Pinoy Nurses: Foresight of Light

   

    Aurora District Representative Juan Edgardo Angara filed a bill in the House of Representative regarding the amendment of Nursing Act of 2012 (R.A. 9173). The said amendment aims to widen the roles and responsibilities of Filipino Nurses. This will expand their specialization and advancement of the Nursing practice and not just confined within Primary Health Care service.



   House Bill 5780 will give Filipino Nurses the advantage to receive a salary of about P14,000 per month once it is enacted. Angara said the bill also mandates hospitals and other medical institutions to provide incentives and benefits for the nurses. 
  The representative said that presently, the quantity of nurses has been inversely proportional to the quality of nursing education provided by nursing schools. These has been based by the upsurging number of nursing schools, from 251 to 491 (R.A. 9173 - present), to the low percentage of passers for the Nursing Licensure Examinations(NLE).
   The NLE results also show an alarming decline in the annual national passing percentage. It reached an all-time low of 35.26% in December 2010 with only 29,711 passes out of 84,287 examinees.
  “We have an oversupply of nurses and yet we are still far from achieving the ideal nurse to patient ration of 1:4 per shift. The Philippine General Hospital has a nurse to patient ratio of 1:15-26 per shift while Davao del Sur has a province-wide ration of 1:44-45 per shift. Clearly, there is an urgent need for reforms,” Angara said.

FINES AND IMPRISONMENT

   The bill imposes a fine of not more than P300,000 or imprisonment of not more than six years against persons who will violate the code of ethics and public morals, professional standards and human and patients’ rights.
   Under the bill, the National Nursing Career Progression Program which will be created will get the funding from the annual appropriation act, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes, the Philippine Amusement and Games Corp., and the Professional Regulation Commission.
   The bill provides that foreign nurses, who are either working for a fee or for free, must get a temporary work permit from the Board of Nursing.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com