đˇFilipino Nurses United Facebook page
The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) salutes the Filipino nurses in the Philippines and all over the world in their tireless, priceless dedication especially on the special occasion of International Nurses Day this May 12, 2024, the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale.
The Filipino nurses have always been deserving of appreciation and highest tribute for their service especially during the height of pandemic and now with the unprecedented crisis in economy and health.
The vital contribution of nurses have undoubtedly sustained our health care systems in caring for our patients and communities.
Nurses in the Philippines continue to suffer from very low wages against increasing standard of living, aggravated by astronomic rise in prices of basic commodities and services.
Presently, the cliche of being overworked and underpaid health workers has never been a grim, sharp, painful reality to our nurses.
This situation pushes them further to massive migration, long characterized as diaspora, now with âattractive offersâ of bringing along their families and nursing education scholarships with assured employment.
There is a vicious cycle of understaffing, work overload and long work hours. Nurses work for more than 8 hours, with extended unpaid 2-4 work hours and with work and patient overload.
A national government hospital issued a nursing staff waiver that staff nurses must agree to 16 hours duty and may be called in even on rest days is an out right disregard for nursesâ labor rights.
This dismal nursing work situation was addressed by the national government with hiring of 300 unlicensed nurses and revision of nursing education curriculum and masteral program.
This is a mismatch and irrational solution to the nursing issues of understaffing, low wages and poor work conditions that discourage nurses to stay.
Moreover, there is apparent inadequate government support and lack of prioritization to public health service budget allocation that incapacitates nurses in performing their tasks or led to the inadequacies of health care system to respond to the Filipinosâ health needs.
At the forefront of healthcare, nurses, in many instances and varying degrees, carry the brunt and suffer from the attacks of patients and people who suffer from difficulties and are extremely frustrated in health care settings.
Amid these crises, however, nurses, themselves, suffer from intensifying government neglect and exploitation of the so called health industry.
It is high time that concerned government authorities respond with concrete and decisive measures that will rescue nurses from the serious concerns such as the legislation of just, decent wage increase, mass hiring of qualified nurses, and regularise contractual nurses to fill up and add more plantilla positions.
