Saw this news article “Filipino Doc Picks Life as Nurse in US” . When I read the article, I felt pain. No, not physical pain but an indescribable emotion. Or would I call it fear? Fear that in this reality, this nation is dying a painful death. People out there in rural areas have no doctors and nurses to care for them. Contrary to that reality is that this nation has hundreds of thousands of nurses graduating every year. Nursing and care-giver training centers have sprung up like mushrooms. Even colleges and universities who do not have healthcare-related courses have started to offer them as part of their programs. Why the interest in a nursing degree? The reason is not because people want to care for the ill but because it is a way to earn money. Such a grim reality. Doctors becoming nurses to be able to work abroad to earn more is also very alarming. What would happen to us who are left here in this country? As one former government health official said, it is not brain drain that is happening, it is brain hemorrhage. True enough. But wait, have I mentioned that our best engineers, teachers and other healthcare-related personnel are also working overseas?

Click here to read about the plight of Elmer Jacinto, the Filipino doc who became a nurse.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Bits and Pieces, Health, My Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.