New nurses get a run around on health seminars

In my previous article, I mentioned the hassles that professional nurses have to experience if only to gain the required certifications necessary to get ahead with their future plans and ambitions in life.

And their harrowing experiences do not end after graduation or passing the licensure examination in the Philippines, or the CGFNS or the NCLEX for those who wanted to practice their profession in America.

From what I learned, some hospitals are making it doubly difficult for new nurses (those who already passed the PRC examination) to attend health-related seminars and workshops, especially for those who wanted to apply for jobs in the local hospitals in the country. Unless, one has a certification that shows he attended seminars like infection control, maternal and child health, and the most important, the seminar on how to administer injectable instruments to patients which they call I.V. seminar.

The irony is that this IV certification is now required from all nurse applicants who are eager to land a job locally. And do you know how much it costs? A whopping P10,000 at the Medical City and much lesser for other public hospitals like the Amang Rodriguez in Marikina City, where one cannot just go there and have his name registered. It is frustrating to know that the whom-you-know system is still around because only a select few of nurses are taken in. For example, in the Amang Rodriguez Hospital, only 30 seats are available, out of the 500 applicants on the waiting list. I just don't know how the Department of Health is responding to this, which is administering the said seminars.

What puzzles me a lot is that the Philippine Nurses Association should have a hand in seeing to it that its bonafide members are protected from this kind of harassment. Why can't the PNA just coordinate the seminars with concerned hospitals, instead of the hospitals leading the way. Most hospitals, especially public ones, are always teeming with people waiting to undergo medical check ups.

Perhaps, what the PNA can do is to find a place where it can accommodate the required number of seminarians, and just invite the resource speakers to make the actual demonstrations during the seminar proper. Isn't it a way to decongest traffic in the hospital, which is already saddled with all sorts of administration problems?

If some of the ranking officials of the DOH have taken their masters degree in hospital or public administration, they should be the first to know on how and what to do. Imagine 500 people now waiting on the list, and only 30 are allowed to attend the seminar, what do you think is this? Is there any other way to pacify the feelings of these disgruntled nurses, whose emotions may be running high after they were told that they could not attend an important seminar?

DOH officials, you try to be in the shoes of these people in the waiting list and let us see how you will feel about it.

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