Gov’t urged to tap non-passers of nursing licensure exam to help ease nurse shortage
Leading nurse advocates have urged the government to enlist the non-passers of the nursing licensure examinations to address the shortage of nurses that is currently hounding the country.
“Why not tap the non-passers of board examinations? They have the training and the background. They know pharmacology, they have the know-how to handle patients in the intensive care unit [ICU],” Dr. Teresita Barcelo said during the latest edition of Pandesal Forum in Quezon City.
“Why not utilize this rich resource? But this needs supervision of a licensed nurse. We welcome this short-term solution because we think the shortage will last for a while as long as we are not giving our nurses the appropriate attention and benefits,” Barcelo added.
She said the country’s global reputation as a major supplier of nurses has created an artificial shortage which has drastically affected the country’s health-care system. Barcelo stressed that the failure to address this serious problem might result in the closure of some hospitals.
Exacerbated by migration
BARCELO said the nursing problem has been exacerbated by migration. She said recruiters are now more blatant as they go directly to the hospitals to recruit the nursing staff to work with them. They also offer students scholarships and jobs in their countries once they pass and become licensed nurses.
She urged caution on the government’s plan to substitute the nurses with lower ranked personnel who are going to be trained in the government-controlled Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
“This short-term solution might create problems in the future as they don’t have the qualifications of a registered nurse to give the essential care,” Barcelo emphasized.
“For us, this is a positive solution rather than coming up with a two-year TESDA trained nurse. I fear the quality might suffer. The attrition rate in government and private hospitals has quadrupled from 2018 to 2022. In 2019 it was between zero to 7 percent. In 2022, it was 16 percent for government hospitals while private hospitals had a high of 40 percent,” Barcelo explained.
Push the panic button
In the same forum, Dr. Carl Balita said the country needs to push the panic button already because the feared and unethical migration is happening right now in the country.
“The World Health Organization [WHO] and the International Council of Nurses declared that it is unethical for developed countries to be recruiting and siphoning or poaching of nurses and health professionals of developing countries like the Philippines at the expense of its own human resource. That’s the very clear policy of the WHO and the International Council of Nurses. It is unethical but it is happening,” he said.
Balita said even nurses who lack experience are also being recruited to work abroad. He added the recruiters even offer nursing students to continue their studies overseas. He added there are lots of rooms and beds in local private hospitals that have been closed because of the shortage of nurses.
He warned that replacing the nurses with lower ranked personnel trained BYTESDA with the hope of putting a stop-gap measure to the problem might create problems in the future as they don’t have the qualifications of a registered nurse to give the essential care.
“The public might feel they will be short-changed because they might think they’re getting a nurse who is well-trained,” Barcelo said.
Proper recognition
BARCELO and Balita pointed out that it is not just about compensation but also about giving the nurses the proper recognition and appreciation for their valuable and immense contribution to the country’s health-care system. Aside from the compensation factor, Barcelo said giving them positive recognition will help improve morale and the nurses’ desire to continue working in the country.
Balita said the main problem right now is not the shortage of nurses “but because as a country we don’t give enough care and support our nurses to stay.”
“The government is the biggest contractualization agency for nurses. How many of our nurses are still on a job order status up to now? If you’re on job order, you have no benefits, security of tenure and it is a huge possibility that these nurses will accept job offers overseas even if the pay is small,” Balita emphasized.
Balita said the country is being exploited as a very compassionate nation producing caring nurses. Moreover, he said recruiters are exploiting the situation by offering not only employment but migration as well.
Retention, not supply
“THE problem is not supply but retention,” Barcelo said. “We are pushing the panic button because nurses see this situation happening not only in the Philippines as worsening as the months come. We are still in the middle of the pandemic. We don’t know what’s next.”
Balita said the solution the government is implementing is to allow two-year trained persons to take care of the bedside.
For example, if a patient is scheduled for operation, he has to wait for a schedule to be operated on. It is not because there’s a lack of surgeons but the lack of Operating Room nurses who can attend and assist a good surgeon.
“If you put a less qualified person in the bedside, I am telling you, a patient will undergo anxiety. Right now, the government gives higher pay to the nurses and this in turn has led to a shortage of nurses in private hospitals. Nevertheless, nurses working in government hospitals are still sad because they are contractuals,” Balita said.