House OKs bill banning collection of fees from nurse trainees

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill prohibiting the collection of fees from nurse trainees by public and private hospitals and similar institutions.

House Bill 5445 seeks to put an end to the practice of some hospitals that charge trainees huge amounts, ranging from P10,000 to P30,000, for training that lasts from one to three months.

Even state health institutions, like the four specialty hospitals in Quezon City which receive hundreds of millions in annual taxpayers’ subsidies, charge such fees.

The bill penalizes hospital officials who will impose, collect or accept fees from nurse trainees with imprisonment of one year and a P500,000 fine.

The bill also requires hospitals to pay trainees a salary equivalent to Salary Grade 11 in the bureaucracy’s pay scale, or about P15,000 a month in basic pay.

The authors of the measure noted that because of the present oversupply of nurses, an increasing number of nursing graduates end up without jobs, while others are forced to accept work in call centers, retail stores and other establishments.

But some call center firms were reportedly turning away applicants with nursing degrees, believing their investments in training them for call center jobs would be wasted since they are expected to leave for abroad after a few months of work.

They said those who are lucky enough to find employment abroad work as caregivers, dental assistants and nursing aides.

They said that licensed nurses need to have hospital work experience to get jobs in hospitals and other health institutions here and abroad; thus, they pay whatever amount hospitals charge them for training.

They added that in some extreme cases, it is the trainees who offer to pay hospitals just to be accepted in their training programs.

House approval of the bill is considered timely since the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) are projecting that thousands of nursing graduates would be added to the 300,000 who are currently jobless.

The PRC has just administered licensure examinations to a new batch of 68,000 nursing graduates.

Lawmakers have been asking the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to padlock nursing schools that have posted poor performance in licensure exams. However, many of these schools continue to operate.

Retooling nursing graduates

Meanwhile, Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo expressed alarm over the rising number of jobless but qualified nurses, saying the DOLE, Department of Education (Deped), and CHED should jointly come out with options to retrain and retool them for alternative professions.

Castelo expressed concern over the reported reluctance of several call center firms to hire registered nurses and nursing graduates due to the perception that these people would not stay long in the job.

He urged the DOLE, DepEd, and CHED to retrain these jobless but qualified nurses for the teaching profession, particularly in science, mathematics and physical education, as the country needs 50,000 science and mathematics teachers and 100,000 physical and health educators nationwide.

Many qualified nurses were reported willing to work for free or pay hospitals so they could gain experience for foreign employment. Others have resorted to employment in the local business process outsourcing or call center industry, which has shown steady growth and expansion over the years.

Castelo said his constituents have reported that the seeming employment discrimination has lessened their chances of getting gainful employment from call center firms. He said he intended to raise the issue with DOLE officials.

He said a number of unemployed but qualified nurses have good chances of retraining themselves with teaching skills since their nursing courses have many similarities with teaching physical and health education and even science and math. –Jess Diaz and Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star)