There are many aspects of society that were highlighted or emphasized over the course of the pandemic. One of those aspects—and one that was extremely crucial, especially at the height of COVID—is the situation of the healthcare system in the country. The once-hidden cracks in healthcare due to other more pressing national issues have burst open, and the damages of time have come to light. 

Less than favorable wages, a lack of hazard pay, and less than ideal workplace environments, among other factors, have caused a number of healthcare workers to leave the country and seek better opportunities elsewhere. In place of understanding and addressing the issue of the less-than-par treatment of the workers, the proposal of utilizing unlicensed nurses was made.

For this project, the Department of Health (DOH) has proposed to recruit unlicensed nurses in order to fill vacancies in a number of public hospitals, as well as those who have nearly passed the board exam and may be granted temporary licenses.

In a perfect world, this would be a decent proposal, as the idea behind it is logically sound. Giving nursing students an avenue to experience the field that they have yet to enter in an on-the-job training type of way. However, the Philippines is no stranger to having projects with great concepts but terrible execution.

If this were to push through, it is important to be extremely meticulous about how it pushes through. A key point in pushing for this is that the students would have improved chances of passing their eventual licensure exam in the future. However, it should be emphasized that this is done through hands-on experience and not through the connections made while participating in this program.

Issues such as overworking the students, guaranteeing the quality of work, and the overall safety of all parties involved are also points of contention that need to be thoroughly addressed before this comes to pass.

Though the biggest issue in the proposal would be the granting of temporary licenses to those who scored between 70 percent and 74.9 percent in the board exam. This opens another slew of issues involving patients hesitating to accept the care that these individuals can provide due to their inexperience. Additionally, this would set the precedence and have an unexpected ripple effect amongst other professions that require an exam. Should there be a lawyer or engineer shortage in the country, will the same methods apply? The repercussions of such actions should be studied further, as this may reshape the country in ways that no one would expect.

At the end of the day, before even considering this proposal and addressing any concerns that come with it, it should never be forgotten that this is a band-aid solution for a historical national issue. Rather than focusing on short-term solutions, the DOH needs to focus its efforts on improving the overall healthcare system and situation in the country. They need to work on ensuring healthcare workers do not have any reason to search for better opportunities abroad.

This goes for all band-aid solutions proposed by the government to cover up their inadequacy. No amount of proposals should ever cover the fact that problems should be tackled at the source and never danced around. If the DOH really wants to take steps to address the issue at hand, they must look inward and acknowledge the issue at its core.

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The preceding statement relates to a survey conducted by Capstone-Intel Corporation.