Cebu City (17 August) -- Anticipating a shortage of health care providers in the country as the exodus of nurses and doctors-turned-nurses continue to rise, a government doctor appealed to fresh nursing graduates to serve the country at least two years before entertaining the idea of working abroad.

Dr. Helen Retuta of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in a Kapihan sa PIA this morning admitted that she does not blame nurses and even doctors-turned-nurses who want to pursue better opportunities in other countries. Beyond economics, the feeling of security for their families come first in case things don't work well here, Retuta said.

Retuta, a nursing graduate before proceeding for a doctoral degree, said the VSMMC suffers from a shortage of nurses. In one ward alone, there are only two nurses catering to 60 patients. While the VSMMC that has a 400-bed capacity accommodates more than 600 patients from the Visayas and Mindanao, this was learned.

Given an impending shortfall of nurses in the country due to the surge of demand for health care professionals abroad, Retuta asked nursing graduates to practice their profession first in the country for two years to hone their nursing skills and gain them the necessary experience.

Dr. Marilou Viray, president of the Cebu Medical Society, in the same forum bared that every year, 3,000 doctors are taking up nursing, which is double the figure of newly- licensed practicing doctors.

Viray cited three major reasons why doctors are changing profession to become nurses in order to work overseas. First, the opportunities call for it, the country's political instability and financial security.

But there is also a good side to the brain drain of health care providers, Viray noted. Because aside from helping the country's economy through dollar remittances, these health care providers can also apply and share the technology they learned abroad in the Philippines as she has known of some medical professionals who have worked abroad for a long time and came back to retire here. "The Philippines is a good retirement haven and even foreigners opt to migrate here," Viray quoted.

The remittances of overseas Filipino workers for the first six months of this year alone has reached P4.9B and the amount is expected to double by yearend, according to the Central Bank. It was surmised that the growth of dollar remittances is attributed to the mass deployment of medical professionals mainly nurses.

Atty. Roy Ligad, information officer of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA-7) bared that for the first semester this year, their office has processed 815 nurses for deployment abroad including 49 working visas for the US. The figure however, does not include nurse-immigrants for the US while most are off to the United Kingdom followed by Ireland.

Last year, the POEA-7 processed 1,510 nurses.

Arnulfo Jaranay, president of the Operating Nurses Assn. of the Philippines (ORNAP) - Cebu chapter said the mass exodus of nurses and doctors-turned-nurses will create a vacuum of health care providers in the health care sector. Albeit the shortage can be augmented with new nursing graduates, he added.

Jaranay said the absence of opportunities in the country and the offer of attractive compensation abroad is a temptation they cannot refuse. On the positive side, working abroad is one way of helping the country's economy and provide decent lives to our families left behind as this is also a huge sacrifice on our part, Jaranay claimed.

Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/news.asp?fi=p050817.htm&no=38

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