25 nurses quit gov’t program for foreign jobs

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—A government program supposedly meant to encourage nurses to serve in the rural areas has failed to stop 25 of them from getting lucrative jobs abroad.

The Department of Health (DOH) decided to let the nurses go although they had signed a one-year contract under its Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service (RN Heals) program.

“While they have a contract, we cannot hold them. (Perhaps), they are seeking more high-paying jobs,” said Wilma Matutina, officer in charge of the human resource development unit of the DOH regional office.

Those who quit, however, would not be issued a certification of completion, Matutina said.

The DOH is training other nurses to fill up the vacancies.

Nine of the 25 nurses had been assigned to Samar towns, eight to Leyte towns, two to Eastern Samar, four to Northern Samar, and one each to Biliran and Southern Leyte.

The number represented 2 percent of the total 1,149 nurses from Eastern Visayas who availed themselves of the program, Matutina said.

The RN Heals was designed by the national government to provide employment for nurses and health services to the communities where they will serve.

Under the program, nurses will work in rural health units and municipal or provincial hospitals for a year with a monthly salary of P10,000 to P8,000 coming from the DOH and P2,000 from the host local government unit.

The first nurse to quit stopped working on March 1, just 19 days after the program was launched nationwide. The most recent case was on Aug. 23.