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

JMCP · Mar 15, 2015

I think this is a great idea!

I have met some great nurses who studied in the Philippines. However, I have

also encountered many bad nurses from the Phillipines who's knowledge and safety left me sick to my stomach with unease.

Sidenote: this has nothing to do with nationality and a whole lot to do with the degree of regulation in that country and the like. Seriously... If you want to work in the us, it's best to study here.

Pacs, RN · Mar 15, 2015

Sadly, you are right. I feel that my country has produced nurses who are woefully unprepared for global competency. All I see is corruption and exploitation of the weak. Most nurses here are damn sheeps who allow filth and decay to soil the name of the nursing profession in the Philippines. I took up nursing to help people. But now I see that being a nurse here in my country only feeds to the corruption and injustice of our broken healthcare system. They exploit the nurses through extortion but does not add to the improvement of patient care. The nurses here know that it is wrong and yet they allow this wretched practice to continue and flourish. My disgust have come to a point wherein I feel that my nursing degree here in my country is useless and that I should abandon nursing and pursue a different career.

mikeru22 · Mar 16, 2015

Hey Pacs, you could feel bad and ashamed of the current health care situation in our country but you should not dwell on the negative and dark side of situation. Like you, I have been exposed to various unpleasant scenarios elsewhere. It looks bleak and hopeless but when my turn to be able to finally practice nursing after 8 long years of waiting, I was able to see people who are very passionate about their job. These people are so dedicated and will do anything in their power just to care for people to the point that they are shelling their own money out despite their meager income just to get indigent patients the materials they need just to facilitate a procedure the patient could never afford.

We may lack all the technology and resources first word countries have but we are blessed with innate hospitality, genuine concern to care for and about people, spirituality, warmheartedness, sympathy, resilience, ingenuity and fortitude to do what we do best despite our hardships and limitations.

I still believe in a better future ahead of us. We are improving slowly, and although it may not be very evident yet, I will do my best to make the situation better by starting with my self and avoiding by all means to contribute to or be the problem itself.

Filipino nurses are still among the top choices by foreign employers because of so many good qualities we are known for. I am still very proud to be a Filipino and a Registered Nurse at the same time. God bless the Filipino Nurses and our country.

PinayUSA · Mar 16, 2015

The reason it still exists in Philippines.

There are many laws in Philppines, But only few are enforced.

It's More Fun In The Philippines......

Pacs, RN · Mar 16, 2015

Hey Pacs, you could feel bad and ashamed of the current health care situation in our country but you should not dwell on the negative and dark side of situation. Like you, I have been exposed to various unpleasant scenarios elsewhere. It looks bleak and hopeless but when my turn to be able to finally practice nursing after 8 long years of waiting, I was able to see people who are very passionate about their job. These people are so dedicated and will do anything in their power just to care for people to the point that they are shelling their own money out despite their meager income just to get indigent patients the materials they need just to facilitate a procedure the patient could never afford.
We may lack all the technology and resources first word countries have but we are blessed with innate hospitality, genuine concern to care for and about people, spirituality, warmheartedness, sympathy, resilience, ingenuity and fortitude to do what we do best despite our hardships and limitations.
I still believe in a better future ahead of us. We are improving slowly, and although it may not be very evident yet, I will do my best to make the situation better by starting with my self and avoiding by all means to contribute to or be the problem itself.
Filipino nurses are still among the top choices by foreign employers because of so many good qualities we are known for. I am still very proud to be a Filipino and a Registered Nurse at the same time. God bless the Filipino Nurses and our country.

That is exactly the kind of apologetic reasoning that keeps our country in the mud. Why is it there are nurses in public hospitals who have to shell the expenses from their own meager income in order to better serve indigent patients? Is it not our government's duty to our people to provide for these things? Where is the financial budget allocated by the local and national government for this? In the deep pockets of our corrupt government officials?

Why is it that board certified and licensed nurses in our country have to pay hospitals just to be slaves and give the said institutions free labor at our expense? Don't you even find it odd that at the first sign of opportunity to leave the country, most professional nurses in our country take it? Why is it when it was declared that nurse volunteerism is illegal, such practices are still widespread and flourishing?

This is exactly the kind of cancer Jose Rizal is talking about our wretched country infecting all sectors and institutions of the Filipino people; That it's okay to be damn slaves and meek sheep. The worst part of it is that the people do nothing about it. Just look at most of our nurses here in the Philippines, they are practically begging corrupt hospital institutions to be its slaves. They want it, and they yearn for it. And when they leave our country, they bring this disgusting nature with them for all the people of the world to see. Pinoy pride.

allnurses Guide · Mar 16, 2015

I agree that having nurses work for free, or even worse pay to work is wrong. Recently in the USA some facilities are asking new graduate RNs to pay an outside company for their orientation. I am opposed to this practice here too.

But these greedy practices should not denigrate the many fine nurses who have cared for so many people in my country and around the world.

Since 1972 I have learned from, worked with, and been blessed by the friendship of nurses born and educated in the Philippines. With few exceptions they are fine professionals and good honest caring people.

After a few years experience they are expert nurse. Many of the great nurse leaders in my state are from the Philippines.

Read about Zenei Cortez, President of the California Nurses Association. This bio is several years old. The NNU now has nearly a two hundred thousand members.

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

She recently made news by leading the bargaining team for 18,000 nurses:

18,000 California Nurses Win Stronger Patient Care, Workplace Protections in New Kaiser Pact | National Nurses United

Pacs, RN · Mar 16, 2015

It is comforting that there are people like you who would speak in defense of my people. I do not negate the existence of the many fine Filipino nurses abroad. They are what I call jewels in the rough. You are lucky to have met quite a number of them as they are nobles among rabble.

You can see how Nursing in the Philippines is a far cry to what you have there in America. While the idea of new RN graduates paying an outside company for orientation seems like a travesty already back there in the US, most new RN graduates here in the Philippines would actually fall in line to pay just to be a slaves in a local hospital. Just look at most of the threads here in Nursing in the Philippines Section of this website:

https://allnurses.com/nursing-in-the/

Most of them are about Filipino nurses asking for admission to slavery and paying for slavery.

allnurses Guide · Mar 16, 2015

I'm truly sorry for this. It would take an entire movement to begin working to improve the situation for nurses in the Philippines.

Two RN classmates who had been in the USA for only two years were my mentors and friends when I was a new grad LVN. One married and moved away. The other is still a dear friend of more than four decades.

In the Philippines the Alliance of Health Workers is part of Global Nurses United. Perhaps they can work with nurses around the world to stop the abuse of nurses.

Global Nurses United of Nurse, Healthcare Worker Unions, Born | National Nurses United

Pacs, RN · Mar 17, 2015

Forgive my negativity and cynicism. I have been an unemployed registered nurse here in my country for far too long. I have passed my nursing licensure examination way back in 2009. It is already 2015 and I still cannot land a job in the nursing career. I am not getting any younger. Most of the hospitals I applied for still require volunteerism in the guise of "Post Graduate Nursing Training" which they charge for a fee before they can "promise" the consideration of hiring me. The only hospitals here in my country that no longer conduct this abhorring practice (as far as I can tell) are the ones directly under the supervision of the Department of Health. Which is like, only a few hospitals (10 hospitals to be exact).

I am aware of the Alliance of Healthworkers here in my country. However, I am afraid they are on the losing side of the battle. I remember attending an intravenous therapy training seminar at a hospital here wherein a representative of the Association of Nursing Administrators in the Philippines (ANSAP) spoke in front of the participants that nurse volunteerism and nurse volunteerism in the guise of "Post Graduate Nursing Training" are illegitimate practices which we must not support. After her speech, the nursing director of the hospital that hosted us suddenly spoke up and promoted the "Post Graduate Nursing Training" his hospital is conducting. He commented that it is where they hire their new nursing staff if an opening suddenly pops up thus blatantly disregarding what was said by the ANSAP representative. Of course, the PGNT that the hospital nursing director is promoting isn't free. As I was sitting in the room taking in every detail of the awkward situation that just happened, I was asking myself: "What the hell?" On top of that, a lot of my colleagues who went with me in that seminar signed up to that "illegitimate" practice despite the warnings of the ANSAP official.

Again, forgive me for my dark outlook on the situation. I feel like I wasted 4 years of my life studying BSN. All that effort and financial support my parents gave me for my studies seems like it is all for nothing. I feel so useless and have sunk very far deep into depression as of late.

Lil<3LPN · Mar 17, 2015

Pacs RN have you thought of coming back to the states to work as a nurse again? It seems like you need that spark again.

Pacs, RN · Mar 17, 2015

I'm not American. I'm a Filipino born and raised in the Philippines. I have never been to America and I am not eligible to work as a nurse there. I never intended to work outside of my country when I took up nursing. Now I just want to leave nursing and the medical profession altogether since it never really welcomed me in to begin with...