I know a lot of Nurses in the Philippines are doing volunteer works just to satisfy the Nursing Board's requirements in their country of destination.
In relation to this, i've known a friend who is a nurse in the philippines who told me that the PNA will Ban volunteer nurses from the hospital or any facilities...
In the State of Victoria, Australia, volunteer work experience is not accepted as a work experience, unless you are in a registered capacity while doing it.
How about in other countries are they going to count it? and the Banning of volunteer nurses by the PNA, do you think this could help? what would be the solution for this?
Specializes in medical-surgical and critical care.
RN's like me choose to go on paid post grad. training/ pre-employment training with or without a fee while trying to get employed to maintain our skills in the clinical areas. its also a plus when applying for work especially for fresh graduates.
The government and other authorities seem to have no teeth when implementing regulations to stop this exploitation. Hospitals choose to get volunteers instead of hiring nurses to add to their workforce. Most staff nurses in government hospitals are overworked and underpaid and I dont see any reason why the government shouldnt increase its funding to hire more nurses like us and get our just compensation.
this is a really sad and I hate being part of it..
I was one of the volunteer nurse in the Philippines and our responsibilities is Receiving endorsements,joining rounds with the staff, taking vital signs, assist in nursing procedures, nurse-patient interaction,.Mostly assist. However some staffs allowed volunteer nurse to practice what we need to learn, sometimes giving medication, having an IV Insertion commonly for IVT License holder.,and then ASSIST in everything. After all of this,.we will receive our certificate that serves as a proof that we undergo a months of work as a volunteer in a specific area.
We worked most on Assisting,. so it will not count as a Nursing experience,. Maybe as an experience as a Nursing aide,.lolz!!
Better to apply even in primary hospitals,. it will count as nursing experience even a 15 bed capacity,.
Before, I also have conservative views regarding this "volunteer nursing" system in the PI.
But after months of wasted time, I realized that it's much better than having no experience
at all.
However, I still believe that the ones who are truly benefitting from this are the hospitals,
especially those who ask for payment. I resent it but I had to swallow my pride. Anyway, I went to an
agency hiring nurses to Canada and they told me volunteer experience can be considered as work experience.
That is good that at least Canada is considering it as work experience....However, I believe that the hospitals are exploiting the RN graduates in the Philippines and the Filipino government should put a stop to it. You deserve to be compensated for all your hard work....I believe that nursing school is an experience itself and that once you're finished you should be hired as a staff nurse in your own country instead of volunteering for a fee...
i also had a negative view on volunteer nursing before, but after 10 months since i had my duty and was exposed to the ward, i just realized that if i continue to just look for a hospital that would hire me and wait for them to call me (all those who called me are for volunteer so i declined), i might forget my nursing skills. then just one day, i got a call from a hospital telling me that i got accepted as a volunteer, and instead of closing myself to the idea, i thought of it as a good thing. the first thing i asked them during the interview is that whether or not i'll just be doing vital signs, and assist the staff. luckily, in that hospital, they let the volunteers do everything! they don't even let us do the vital signs (the nurse aides do it). i administer medications (all routes, except intrathecal of course hehe), ivs, carry out orders, chart, etc. During my first day, i was even reluctant to open an ampule because i thought i already forgot how to do so. Now, i get to practice my nursing skills (while waiting for a hospital that would hire me) and i don't have to pay anything for it.
It is also a good thing that it is near our home so i don't spend much to go there, and i bring my "baon" so that i don't have to buy outside.
With the thousands of nursing students I would think the nurses would not need the help of volunteers.
How many patients do students take?
in the hospital where i volunteer, student nurses do not do much. what they do are the vital signs, intake and output, and sometimes, charting. all the things that they are going to do still passes through us. we have to be careful in assigning tasks to them because if they do it incorrectly, our licenses are at stake (since they are only students and we, volunteer nurses, are still responsible for our patients). in the ward (with 60 bed capacity), there are only 2 staff nurses (1 is the head nurse, 1 is the charge nurse) and there are 5 volunteers. the student nurses do not assist in all 60... they only assist in about 15-20 patients.
First of all best of luck in your interview. I hope you get the position you want.
I find it very confusing to figure out what does a student nurse do in the Philippines. First of all you have an inexperienced instructor. In the US the students are working on the instructor's license not the the staff's license.
Second as a student you are responsible for everything. All the medications and treatments. The only exception is hanging blood which needs to be done by staff. So when I am on a floor with 8 students and we are caring for 10 patients, that is 10 patients taken off the staff's assignment.
Third, what you describe as a student is nurse's aide work and where is the instructor. I ask my students to ask me questions since I am the one who is getting paid to supervise the students.
Does the Philippines have a civil liberties union that you can go to in order to file a complaint or law suit? You should not be passing medications and doing the work of a nurse unless you have a paid contract to do so. Anything else could be construed as forced labor.
First of all best of luck in your interview. I hope you get the position you want.
I find it very confusing to figure out what does a student nurse do in the Philippines. First of all you have an inexperienced instructor. In the US the students are working on the instructor's license not the the staff's license.
Second as a student you are responsible for everything. All the medications and treatments. The only exception is hanging blood which needs to be done by staff. So when I am on a floor with 8 students and we are caring for 10 patients, that is 10 patients taken off the staff's assignment.
Third, what you describe as a student is nurse's aide work and where is the instructor. I ask my students to ask me questions since I am the one who is getting paid to supervise the students.
Thanks for the information.
thank you alexk49... i also do hope to pass the interview. first of all, that's a tertiary hospital that i'm applying to, so i get to learn and do nursing in probably the most ideal way. unlike the hospital where i am volunteering which has limited resources. but i don't think they'll place me in my area of choice (OR) since they asked me for several times if i want to work in the ICU instead of the OR. anyway, wherever they place me, i'm willing to learn.
what i shared re: the student nurses is what i have seen in the hospital where i am volunteering. this may apply to most(?) nursing schools here, but not all. there are still nursing schools here that really train their students well so that their students will become well equipped when they become RNs. when i was a nursing student, we are under our clinical instructor and the clinical instructor's license is the one at stake, not the staff nurse's license. we are lucky that we have very good and experienced clinical instructors. some of them were nurses in the US (before they came back) and have taught us how to provide safe and quality patient care according to joint comm and the npsg (which is really really good!!! i hope to work in a hospital that practices it in the future!!!) anyway, we are also responsible for everything... IVFs, treatments, medications except IV medications (it's against our nursing law that nursing students give IV medications, although some instructors allow their students to, which i think is dangerous. for instance, a baby died because a student nurse gave kcl via ivp and not incorporated). anyway, i even got to do peritoneal dialysis and catherterization and post mortem care, etc. i don't really know why the students in the hospital where i volunteer does very limited duties and why our licenses are the ones at stake. the good thing though of them having limited duties is that i don't risk my license from being revoked because of a mistake of a student nurse. hehe
Does the Philippines have a civil liberties union that you can go to in order to file a complaint or law suit? You should not be passing medications and doing the work of a nurse unless you have a paid contract to do so. Anything else could be construed as forced labor.
the philippine nurses association is against volunteerism or hospitals getting volunteer nurses to suffice their being understaffed. i think we volunteers (or some of us) are aware that the system of those hospitals are unfair. imagine us working 8hr shifts (and sometimes double shift) and we are not being paid for it. the hospitals are only the ones who are benefiting from this arrangement; they get to have more people to work for them without spending a single peso. although some volunteers are a little lucky that they receive allowances. but in some hospitals, the volunteers pay the hospital for them to be able to volunteer!!! imagine that!!! and some volunteers just end up doing the work of nurse aides! it's a harsh reality for us nurses out here. there are a lot of registered nurses (even those from batch 2006) that are not being accepted as staff nurses in hospitals and we will still have a new batch of registered nurses probably by february! now that's a lot of unemployed nurses! true, there is a shortage of nurses here in the philippines, but hospitals don't want to hire more nurses because it will cost them more. instead, they get volunteers. and since we have a lot of nurses without anywhere to go, they accept being a volunteer nurse. i, for instance, entered into volunteer nursing because i felt the need to practice nursing again... i got scared that i might wake up one day and realize that i no longer know how to insert a catheter or do suctioning. but of course, i'm not going to allow myself to end up as a volunteer forever. i am also looking for ways and working hard to get myself a job as an employed staff nurse.
Good luck finding a job in the OR. It is a position in demand in the USA. Sounds like you have the right attitude and that you had good clinical instructors who held you to high standards.
lucky_vinz
23 Posts
RN's like me choose to go on paid post grad. training/ pre-employment training with or without a fee while trying to get employed to maintain our skills in the clinical areas. its also a plus when applying for work especially for fresh graduates.
The government and other authorities seem to have no teeth when implementing regulations to stop this exploitation. Hospitals choose to get volunteers instead of hiring nurses to add to their workforce. Most staff nurses in government hospitals are overworked and underpaid and I dont see any reason why the government shouldnt increase its funding to hire more nurses like us and get our just compensation.
this is a really sad and I hate being part of it..
