MANILA — Health Secretary Ted Herbosa has said that he is planning to create a national nursing advisory council to address the issues faced by Filipino nurses, who are often overworked but underpaid.
Herbosa told reporters Monday that he will issue an administrative order creating an advisory council composed of nurses both from the public and private sectors.
A de facto chief nursing officer will lead the council and will have the functions of an undersecretary.
“Nursing groups are pushing me to appoint a chief nursing officer. I’ll do more than that. I’ll create a whole council. So they’re happy because I gave them more than what they’re asking for,” Herbosa said in Filipino.
“This is so we could make them address all these issues, not only the exam, but also work-life balance, and other reasons to motivate them to stay and fight the brain drain of Filipino nurses to other countries,” he added.
The health chief said he will ask Congress to make the appointment of a chief nursing officer legal.
Over 100,000 nurses in the private sector earn P537 per day in Metro Manila and much lower in areas outside the capital region, according to Filipino Nurses United. Nurses in the government sector, although they have relatively higher pay, suffer from work and patient overload.
The meager pay and heavy workload force nurses to seek employment overseas.
Free review
In the same briefing, nurse and educator Carl Balita, said a free review program for all nurses employed in government and private healthcare facilities will be offered in all of his review center’s 180 branches.
“They just need to go there (review centers) and take the diagnostic test so we’ll have data on how good or bad they are. The program is completely designed for them. They can go online after duty, while working or while resting,” Balita said.
Herbosa earlier floated a plan for the DOH to hire those who failed the licensure exams for nurses, but obtained a 70% to 74% score.
However, the Philippine Regulatory Commission said that no provision under the Philippine Nursing Act allows temporary licenses to be given to nurses who did not pass the board exams.
The Philippine Nursing Act only allows temporary licenses or permits to be given to licensed nurses from foreign countries invited to teach or conduct medical missions. (philstar)
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