nars, nars, ay em sik, kol da doktor beri kwik

'tay kunadan: read this, and weep (emphasis mine):

5 gov't hospitals close due to lack of nurses, doctors
First posted 04:19am (Mla time) July 22, 2005
By Volt Contreras
Inquirer News Service

THE LURE of high-paying nursing jobs abroad has doubled the number of nursing schools in the country but has drained medical services in several state-owned hospitals in the provinces, according to former Health Secretary Jaime Galvez Tan.

Three hospitals in Mindanao and two others in Isabela province "are now technically closed ... because there are no available doctors and nurses to service their patients," Galvez Tan said in a briefing for foreign diplomats at the Ateneo Professional Schools in Makati City on Thursday.

The hospitals have been "reduced to midwife clinics," he said.

The Philippines is the world's "No. 1 exporter of nurses," Galvez Tan said. He estimated that 85 percent of the total number of Filipino nurses were working overseas.

From 2000 to 2003, more than 50,000 nurses left the country to seek better employment, mostly in the Middle East, Canada, Britain and the United States, he said.

In 2004, a more alarming phenomenon emerged: Doctors turning into nursing just to take an easy path out of the country.

At least 1,500 Filipino doctors left last year to become nurses abroad, Galvez Tan said.

Today, an estimated 6,000 more doctors are enrolled in local schools offering "abbreviated nursing courses" for them, he said.

Galvez Tan, speaking as a trustee of the non-government Medical Action Group, tackled the nursing exodus as a factor causing Filipinos to be denied their "right to health," one of the topics in the briefing held by the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates.

The brain drain in the health profession has inevitably hurt the public health system, said Galvez Tan, who served as health secretary during the administration of President Fidel Ramos.

Some hospitals in the provinces, he said, have been reduced to a medical staff of one -- usually the solitary midwife -- to avert shutdown.

"They remained open despite having no capacity to have patients confined," he said. "Closing a hospital has become a political decision because the town mayor worries he may not get reelected."

And yet, Galvez Tan reported, the number of nursing schools in the country has more than doubled over the past few years, from 170 in 2001 to 370 in 2004.

But, again, the increase produced ironic results.

"The quality of our nursing education has deteriorated as indicated by the decline in the proportion of nursing graduates who pass licensure examinations," he said.

Since 2000, successful examinees have accounted for only 44 percent of those who took the tests, Galvez Tan said.

The figure used to hover around 70 percent in the 1990s, he added.

©2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved

nakalkaldaang man a talaga ti kastoy a mapaspasamak iti filipinas. booming a kunada ti business ti nursing profession ta agtubo a kasla uong-managadu dagiti nursing schools, agadu ti narses, a, ngem agpapanawda met ket mabati ni juan de la cruz piman a masaksakit nga awan nars ken/wenno doktor a mangtaming iti an-annayenna.

ta dagiti nursing schools itan, ti kangrunaan a yadalda ket no kasano nga agserbida kadagiti pasiente iti abroad a saan ket nga iti lokal wenno bukodda a lugar. dadduma a pagadalan, paset ti kurikulum dagiti review ken seminar a nasken a maipasa ken malpas tapno sigurado a makapagtrabaho iti abroad, saan nga iti filipinas.

nagsakit a panunoten ti kinakomersialisado unay a talagan ti edukasion ket maysa a kangrunaanen daytoy nursing education. nagbalintayon a pabrika ti narses iti intero a lubong. nadesinio ti nursing education nga agserbi kadagiti ganggannaet.

imagine, dagiti dodoktor payen ket agsublida nga agiskoling iti kinanars tapno laeng makapanda iti abroad (ta amang a nangatngato ti sueldo ti nars ngem doktor, iti abroad). no damagem 'tay ubing ita no ania ti ambisionna a pagbalinan wenno no anianto alaenna a kurso, dagus a kunana: "narsing!" saanen a kas idi a dagiti ubbing ket kaaduan a doktor iti medisina ti kayatda a pagbalinan tapno agagasda kadagiti kakaasi ken nakurapay a masakit. itan, kayatdan ti agbalin a nars tapno makapanda iti america wenno europa ken tapno agakupda iti adu a pirak. nagkas-angen a panunoten!

nakarkaro itan ti misedukasion ni filipino! no ngata sibibiag pay daydi historian a renato constantino, nalabit inayonna iti nalatak nga salaysayna a "the miseducation of the filipino" ti maipapan iti daytoy nursing phenomenon.

ay, piman, asi pay ni pinoy ta awan a maawaganna a nars wenno doktor!