P.E.A.C.E. in motion

The global nursing workforce is under serious strain as more nurses are crossing borders than ever before. This trend is fueled by stark differences in healthcare funding, available job opportunities, and persistent staff shortages worldwide. Moving to a new country can offer nurses a chance to advance their careers, acquire new skills, and broaden their professional horizons. However, it also brings significant challenges; for example, countries losing nurses may struggle to maintain quality care, while those gaining staff must navigate issues of fair treatment, retention, and adapting their health systems to new demands. These shifts highlight the complex, interconnected nature of global health and the shared responsibility to ensure a fair and effective nursing workforce everywhere.

Seven years ago, I began my nursing journey carrying the weight of personal loss—I lost my parents when I was still in the Philippines. Their absence became the fire that drove me to push harder, keep learning, and create a different future for myself. Slowly, the long nights and hard work turned into chances for international training that I seized. Those chances turned me from the bedside nurse I once was into an international global nurse instructor for Basic Life Support with the American Heart Association and Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses with the Society for Trauma Nurses. Wanting to lift my profession even higher, I became a member of Sigma Nursing and was later elected to the Leadership Succession Committee Member in Phi Gamma Chapter. Today, I also hold the Chapter President role for the Global Society for Philippine Nurse Researchers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates chapter. Each of these roles has taught me more than I can express and has deepened my passion for a nursing workforce that is strong, fair, and prepared for the complicated health problems we all face now and in the future.

I migrated to Saudi Arabia in May 2018, primarily driven by the financial difficulties my family was facing after the passing of my mother. At that time, I was an ICU nurse in the Philippines, but I saw the opportunity in Saudi Arabia as a way to earn a higher salary and better support my family. The decision was also influenced by the ease of migration and the prospects of a more stable future. Upon arriving in Saudi Arabia, I was given the chance to advance my career by taking on better positions, which allowed me to pursue further training and education. This journey not only helped me support my loved ones but also led me to discover new passions in research and eventually pursue my PhD. 

During my years in Saudi Arabia, I’ve watched many nurses leave their homes for better lives—moving because of weaker healthcare back home, seeking better pay, and more stability in the Gulf. But the journey is not easy; they face foreign languages, different customs, and the ache of saying goodbye to families for years at a time. These challenges highlight the need to build solid support systems for nurses, not just on the job but for their minds and hearts, too. The pandemic has shown us how fragile health systems really are and how much we depend on a strong, cared-for health workforce. Now we understand that fixing nurse migration requires more than quick solutions; it involves protecting their rights, opening opportunities for all, and creating recruiting practices that are fair and sustainable.

I have witnessed the massive migration of nurses from the Philippines that is happening and causing a shortage of staff nurses and nurse educators, while many other countries face similar crises. After taking part in Cohort 6 of Sigma’s Virtual Global Academy and with the help of the Virtual Writing Academy, I created the P.E.A.C.E. Framework and Migration Tracker, a concrete action plan that can benefit countless nurses and influence healthcare policies. I believe this initiative has the potential to expand and align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), making a real impact on global health. The P.E.A.C.E. Framework—Protection, Equity, Accountability, Collaboration, and Empowerment—centers on defending nurses’ rights, ensuring fair treatment, and creating equal opportunities regardless of where they start or go. It advocates for responsible policies guiding international re-cruitment, protecting nurses from unfair practices, and helping to curb the harmful talent drain from low- and middle-income nations. The framework also emphasizes the importance of countries working together by sharing data, developing shared policies, and closely monitoring migration trends and workforce shortages. At the heart of this effort is the Migration Tracker—a powerful tool that provides real-time data on nurse movements worldwide—guiding decision-makers and stakeholders to craft sustainable, evidence-based strategies. The Virtual Global Academy helped me bring this vision to life, inspiring me to develop solutions that can truly make a difference for nurses and the future of global health systems.

Addressing the ongoing global nurse migration crisis necessitates concerted action anchored in justice, sustainability, and collective accountability. Bolstering domestic nursing education, cultivating supportive practice settings, and instituting ethical recruitment protocols are critical interventions that lessen the dependence on foreign hiring and build durable health systems. Lawmakers should focus on financing health workforce initiatives, particularly in low- and middle-income nations, to alleviate the forces that propel migration and achieve a more equitable allocation of providers. Additionally, nurturing international collaborations that emphasize data exchange, capacity enhancement, and harmonized policy framing are crucial to guaranteeing that nurses are acknowledged, safeguarded, and empowered in any practice context. Through these harmonized, principled, and forward-looking measures, the global health environment can be reconfigured to embrace deeper equity, strengthened resilience, and enduring justice, thereby safeguarding the rights and welfare of migrant nurses while simultaneously enhancing the capacity of health systems to confront emerging global challenges.