The U.S. Army trained and recruited Filipinos as Volunteer Auxiliary and Contract Nurses to serve in the Philippines, focusing on tropical diseases.
[3] The hospitals founded served two U.S. interests: treating their soldiers and exporting Western "civilized" culture to the Philippines.
A shortage of nurses was increasingly urgent due to the epidemics of tuberculosis, typhoid and other communicable disease and the start of World War I.
A continuous influx of Filipino nurses worked in New York City, and helped to meet to the demands of healthcare at that time.
[6] While the program was largely intended to counteract propaganda disseminated by the Soviet Union at the outset of the Cold War, it came at a time when the U.S. had again found itself in the midst of a postwar nursing shortage.
[8] In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which made it easier for Filipino nurses to petition to stay in the U.S. permanently.
Ferdinand Marcos, the president of the Philippines from 1966-1986, saw the emigration of nurses as a potential solution to a domestic economic crisis.
This association, combined with the initial lack of understanding as to how the virus was transmitted and the fear that that caused, led to the refusal by many medical professionals to treat people with AIDS.
[15] In 1986, the American Medical Association released guidelines allowing physicians who were "emotionally unable" to care for AIDS patients to refer them to another clinician.
The Act granted special immigrant status to nurses, which allowed them to apply for green cards, and did not set a limit on the number of visas that could be issued under the program.
[17] The high influx of patients in hospitals and intensive care units during the COVID-19 pandemic was a strain on healthcare systems globally, though it had a particular impact on Filipino nurses in the U.S.
[21] In the 1980s and 1990s, FNOP was key is lobbying for a number of labor protections for Filipino nurses, including hospital-sponsored H1-B visas, improved living conditions, and equal pay with nonimmigrant workers.
Nurses were lied to about working conditions, paid less than the amount stated in their contracts, and provided inadquate staff.