BY GERARD NAVAL and RAYMOND AFRICA
HEALTH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa yesterday defended his proposal to provide temporary licenses to Nursing licensure examination (NLE)-eligible individuals, saying it is a temporary solution to the prevailing nurse shortage problem in the country.
In a radio interview, Herbosa said his proposal does not intend to replace the legal requirement for Nursing professionals to pass the NLE before they are issued licenses by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and be allowed to work in hospitals and other medical facilities.
“This is only a temporary measure. Once we have the ample supply of nurses, we will end this program. They will still need that license to be able to work,” said Herbosa.
“We have laws on how professionals work in the Philippines. This (program) is not going to replace that law. This is a measure to address the nursing shortage problem,” he added.
He said the situation requires a short-term solution before it worsens into a crisis.
“We have a situation. I can’t call it a crisis but I see that it will become a crisis if we don’t solve it… In a few more years, if we don’t do anything, we will run out of nurses,” said the official.
Herbosa stressed that hospitals run by the Department of Health (DOH) alone have a vacancy of 4,500 for nurses.
“There are other nursing items in local government hospitals, private hospitals, dialysis centers, clinics. So, there are even more nurses needed,” said Herbosa.
Earlier, Herbosa said he is looking to ask the PRC to provide board-eligible nursing graduates, particularly those with NLE grades of 70 to 74 percent, with temporary licenses that will be valid for four years.
During the four-year period, the said nurses will be employed in DOH hospitals while being given the opportunity to retake and pass the NLE.
The Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) said it is amenable to providing temporary licenses to NLE-eligible individuals.
“I think it is a good alternative plan. In a way, this is just the plan to increase the nursing personnel in hospitals. The shortage in nurses is really causing problems in hospitals right now,” PCP president Dr. Rontgene Solante said in a briefing.
He said NLE-eligible individuals also possess the necessary skills to serve in hospitals without a PRC license.
“They are competent enough to do nursing work because they are also graduates of Nursing,” said Solante.
“For me, even if they are not board passers yet, they have possessed the skills of nurses. It is just a matter of them still taking (and passing) the board,” he added.
He, however, said they “should always be monitored by the regular nursing staff in the hospital. Monitor them and, at the same time, teach them how to do it properly.”
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said he is against hiring Nursing board flunkers to government hospitals as they are not ready for the job.
He also said it is a short-term solution to problem of nurse shortage.
“The root causes of the shortage lie in the significant number of nurses leaving the country to seek higher-paying jobs abroad. We should take a look at the nurses’ salaries and provide more incentives for them to stay and practice in our nation,” he said.
Pimentel said the government should “stick to the current grade of 75 percent as the passing grade” in a bid to protect the “integrity” of the country’s testing system.
He said the government should instead improve on the examinations given to Nursing graduates, which will determine the examinees’ competence and readiness for the job.
Sen. Nancy Binay said nurse shortage is a reality, as shown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but tapping flunkers is a matter that should be carefully studied, with concerned sectors giving their insights.
She said the most practical step to addressing the shortage of nurses is to hire unemployed nurses, and “provide a certain level of care, respect, compassion to our overworked nurses currently serving our public hospitals.”
“Review, amend, and offer better paying contracts to our nurses, provide better benefits, and rationalize their work loads. They are the backbone of our healthcare system and it is only fair to protect our essential workforce and reasonably compensate them,” she added.
She said the government can also make the nurses’ pay competitive.
“We in the Senate, are willing to provide the necessary tools and budget to improve the state of our public health,” she said.
