Private hospitals on training fees from nurses: Name names

MANILA, Philippines - The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) yesterday asked complainants to name the hospitals allegedly charging fees for nurses’ training.

In a telephone interview, PHAP president Dr. Rustico Jimenez said such hospitals should be identified so as not to drag other healthcare facilities into the issue.

“They have been saying that but we have not received any formal complaint. They have to name names and then produce evidence so that we can act on their complaint,” he said.

The Department of Health and the Senate are now investigating reports that nurses are being made to pay fees if they undergo training in hospitals.

According to Jimenez, there is nothing anomalous if a hospital charges fees for its training programs for specialty nurses or those who are trained for specific fields like cardio-vascular and renal care.

“They are made to pay because during training, they use hospital equipment. They can use the special training that they obtained when they look for a job,” he added.

But Jimenez maintained that there should be no fees for those undergoing on-the-job training.

Meantime, Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) president Dr. Teresita Barcelo warned nurses that undergoing training in hospitals is no longer an assurance that they could land a job abroad.

“Before, if you underwent training, you can already be employed in foreign hospitals. But these days, many recruiters are smarter and they now require certificate of regular employment. They go for nurses who have worked as regular staff in a hospital for at least two years,” she told The STAR.

Barcelo also complained that many hospitals across the country are charging fees for training amounting to as much as P5,000 for three months.

“Actually, you cannot even call it training. There’s no training program and there are no supervisors overseeing the training. The nurses are made to work as regular staff but they are not getting any salary,” she said.

She said nurses should instead enroll in “accredited training programs” of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

New rules

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), for its part, may soon come out with new rules to regulate the hiring of nurse-volunteers in hospitals and other medical facilities nationwide.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said she has ordered the PRC to work with the Department of Health and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on the possible crafting of guidelines for hospitals allowing licensed nurses to work just for training and experience.

Baldoz said there is no existing regulation to stop or penalize government and private hospitals allegedly using the services of licensed nurses for free.

“We do not have labor or health standards to cover the nurse-volunteers. This is actually a gray area until this time,” Baldoz said in an interview.

Although labor inspectors are allowed to check hospitals for compliance with labor standards, Baldoz said DOLE could not consider the employment of nurse-volunteers as a violation due to lack of regulation. – With Mayen Jaymalin