You have heard these lines:

“Napakaraming nurse dito sa amin

Ngunit bakit tila walang natira?

Nag-a-abroad sila

Gusto kong yumaman, yumaman, yumaman, yumaman, yumaman”

A song by famous Pinoy Rapper Gloc-9 titled as “Walang Natira”

The last time I heard this live was through a performance of the HAU Chorale Group at an anniversary celebration, ironically, of a medical institution here in Clark. True to its lyrics, the country still experiences rampant professional brain drain. Not only in the allied medical field but also in teaching and other noble professions, eyes greener pastures for a stable future, risking own physical and mental health. 

This question again lingers in my mind: Why would an ordinary Registered Nurse practice in the Philippines, perpetually?” Apart from the love of country, it is the necessary experience required to secure a post overseas. Include the satisfaction of staying surrounded by trusted peers and family support. I think, no other else. Do these pay the growing bills? 

I left hospital bedside practice for years. I can still vividly remember the surreal experience of stepping into the nurse station, officially, as a hospital nurse. A sense of pride filled me. After two collated years of experience, it is always the pay and benefits that never commensurated (and will NEVER be) the stress, pressure and exhaustion inside a private institution. Private practice is always about income first, before employee welfare – based on my experience. Daily duty is a war – an internal war to decide whether to report on duty or not, and a war against the entitled patients and relatives, against bully seniors, against the agonizing work itself. If you happen to see any healthcare worker on active duty – THANK THEM PLEASE. Thank them for staying in the healthcare system. Don’t see them just as a paid worker or the mindset “we are paying you” or “company HMO is paying you”. Remember, they have the option to choose another career path, a safer or more rewarding career. But they choose the dreaded path just to take care of you in a hospital and risk themselves of exposure to health hazards. Despite the hospital management’s desire to increase admissions or to increase the patients to nurse ratio, despite being exposed to contagious diseases or anything else. 

You can say we took an oath, yes, we did. But doing this is not always all about hospital or clinic work. Healthcare happens even in the preventive phase, not just the curative or rehabilitative phase.  Hospital work is not only our career option. We can always choose better rewarding healthcare careers. There are plenty of them – Even work-from-home ones. So the next time you see a nurse or any health care worker, thank them, or, THE LEAST, don’t disrespect them, worst take repulsive actions against them. Remember, your merely entitled actions would lead to more nurse resignations/AWOLS/sick leaves and this continued depletion of the healthcare workforce is taking a toll on our healthcare system, and soon would take a toll on you, on every citizen. Let’s all of us MOTIVATE OUR NURSES to maintain themselves within the crucial yet HIGHLY UNDERVALUED AND ABUSED WORKFORCE IN EVERY SOCIETY. 

“Be one of the positive forces to motivate back our nurses back, to stay”

The future of quality life for nurses in the country is certainly “bleak, dark and absolutely barren”. There are no laws to fully compensate and acknowledge the value of work the nurses in private institutions, versus on what they contribute to the society. 

Yes, nurses are undervalued in the Philippines, and ever will be – in any type of practice, in most industries, in any city or province. We are undervalued. Regardless of what employment, any form of nursing practice is undervalued. Want evidence? Check their salaries and benefit packages. Even as licensed ones, most, but not all, healthcare-related or industry-related employers always provide lower salary ranges. 

So, the collective stress, bully seniors, exhaustion, burnout, toxic cultures, low wages and entitled patients/relatives would just lead to more resignations and egress out from clinical practice – a continued downward cycle depleting healthcare workforce. 

PONDER ON THIS: What if one day you wake up, feel dreadfully sick, and you arrive in an ER with long waiting hours since there is few or no duty nurses at all? No matter what large money you’ll be willing to spend for healthcare services, but no one is going to attend since they left clinical practice. What would you feel?