By PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA — Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV wanted to investigate the apparent shortage of nurses in government hospitals despite the growing number of registered nurses in the country.
In many government hospitals, one nurse is serving 20 patients, but in some cases, a nurse is forced to handle 80 to 100 patients, Trillanes said, citing reports.
This, considering that nearly 250,000 registered nurses are unemployed, he said.
“Despite the growing supply of nurses in the country, the ideal nurse-to-patient bed ratio of 1:4 is hardly met,” he lamented. “Many hospitals remain understaffed and ill-equipped to respond to the needs of our people for quality health care.”
Trilanes, chair of the civil service committee, said he also wanted to find out why hospitals continue to employ volunteer nurses but do not take them in as staff nurses.
“[They] do not receive the same rights and benefits accorded to staff nurses [and] are the ones paying the hospitals just to be trained,” he said.
Such “exploitative” situation effectively defeats the purpose of the Philippine Nursing Act, which was supposed to ensure humane working conditions and better career prospect for registered nurses, he said.
“More than a decade following [the law’s] passage, the deplorable working conditions of nursing professionals in the country have gone worse,” said Trillanes.
He urged the government to address the “illegal practice.”/PN
