There are more than 200,000 thousand unemployed nurses in the country. Last February 19, 2011, another 30 thousand nurses have passed the National Licensure Exam for Nurses. Some passers might probably find a job, go abroad or remain in the country and be unemployed. Nursing profession is said to be a noble profession. The core of Nursing care is rooted from the works of Florence Nightingale, who selflessly cared for wounded soldiers during a war. It is said to be a promising profession too. Caring for sick people gives a feeling of worth to people who are incapacitated by sickness and disease. In terms of financial compensation, a nurse abroad can earn sixty to a hundred thousand dollars per year.
During the previous decades, nurses have been in demand and due to a high salary overseas, aspiring nurses have flocked nursing schools with hopes of finding a greener pasture and providing their families with financial stability. After graduation, applying for a working VISA and getting it approved is always a trend. Flying to USA is real easy during those times. However, the demands for nurses have been barred due to the downturn of the United State’s economy. The country is now prioritizing their own nursing graduates, thus the nurse diaspora in the Philippines was turned to a sudden halt. Immigration offices in most of foreign countries that are in need of nurses have now stricter policies and requirements for those who are applying abroad. As for now, the nurses bound for overseas have stayed in the country to work as they wait for their chance to enter a foreign country.
With the flow of events, unemployment of nurses continues to grow in the country. Hospitals have stopped hiring additional nurses for the reason that the quota for nurses in the hospital is full or that their budgets can only sustain a certain number or workers. More and more hospitals in the cities and provinces have closed their doors for employment nevertheless; hope is not far from sight for the nurses. Experience is what every recruitment agencies are looking for on applicants for abroad. To gain this, unemployed nurses opted to serve as volunteers with the promise that they will be given certificates of experience that they can use as a requirement. But opportunistic hospitals have taken advantage to this phenomenon. In exchange for experience, they have to pay a certain amount of money. The Department of Health and Philippine Nurse’s Association have responded to these events and to the reports of nurses about work abuse and disrespect.
Nursing is indeed a noble profession. Nurses make a person’s hospital experience less of a traumatic incident. Nurses are willing to work overseas, compensation is not always out of the statement, but money cannot change the principle of care nurses possess. No one deserves to be maltreated in a way that professional nurses have been experiencing lately. Fighting for their rights is always a choice but it should rather be mandatory because Nurses make the world a safe place to live in, without them healing is not possible.
->cha
->cha
