Introduction
ASEAN Economic Community: AEC in 2015 has impacted government and private organizations to be aware of all situations that could occur. As we all know that the Govern- ment of Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Indonesia, Lao People s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, are the members of the Association of South East Asian Nations collectively referred to as ASEAN . These countries agreed in the ASEAN mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) on nursing services, which is one of the steps in completing ASEAN FRAME WORK AGREEMENT ON SERVICES [AFAS], the mutual recognition facilitate mobility of nursing professional within ASEAN. It is being looked forward to have an exchange of information and expertise on standards and qualifications, promote adoption of best practices on professional nursing services that would provide opportunities for capacity building.1 Even though some economists2-3 said that the implementation of this nursing borderless mobility could possibly remain slow because movement of professionals is completely subject to domestic regulations. However, this borderless mobility among nurses becomes an interesting issue in terms of if it could alleviate or on the other hand it could increase nursing shortage threatening the country in which no clear answer is presented. In addition, this mutual recognition could overwhelm nurses in both
host and exporting countries. Appropriate planning of readiness for changes that may happen is challenging Thai nursing manpower management and policy.
This paper aims to discuss interesting challenges in borderless mobility of nurses, awareness, preparation, and dilemmas of nurses in AEC through a viewpoint of Filipino nurses and from related literature review. In addition, the ideas of Thai nurses and the Filipino nurses will be also presented. The authors aim this paper to be merely a part of notions for prepared implication of Thai nurses in Thai nursing manpower and policy changes that may occur in the near future.