No More Nurse Volunteer Programs! DOH Orders Termination of "Nurse Volunteer Programs

bingowingo · Sep 15, 2011

Department of Health Secretary Enrique T. ONA, issued memorandum 2011-0238 mandating to terminate all "Nurse Volunteer Programs", "Volunteer Training Programs for Nurses" and all similar or related programs, in all DOH-retained hospitals in the Philippines. "The current practice of registered nurses "volunteering" in hospitals to gain 'work experience' and/or to obtain a certificate of work experience and for purposes of meeting requirements for employment abroad, is not consistent with the provisions of this law (Republic Act 9418: Volunteer Act of 2007)."
In addition, many hospitals have implemented "nurse volunteerism" in the guise of "training programs" in order to justify the collection of "training fees", whereby such basic skills training put no added value to the professional career of the nurses.
Therefore, all DOH hospitals are hereby directed to discontinue all existing programs involving nurses who deliver free services in exchange for work experience/volunteer nurses, volunteer trainings, and all other similar programs. All hospitals-based trainings for nurses should follow a definite career progression to be defined and accredited by the DOH and Professional Regulatory Commision-Board of Nursing.
from: http://nurseslabs.com/news/no-more-nurse-volunteer-programs-doh-orders-termination-of-nurse-volunteer-programs/
SO WHAT NOW?? :up:/:down:

If there is no nurse volunteeer programs, how come there are about 3 hospitals(which I just applied to) that would be starting their training come October and still charging fees ranging from 3k to 6k, for 3 to 6 months. Its still on, for them. purely business.

caliotter3 · Sep 15, 2011

Step in the right direction, at least on paper, it seems. So sad to see how new nurses have been exploited for so long. So what now? The obvious, it would seem. Pay the nurses for the work they do.

pipau · Sep 17, 2011

If there is no nurse volunteeer programs, how come there are about 3 hospitals(which I just applied to) that would be starting their training come October and still charging fees ranging from 3k to 6k, for 3 to 6 months. Its still on, for them. purely business.

i dunno. it was also on the news i think this week. probably it was just for formality sake.as we all know, legal process here is slooow....

pipau · Sep 17, 2011

Step in the right direction, at least on paper, it seems. So sad to see how new nurses have been exploited for so long. So what now? The obvious, it would seem. Pay the nurses for the work they do.

:twocents: budget would be another problem for the DOH then... i hope they do something about this topic ASAP.

hapandnar · Sep 17, 2011

really?or is this just another press release to make them look like they are doing their job?! i don't think it is really implemented coz there are still a lot of trainings going on in the hospitals...tsk tsk..its all just in the papers! i also read in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago that the government will hire several thousand nurses but until now nothing happened...and how come its not posted in the DOH website?????

Nurses, please if there are still false volunteer training programs out there please report it to the DOH and let's see if they would really put an end to them...only then can we know if the DOH is serious about eliminating these false volunteer training programs...let us all unite and put an end to nurses exploitation once and for all coz its long overdue!!!!!!!

pipau · Sep 18, 2011

really?or is this just another press release to make them look like they are doing their job?! i don't think it is really implemented coz there are still a lot of trainings going on in the hospitals...tsk tsk..its all just in the papers! i also read in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago that the government will hire several thousand nurses but until now nothing happened...and how come its not posted in the DOH website?????
Nurses, please if there are still false volunteer training programs out there please report it to the DOH and let's see if they would really put an end to them...only then can we know if the DOH is serious about eliminating these false volunteer training programs...let us all unite and put an end to nurses exploitation once and for all coz its long overdue!!!!!!!

probably you're right. let's just hope that if they're serious about it they should do something about it FOR REAL!!!!

elyken · Sep 18, 2011

It's good that paid training programs are to be discontinued. However, if there are no followup plans to address the lack of nursing jobs locally--which is the main issue in the first place--then this move from DOH won't make any big difference at all.

PapaPhil · Sep 20, 2011

good news if true. volunteer programs are absolutely exploitive and immoral; another example of physicians’ exploitation of nurses. if all nurses would refuse to work until such injustices as this are ended, this kind of abuse would end. american nurses unionized to end this kind of garbage, fils nurses should also. but they will not. they will continue to be abused. but once the fils nurse gets to america it all changes. they become some of the most active in the union movement.

pipau · Sep 21, 2011

just an update. east ave. will stop their volunteer program on sept 30th.

PapaPhil · Sep 21, 2011

The nurses on the Lefora blog are doing something about being abandoned. They are going to march on POEA in an attempt to get the hospitals and agencies that abandoned them banned from recruiting the Philippines forever.

Summerstarsky · Sep 21, 2011

I am hoping that the DOH will strictly implement these orders and that both PNA and BON should coordinate with DOH so as to successfully implement this. We all know how much a batch of volunteer nurses help a certain hospital from not hiring staff because of the free work that these nurses provide. Yes, I was once a volunteer nurse and it did help me learn more in terms of hands on skills but its effect on us nurse can be seen through the unemployment rate. With the free hands they get from us volunteers from working without getting any payment or in some cases, working for them and paying at the same time, it'll be easy for an institution to cut back numbers on hiring nurses. If we talk about its short term effect, yes it helps especially the certification that you can get from it, but for long term effect, I don't think so. I hope this can be a good start for us nurses to finally land a job that we all know we deserve. :)