PHILIPPINES  Religious In Health Ministry Cope With Continuing Exodus Of Nurses

MANILA (UCAN) --- Religious running hospitals and schools in the Philippines are asking nurses who leave them to work abroad for higher salaries not to abandon them entirely.

St. Camillus Hospital in Calbayog City, 475 kilometers southeast of Manila, in the central Philippine province of Western Samar, has asked for donation pledges from their former nurses who have gone abroad. Some of the nurses send back 2,000-5,000 pesos (US$36-$90) each on a regular basis to contribute to subsidy programs for needy patients.

"This practice of constant giving is more important than how big the amount is," Father Aristelo Miranda, the hospital administrator, told UCA News. He added that 15 nurses from the hospital have left over the past few years to work in Britain. They are part of an exodus that saw an estimated 87,000 Philippine nurses go abroad between 1992 and 2003.

Two doctors who have been working as consultants at St. Camillus recently passed the nursing boards and also plan to work abroad, Father Miranda added.

The hospital now operates as a 25-bed facility, mainly because it lacks the required personnel to run it at its full 60-bed capacity, he said. It is not a "full charity" hospital, but has programs that cover up to 70 percent of the cost of services to needy patients, except doctors' fees, the priest added.

Father Miranda pointed out that many poor people do not set aside money for health needs and go to the hospital only for life-threatening conditions.

In Paranaque city, just south of Manila, Sister Eva Fidela Maamo, medical director and president of Our Lady of Peace Hospital, also sees staff leaving continually. "Most nurses just stay for a while, then they proceed to the U.S.," she told UCA News.

The St. Paul de Chartres nun, a licensed surgeon, said she cannot blame the nurses for wanting to have "better opportunities for their families." Even doctors shift to nursing because requirements for licensure as doctors abroad are stiffer than for Philippines - trained nurses, Sister Maamo explained.

She expressed her appreciation for whatever time and help health workers can offer to the 100-bed charity hospital she heads. Thirty-five volunteer doctors and a staff of 22 employed nurses treat patients. Volunteers in various departments, including hospital and outreach nursing staff, assist them.

Sister Maamo said health workers also volunteer for surgical missions she organizes outside the hospital. "Many are happy to be a part of the team, and they tell me that God blesses them after they've given themselves to the poor," the nun continued. She said staff who leave to work overseas return to the hospital and volunteer their services while they are in the country.

Some 370 kilometers southeast of Manila, Daughters of Charity nuns at St. Anthony College Hospital in Roxas City, Capiz province, train nurses as their mission partners, a former student and nursing staff member reported. The nurse, Jesilyn Distor, told UCA News that nuns taught her and fellow nursing students to pray daily and that caring for the sick is a way they can help other people experience God's love. Those who, like Distor, are leaving to work in Central Asia also receive orientation on the cultures and religious practices in the predominantly Muslim countries there.

In 2004, a study by the state-run University of the Philippines National Institute of Health attributed "massive health worker migration" in the country to "an effective combination of low salaries for health professionals in the Philippines and the tremendous demand for health professionals abroad."

The study estimated more than 20,000 nursing positions were available annually in about 32 countries between 1992 and 2003, and projected Philippine nurses would continue to work overseas for the next 10-15 years. Nurses abroad can make a monthly salary of US$4,000-6,000, compared with US$180-240 in the Philippines, the state university study found.

Records of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines Office on Research for the same year list 44 hospitals and 78 dispensaries and clinics run by Catholic groups around the country.

The government's Overseas Employment Agency, which keeps count of departures, found that in 2004 the most frequent destinations for nurses were: Saudi Arabia, Britain, Kuwait, the United States, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Singapore, Jordan and Saipan, part of the United States' Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

PR9092.1364     October 26, 2005