Why do Nurses from the Philippines go to the US or some place across the seas to work when the Nursing condition itself here, in their homeland is far more worst than that of the countries they are going to serve?  Take for example, a certain article from California, written by an RN states that taking more than 7patients on any given shift increases the risk of committing error or could pose a risk to that patient because of the lessened time spent per patient, thus, faiure to monitor the patient’s status, increasing morbidity or even mortality!

Now, here in the Philippines. One RN would be dreading his day taking care of 8 or more patients in any given shift, praying that nobody dies or worsens because of lack of time in monitoring spent per patient.  Imagine, if one RN handles 10 patients, budgeting her time per 8hr shift per patient would probably yield to a 48min average per patient. That RN would spend at least 10mins documenting, 5minutes verifying and checking medications, 15minutes checking the vital signs and performing quick head to toe assessments. Another 8minutes for coordination of care with the ancillary procedure for that shift.  What about the 10mins left? It could be spent walking to and from the Nurses station, etc.  No more therapeutic communication? Yes, we are all faced with this dilemma.  Of patient care compromised because of poor staffing.

But is poor staffing the only issue here in the Philippines?  Poor staffing is not the ony cause of poor nursing care and is also one of the factors why Nursing here in the Philippines is not as respected compared to the other countries(e.g. US, UK).

I myself would want to go to the US. Why? It is not just about the money that comes with it but with the respect they have for RNs.  How people believe that their RNs health education could be trusted, that they are partners with the RN.  I want to go to the US because, my Nursing education has caused my family’s financial resources to be exhausted to the point that we had applied for a loan. Great! Now I’m an RN earning some P8,000 per month.  Barely enough for my food and transportation, can’t expect this to pay for our loan.

That is why im learning everything as fast as I can because, I want to go to the US, ASAP!  To serve humanity, if not here, at least some place else where people respect me, and pays me for my hard work.  After all, as that famous economist hath stated(which I obviously forgot the name), it all boils down to economy.  Supply and demand, Dollar vs Peso.  But for me, I would like to serve someone who gives me what i deserve. The respect and the money to feed and support family.  Someday, when I’m rich and unable to lift patients, when that day comes, I shall be back to the Philippines.  Even if don’t get to earn that much here, I shall serve.  No expecting for any compensation, Just RESPECT.  Not just for me, but for the Profession itself.

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Philippines License.

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May 19th, 2008 by relloydlopezrn FEU-IN BSN Graduate Batch 2005 A Registered Nurse of the Republic of the Philippines