In 2010, 287,00 nurses in the Philippines are noted to be either unemployed and/ or underemployed. And with the recent release of those who have passed the December 2011 NLE, the statistics will surely inflate by a hundred fold. But, if I consider the layman's definition of underemployment, I have to say I should also be counted in the statistics since I rarely use my clinical skills at ACCESS Health.
When I left my 5 year clinical work in PGH for a chance of a public health exposure in UlaanBaatar, I have left my hospital skills inside that yellow- green and orange tainted charity ward since I cannot include "I.V insertion or Inotropes computation" in my training.Though at times I miss all the hustle of an overloaded nurse, the thing that I am missing most is my day to day interaction with my cute patients. It had been seven years since I graduated from UPCN and each time we attend the "despedida" of one of our close friends, I can't help but think that I am way over the two year service of UPCN graduates for the country. It makes me think that I can no longer rationalize that my stay here was an obligation to the country but actually my personal choice.
Three years ago, I had exactly the same sentiments on becoming a nurse who stays when my dear best friend left for Abu Dhabi. I recalled that during that year I was already burned out with what I saw in how we were caring for our patients in the hospital. I have seen parents who compete for hospital admissions only to found out that having their children admitted in the hospital will only cut short their lives. There were missed doses of medicines, compromises in the patient care, delayed laboratory diagnostics and apparent divisions in socio-economic status that only those who can afford will have higher chances of living. There were a million and one instances when I lay in my bed after a stressful duty that I realized that I have to look outside to feel more. I have to be outside to see more.
Now that I am outside the four walls of the hospital, does that make me less of a nurse? Working for three months in ACCESS Health allows me to advocate for the nursing profession in small ways. Though my job position and designation is not of a clinical "nurse", I believe that it did not rob my throbbing "nursing" heart.
With a different job position, I still feel as a nurse trying to resuscitate not of a patient but the morale of nurses.Though it is quite discouraging that typical Filipino nurses nowadays feel demoralized if they tell others that they are nurses. In fact, when I attended "big" meetings, even "big people" refer to "nurses" as a societal problem. The once known caring profession has evolved into an unemployment statistics that needed to respond to.
I think I am still the same nurse who once administered oxygen and medications to hospitalized pediatric patients. Though I do not operate with surgical scissors nor carry with me patient endorsement files, I am still the same nurse who along with a few of my batch mates employed in or out of hospitals here in the country , who still tries to find ways to stay.
