TRILLANES REFILES COMPREHENSIVE NURSING BILL

Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV has refiled Senate Bill No. 99 or the Comprehensive Nursing bill, which seeks to upgrade the country's nursing profession and raise the minimum salary of government nurses.

According to Trillanes: "Nurses in the country are faced with perennial issues such as the practice of hiring volunteer nurses in private hospitals instead of filling up the plantilla positions, and the prevalence of understaffed and ill-equipped healthcare units all over the country. There is also a growing number of nurses who are forced to work under job order arrangements or seek better opportunities abroad."

This measure seeks to address these problems by creating an environment and framework that will complement the talent and competence of our nurses and that will equip them with the necessary tools to further improve and maintain the vibrant nursing profession in the country. Also, it will provide them with the necessary competitive edge to be able to compete in the international arena.

Under SBN 99, all entry-level government nurses shall receive a minimum base pay of not lower than Php 26,192. Aside from this, it also intends to enhance the powers of the Board of Nursing to better organize itself, and facilitate its functions and pursue its programs. It also seeks to expand the scope of nursing practice to encompass not only nursing education and nursing service but also research, and leadership and governance, as inherent areas of the practice.

"We also hope to end the practice of collecting fees from nurses in exchange for their voluntary works and the practice of assigning these volunteer nurses to do regular nurse functions without pay, by prohibiting said practices."

"With this measure, we wish to improve the welfare of our nurses, which could jumpstart the improvement of other health care sectors and help stop the 'mass exodus' of health care professionals to other countries," Trillanes further explained.

Trillanes, chairman of the Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation, is set to conduct a committee hearing on the said measure on August 10.