Some nurses find it hard to look for a job opportunity in a hospital because some hospitals require us nurses to render voluntary service instead of having us paid for what services we gave. There are some hospitals wherein they will hire you not as a staff nurse, ER nurse or whatsoever, but will hire you as a volunteer nurse. No salary at all, no benefits, just pure service.
I decided to write this blog because I’ve been a volunteer nurse for 4 months. In the hospital where I worked, I didn’t have any benefits at all. I worked overtime without pay. My parents even paid for their check ups in the said hospital were I worked. Some hospitals use this opportunity to have less pay, more workers. Imagine, the nurses are working for you without pay. There are other hospitals that will require you to pay for the training for thousands of pesos and yet after the said training, they will not hire you nor absorb you to be part of their medical team. That’s one of the many reasons why many of us nurses are in the call center industry.
I have friends who are Registered Nurses and yet work in a call center. I asked one of my friends why not pursue his career. He said, “Tol mahirap i-pursue ang nursing career dito. Para maging staff ka sa isang hospital, kailangan mo muna mag-volunteer o kaya magbayad ka ng training fee nila”. I felt sad when I heard my friend say this because we share the same experience. Months of work, Hours of stressful duty, hundreds of patients whom you deal with and no salary to compensate for your daily needs?
What a mess. It is very sad because some nurses who failed to pursue their nursing careers because of financial incapability tended to look for a call center company that will hire them and pay them. If you asked some of these nurses who were very successful in the the call center industry whether they still look to pursue their career, they’ll say, “Bakit? Kikitain ko ba sa hospital yung kinikita ko sa call center? Hindi naman diba”?
I felt sad because there are lots of nurses here in the Philippines who aren’t practicing their profession because of financial issues. Someone also told me, “Being a nurse is giving your full service to care for the patients from the beginning of life up to the last breath” but how can I do such statement if I can’t support myself and my family. All of us nurses must have continuous education but wouldn’t it be possible that the hospital give us even an allowance? How about the many registered nurses who want to practice their profession but didn’t have the financial support they need to do so?
My mother was also a registered nurse and she told me once, “Ang nurses noon, Madali makapasok ng hospital. Kapag minsan nga kahit wala kang lisensya, hina-hire ka na o kaya kapag may lisensya ka, pasa ka lang sa hospital, hired ka na kagad. Wala ng training training”. How I wish the old system my mother told me is brought back by these hospitals. How I wish the government starts to pay attention in giving countless opportunities to us nurses so that there will be less nurses entering the call center industry.
We didn’t study for four freaking years just to be a call center agent.
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