It's quite distressing to read news that so many nurses have thrown in the towel and quit hospital work amid the ongoing pandemic.
According to a private hospital group representative, some five to 10 percent of nurses in private hospitals have resigned in the last three weeks alone. At the rate this is going on, hospitals will be crippled in five to six months!
Obviously, not feeling valued is the primary reason why the local Florence Nightingales are giving up. Pre-pandemic, nurses' salaries were already pathetic compared to the time rendered for service.
While nurses in public hospitals receive a little more than their counterparts in private hospitals, this still isn't much when taking to account the number of patients they are made to handle each shift.
Imagine how much more hazardous their job has become when COVID-19 cases spiked. It is criminal for a nurse, working a 12-hour-shift, and tending to 10 patients or more, to just be paid 8,000 pesos ($157.60 at today's exchange rate) for a month! How are they going to survive on that? Transportation alone will eat up that amount unless they find living quarters within a walking distance of the hospital.
The option of course is to apply for overseas employment where they will be paid 10 times more or even higher for the same kind of service. Yes, Filipino nurses are a premium in most other countries, and it is ironic that they are so undervalued and unappreciated in their own country.
With healthcare facilities severely lacking in qualified personnel, how can they adequately care for patients who are ill with COVID or other diseases?
Those still not qualified to work abroad would rather find other jobs than continue suffering in their work conditions. Not only do they fear contracting COVID, but collapsing from exhaustion due to overwork, where in many cases they don't even receive overtime pay.
Benefits, too, are not always part of the compensation package, as well as allowances to cover transportation, food, and insurance.
That is why they were howling in protest weeks ago because government had yet to release benefits promised them for their service during the pandemic.
Given how paltry they receive for the work they do, it is no wonder there is no motivation to stay on working in hospitals. And if nurses continue to quit their jobs, hospitals will be forced to downsize their operations and limit the capacity which they can serve or worse, turn away COVID patients altogether.
Nurses working in tertiary hospitals with ISO certification are much sought-after abroad because of their more extensive experience and knowledge of the latest medical technology and protocols.
Can they be encouraged to stay and continue serving the health sector in our country? Of course, this is possible but they must be taken cared of. The president of the Philippine Nurses Association lamented the low quality of life given to their sector.
They have repeatedly called on government and private health institutions to address the plight of nurses, starting with compensating them with salaries and benefits that will show they are valued and respected.
For starters, the discrepancy in salaries between public and private nurses is atrocious. A minimum standard amount must be set. Non-cash benefits to cover food and insurance should also be included. And transportation is a huge expense, so these must at least be provided for. And then there are cases in private hospitals where nurses have to pay for their swab tests out-of-pocket.
As much as nurses want to continue serving their country, they must also survive and provide for their families.
Nurses, according to the PNA president, are not superheroes but humans. Yes, what they do is heroic, but who will take care of them, their needs, when they don't even receive decent wages?
The pandemic only highlighted the inadequacies of the country's healthcare system. The biggest flaw in the system is the salary paid to healthcare workers, nurses especially.
While government may set a cap in the number of nurses deployed abroad, it does not guarantee they will take on vacancies in local healthcare facilities. Should the hospital workforce dwindle to an alarming level, this will be an even bigger crisis that the Philippines cannot afford to face at this point.
If health is truly wealth, then resources have to be poured into the sector to first take care of the people who are expected to take care of the sick, the injured, and the dying. Until and unless this happens, we may lose out on one of the best resources the country has - our nurses.
Images from Unsplash
I wish authorities look into this quickly enough to address the shortfalls. Nurses are humans even though they've taken an oath to always tend to patients, the ministry of Labor or any government agency in that like should put current realities to factor it into their remunerations.