Bill Prohibiting Hospitals From Collecting Fees from Nurses Introduced

[gianphilippines, LPN, LVN]

A bill has been filed in the lower house of congress seeking to prohibit the collection of fees by hospitals from nurses who apply for training or volunteer work in their institutions.

House Bill 5985, introduced by Laguna 4th District Representative Edgar San Luis, also proposes a penalty of imprisonment of not more than one year and a fine of not more than P100,000 to those found guilty of exploiting nurse trainees/volunteers.

The proposed legislation further mandates hospitals to pay nurse trainees monthly salaries for services already rendered. Any fees previously collected must also be refunded, in full, to the nurse with 6% annual interest.

In a statement published at the House of Representatives' website, Rep. Edgar San Luis said, "No matter how the hospital administrators call the pernicious practice—training, skills building, volunteer work or whatever—what they are doing is plain and simple exploitation."

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What's our take on this? DO you think this will be passed on the lower house?

[cyberfanatic]

my salutations for this congressman...at least, somehow, somewhere, nurses have not been overlooked (hmmm...probably, he has a son/daughter who's a nurse -just an assumption ) the only question now is how far this thing will ever go. let's keep our fingers crossed on this

[Hoss]

Now is the time for nurses to immediately contact their representatives in both the House and Senate and create a loud voice of support. ESPECIALLY THE PNA SHOULD ACTIVELY LOBBY FOR PASSAGE OF THIS BILL.

Nurses can act now because you are in AN ELECTION YEAR. You are a powerful vote to be courted....hundreds of thousands of nurses can be an awesome ally to recruit for those up for election this year.

Get your PNA to act quickly and forcefully. It is no secret that hospitals, both govt. and private, have made millions of pesos off of new grad nurses and continue to refuse to hire nurses as long as they can get free labor from new grads.

Hoss

[kyckerz]

If this is approved on the senate and signed by our dear excellency, this will be a good start for newly grads and unemployed ones.