KATRIBU Appeals to Nursing Board Passers to Serve the People

BAGUIO CITY (Feb. 3, 2010) — Katribu Partylist congratulates the 2009 nursing board examinee passers for a job well done. The long years of study, training, duties and review have paid off for all of them. We also congratulate their parents and financial supporters for providing them with all their needs to pass this noble career.

Katribu appeals to the board passers to continue in the honorable profession of service to the citizenry. “We do recognize that the country lacks exemplary medical care that should be given where they are. Yearly, we produce a lot of worthy health professionals comparable to foreign experts in their fields of specialization only to lose them to foreign hospitals that could provide them with financial remuneration suited to their expertise. It saddens us that we painfully lack health care while Pinoy professionals slave it out in climes and lands far from hearth and loving family so they could provide us with needed dollars to push our economy,” said Vergel Aniceto, 5th Nominee of Katribu Partylist.

Katribu appeals to our nursing graduates to stay and work with the people especially in the interior barrios that need health care the most. “Most of our people cannot bring the sick to the hospitals, buy expensive medicines and have not even visited a doctor for lack of money. Most of our people go to the health centers of the barangays that do not even have licensed professionals manning them, and health centers that do not even have much more medicines than could fit in a medicine cabinet. It is a sad commentary that while we produce tens of thousands of medical professionals, we close down provincial and district hospitals that could provide much-needed services to more people,” Aniceto added.

Aniceto is also alarmed that less than 50 percent of the examinees passed the nursing board exam. “The percentage of board passers is alarming. It seems that the students are not getting the quality of education and training that they are supposed to get despite the high tuition that they have been paying,” added Aniceto.

Furthermore, Katribu believes that a review of the government’s education program should be done. “The government has been stressing the need to produce graduates that would cater to the global demand like nurses. Since then, nursing schools have mushroomed in the past years, and most of these operate below standard despite charging students exorbitant fees, and thus the increase of nursing degree holders,” expalined Aniceto.

Lastly, Aniceto commended the dedication of rural health workers whose invaluable service to the people, he said, should be emulated by the new graduates. “While our best medical professionals practice in the best hospitals in the Greater Manila Area, our municipal health workers practice in ‘barefoot’ conditions in our barrios. We salute them and appeal to our new nursing graduates to follow their example of service where they are needed most.”

“We appeal to our nurses to serve our people and our country as Florence Nightingale did in her country even in times of war as she served the wounded. We urge our young nursing professionals to serve in the sitios, in the barangays and in towns especially where there are no medical practitioners. We encourage our young nursing professionals to give to our people health services they sorely lack,” said Aniceto.

Reference:

Virgilio M. Aniceto
5th Nominee
Katribu Partylist