Comment on RNHEALS Batch 3

This has reference to the comment of one the RNheals from Batch 3 "ask ko lang po kasi un s pinirmahan namin n. contract eh march 19, 2012 to march 19, 2013 pero pinag end kami ng feb 28, 2013 kasi wala na daw po budget.....".

Please be informed that the duration of Batch III starts on March 1, 2012 and shall end on February 28, 2013 to complete the one(1) year training period. Thus, all trainees accepted in Batch III, whether they entered late shall end their term on February 28, 2013.

Thank you. 

Hermenegildo M. Caronan, Jr

Administrative Officer V

Health Human Resource Development Bureau

Department of Health, Manila

Spanish study finds nurses and doctors equally competent in providing primary care for common health issues

A study by Mireia Fàbregas, MD, of the Institut Català de la Salut, in Barcelona, Spain, and her colleagues has been published in the online version of the Journal of Advanced Nursing on 21 March 2013. The findings suggest that nurses may be able to take on some of the care generally provided by physicians.

In a trial involving 1,461 adult patients who requested same day appointments to see either nurses trained to respond to problems with low complexity or to see general practitioners, the investigators found that nurses successfully solved 86.3% of the cases.

DOH: RNHEALS Batch 4 to be deployed this month

The Department of Health (DOH) today said that 22,500 nurses of the fourth batch of its Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service Project, also known as RN Heals, will be deployed after their orientation starting this month in various areas of the country.

“This Project aims to improve access of the country’s poor to quality healthcare with social services by creating a pool of registered nurses with enhanced clinical and preventive health management competencies that will eventually increase the nurses’ employability,” Health Secretary Enrique Ona stated.

‘RN Heals is essentially a form of exploitation’

The Aquino administration boasts that the RN Heals program is one of its achievements. But NARS ng Bayan, a national association of community health nurses and people’s health advocates, has a contrary view. In fact, NARS sees RN Heals essentially as a form of exploitation.

RN Heals hires licensed qualified nurses for one year—as “contractuals.” The nurses are made to perform regular nursing tasks and augment the nursing manpower in many understaffed hospitals; yet, they are considered “trainees” with an allowance of not more than P8,000 a month. Meager as it is, the release of the allowance in many cases is even delayed for 2-3 months. Meantime, trainees spend for their daily needs (meals and transportation) and other incidental expenses like scrub suits, gloves or even medicines for job-related health problems like allergy, etc.

DOH: RN Heals addresses nurses' shortage

Saturday, January 19, 2013

THE Department of Health (DOH) is deploying at least 180 registered nurses and midwives under the agency's RN HEALS program in the different areas of Zamboanga del Sur, a top health official said.

RN Heals, which stands for Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service, is aimed to address the shortage of skilled and experienced nurses in rural and un-served or underserved communities for a period of one year.

DOH Regional Director Dr. Teogenes Baluma said the registered nurses and midwives, who will serve under the program, will be deployed this month in the different areas of Zamboanga del Sur.