I am sad. We nurses, dont get the respect and thanks we deserve.

But yes, we want to insert IV

in the first time. And yes, if we dont answer call light its not because we want patient to suffer.
We probably are lifting and turning an old lady so she dont get bed sores. We are one with
patients at night when the doctor is at home sleeping. We are the one who assesses the patient,
interacts with them, explains everything & provides emotional support when the doctor leaves.
(And yes, doctor stays with the patients in an average of 2 minutes). The tasks we perform can
mean improving a patient's outcome. I know I learned a lot and went to school for 4 years full
time and practiced for 7 years to be the nurse I am today.
I believe that Filipino nurses care more about working conditions than pay. But it is common to
find many hospitals especially private hospital forcing their nursing staff to work extra shifts, do
overtime and at the same time deny them something as basic as transportation and foods (when
all stores are closed).
In the countryside, nurses make about P65, 000.00 pesos per year on average. Low salaries
ranging from P3, 000 to 4,000 per month, lack of allowances, repetitive assigning of double
duties, shifts extending beyond eight hours, lack of hospital conveyance as well as regular safety
audits of assigned workplaces, etc. make nurses, the most exploited sections of the professional
workforce in the Philippines.
Clearly, burdened by rising costs of living, which cannot be met by inadequate salaries offered
by hospitals, and anxious to retain their jobs in a highly insecure job market, nurses are
compelled to cooperate with hospital managements.
It is indeed ironic that while hospitals (and even PhilHealth and DOH) take precautions when it
comes to checking the credentials and abilities of the nurse, no such concern or effort is made to
check the environment at the workplace to which the nurse is assigned.
Many people are stressed on the job, but poor working conditions and sparse budgets for nurses
can impact patient care.
Underfunded hospitals are another significant burden for nurses. Our underfunded hospital did
not provide for float pool nurses for our floor. The most we could do was to beg an off duty to
come in and help. We were just told to do our best. When your best means that your patients are
at high risk of not being treated appropriately, many nurses choose to comply and risk their
license to provide care in such a risky environment.
Burnout and dissatisfaction is always a risk in any human services. That translates into poor
patient experience. Improved working conditions can prevent nurse turnover and absenteeism.
And as growing evidence has shown, nurse burnout dramatically influences how satisfied
patients are with their care.

With all of these assumptions, I strongly challenge AYNLA to be an RN Ambassador. Look for
an opportunity in your community. Speak at schools, churches, job fairs, meetings, career
guidance day, etc. Take a friend along to help. The more nurses the better!
We should start doing survey to identify whether nurses are fairly paid, not fairly paid, or fairly
paid but could use extra compensation. We also need to identify the best region for nurses to
work and ranked the last region. We also need to come up with a study to estimate how many
patients are killed at hospitals each year as a result of medical errors in the Philippines related to
poor working conditions of nurses.
I also suggest that AYNLA shall make a position statements on the following: abuse, exploitation
and violence against nursing personnel, nurse retention and migration, nurses and shift work,
occupational health and safety for nurses. Do we have a Bill of Rights for Registered Nurses in
the Philippines? If we do not have yet, AYNLA shall make one and present it to the nursing
community.
AYNLA shall also advocate to the government (DOLE, PhilHealth and DOH) to devise a wage
board for nurses so that pay revisions are regularly made across private and LGU (casuals,
contractual) hospitals, to conduct regular safety audits of hospitals/private workplaces where
nurses are employed, provide greater (permanent) employment in government hospitals and
prevent compulsory overtime. And we shall also represent nurses (who cannot voice out their
sentiments because they are employed in a PHA-member hospital, etc) that we demand for safety
and financial security!