of Philippine schools.
The nurses of Philippine who are mostly fluent in English have long been in high demand abroad.
Filipino nurses front-line runners in response efforts
The Iraqi envoy said that Filipino nurses have shown excellent professional skills during COVID-19 pandemic and had been on frontline in response efforts in many countries of the world including Middle East.
He said that due to the excellent behavior and professionalism everyone in Iraq, Europe, the US, other Arab countries, requests for Filipino nurses.
Iraq has been trying to uplift its health care system affected d by decades of conflict, global sanctions and the US-led war in 2003.
Since 2000 many medical professionals have left Iraq and the country is facing a shortage of health professionals.
