Volunteer nurses and hospitals

EDITORIAL

It is high time that a proposed law was filed in Congress seeking to end collection of fees by hospitals from volunteer nurses who serve in the hospitals to gain work experience that they may use elsewhere.

For so long, it had been an irony that hospitals charged volunteer nurses for their services. House Bill No. 5445, entitled “An act prohibiting public and private hospitals from requiring the payment of money upon registered nurses who want to gain work experience and penalizing any violation thereof,” was filed last month.

Among sponsors of the bill was Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Dalog and members of the House committee on health.

Most hospitals collect fees in the amounts ranging accordingly from P1,500 to 3,000 per semester from volunteer nurses who are, under the definition of the bill, rendering “free” or unpaid services in hospitals, without employer-employee relationship, and performing hospital duties with minimal supervision from regular staff nurses.

The bill is being supported by the Ang Nars, a national organization of nurses in the country. However, it has expressed reservations at the same time for some concerns of nurses not addressed by the Bill.

“Ang Nars is thankful for the recent focus of the House of Representatives signifying the first step in giving justice in order to improve the welfare of nurses in the country, ” stated a letter dated Jan. 9 to Dalog.

The letter was signed by NARS Leah Primitiva Samaco-Paquiz, founding president of the organization.In the same letter that forms part of the position paper of the organization, AngNars has noted the following concerns: the bill does not address the salary and unemployment problems of nurses; the bill encourages hospitals not to employ nurses, making them work without salaries, benefits, protection, and security of tenure; the bill removes fees of non-accredited training programs but legalizes and strongly strengthens false volunteerism.

Samaco-Paquiz said the government should look into how the nurses could be employed as the organization believes that “nurses want to serve and earn a living”. They also want the full implementation of the Magna Carta for public health workers.

The bill provides that any person found guilty of violating the law shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment of not less than six months but not more than one year and a fine of not less than P100,000 but not more than P500,000.

The proposed law states that “the Department of Health in coordination with the Professional Regulation Commission and the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, shall issue the implementing rules and regulations within 60 days after effectivity of the Act”.