Trillanes sounds alarm on looming PH nursing profession crisis

Senator Antonio "Sonny" F. Trillanes IV filed a resolution, seeking investigation on the long-neglected plight of the nursing profession in the country.

Under Proposed Senate Resolution No. 921, Trillanes noted that despite the large pool of nurses in the country, which continues to grow yearly, hundreds of thousands of them remain unemployed, if not underemployed. Further, many hospitals remain understaffed and ill-equipped to respond to the needs of the people for quality healthcare. According to the said resolution, instead of the ideal nurse to patient ratio of 1:4, this ratio balloons to 1:20 in many government hospitals. Worse, a nurse sometimes handles an average of 80 to 100 patients, like in the case of the National Mental Health Center.

"This situation runs counter to the intentions of Republic Act No. 9173, or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, which sought to institute relevant nursing education, humane working conditions, better career prospects and a dignified existence for our nurses," Trillanes, chairman of the Senate Committee on Civil Service and Government Reorganization, explained.

Trillanes also condemned the exploitative practice of hospitals that employ "volunteer nurses" instead of hiring full-time nurses, who deserve job security and just compensation.

"Although the Nursing Law of 2002 expressly mandates that the entry-level salary grade of registered nurses in government hospitals is Salary Grade 15 equivalent to a starting monthly salary of more than Twenty Thousand Pesos (P20,000.00), the Department of Budget Management said that the implementation of this provision would exhaust government resources and would cause wage distortion in the medical and allied positions, as well as other positions in the bureaucracy," Trillanes elaborated.

Trillanes added that this situation forces government hospitals to refuse filling up plantilla positions, and instead hire volunteer nurses who become reluctant victims of peculiar employment schemes. "Based on reports, these volunteer nurses - who assume the full responsibilities of employed staff nurses, such as workload and shift duties, and do not receive the same rights and benefits accorded to staff nurse - ironically, are the ones paying the hospitals just to be trained and to gain relevant experience."

"This illegal practice, despite being raised to authorities several times, persists in government hospitals. It is high time that the government address this long overdue neglect of the country's nursing profession," Trillanes emphasized.