The Nurses' Black-Out Campaign

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 [From admin@aynla.org]

Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates International The Global Network of Young Leaders in Healthcare Supporting the UN MDGs

AYNLA LAUNCHED THE NURSES' BLACK-OUT CAMPAIGN 2011



"Over 200,000 nurses are unemployed, underemployed & abused in the Philippines. Many of us are overworked but extremely underpaid. Help us gather awareness & support by changing your profile picture to pitch black from January 01-11,2011. It is time we take care of our prime care professionals! Appreciate your Nurses, take care of them - like they take care of you. Join the campaign now! " [www.aynla.org]

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Main Objectives:

1. To utilize social media as a tool for nurses' rights awareness building;
2. To initiate social & mass mobilizations in relation to the protection of nurses' rights;
3. To garner online & non-online support from individuals, organizations and communities to end all forms of discrimination and abuse to nurses in the workplaces and communities.

Rationale:
In 2010, the Philippine Professional Regulation Commission, head agency for all the professionals in the country stated that there is already close to 200,000 unemployed and underemployed professional registered nurses in the country. And with the recently concluded December 2010 Nurse Licensure Examinations, the Philippines will be expecting more than 20,000 additional new nurses joining the unemployed sector. This rapidly growing concern of the nurses is now a crisis in the country. The Philippines is the top producer of export nurses and supplies the nursing shortage to many foreign countries but ironically lacks many skilled nurses itself. >>Read More

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UK envoy: Employ RP nurses at home first

JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE, GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/173054/uk-envoy-employ-rp-nurses-at-home-first

Before the Philippines could start sending out Filipino health care workers in droves abroad, it should first begin populating its hospitals with nurses.

The current surplus in Filipino nurses should be used by the government to care for its own people, said newly installed British Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Lillie. 

“You have a lot of nurses in the Philippines but there are some parts of the Philippines that do not have nurses," Lillie said on Thursday.

Although the British government is proud that its health care system has Filipino nurses, Lillie said the UK would eventually want to be self-sustaining.

There are about 250,000 Filipinos staying in the United Kingdom, most of whom are working in the health care industry.

Aside from the promise of more than 20 times the salary for nurses in the Philippines, Filipino nurses are often lured to work in the UK in hopes of petitioning their families to live with them there.

But Lillie said the UK is not like Canada or Australia which encourages immigration of foreign workers and their families.

“We want our health care service to be self-sustaining," he added.

Since 2005, the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) noted that the demand for Filipino nurses in countries like the UK, US, and Canada have already reached their quotas, causing thousands of fresh graduates to cease finding employment overseas.

The number of unemployed Filipino nurses was estimated at 400,000 in 2008.

Then PNA National President Leah Primitiva Samaco-Paquiz said the perceived oversupply of nurses is really caused by the inability of Philippine hospitals to create additional plantilla positions for fresh graduates.

Back to the barangay

To absorb the surplus of Filipino nurses, the government created a program to send them to hospitals in rural areas for training.

Under the Nurses Assigned in Rural Areas (NARS) program, which the British government has also been supporting, unemployed nurses will be made to return to their hometowns for a six-month tour of duty and will be given P8,000 a month as stipend or allowance. (For more information click on the Department of Labor and Employment’s website)

But Jackson Gan, vice president of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, said the program only addresses the temporary employment of nurses but it would not make them attractive abroad. [See: NARS won't make RP nurses attractive abroad]

“Trained nurses in specialty areas like surgical wards, burn ICU (Intensive Care Unit), neo-natal ICU, cardiac cath lab, nursery nurses, pedia, cardio-vascular, emergency, therapy, and clinical wards, which are in demand in the Middle East and Western countries like the USA, UK, Australia and Canada," Gan said.

He said funds for the NARS program should be diverted instead to the improvement of government hospital facilities in both rural and urban areas “so that more nurses can be hired in those areas and accumulate the training needed for work abroad." - GMANews.TV

Filipinos sue CA hospital over English-only rule

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By AMY TAXIN, Associated Press – Tue Dec 7, 5:52 pm ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_on_bi_ge/ca_filipino_nurses_discrimination

LOS ANGELES – Dozens of Filipino hospital workers in California sued their employer Tuesday alleging they were the sole ethnic group targeted by a rule requiring them to speak only English.

The group of 52 nurses and medical staff filed a complaint accusing Delano Regional Medical Center of banning them from speaking Tagalog and other Filipino languages while letting other workers speak Spanish and Hindi.

The plaintiffs are seeking to join an August complaint filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Kern County federal court over the hospital's enforcement of a rule requiring workers to speak English.

Filipino workers said they were called to a special meeting in August 2006 where they were warned not to speak Tagalog and told surveillance cameras would be installed, if necessary, to monitor them. Since then, workers said they were told on a daily basis by fellow staffers to speak only English, even on breaks.

"I felt like people were always watching us," said tearful 56-year-old Elnora Cayme, who worked for the hospital from 1980 to 2008. "Even when we spoke English ... people would come and approach us and tell us, 'English only.'"

A message was left at the hospital seeking comment.

In its lawsuit, the EEOC has accused the hospital in California's San Joaquin Valley of creating a hostile working environment for Filipinos by singling them out for reprimands and for encouraging other staff to report them. The agency is seeking an injunction to protect the workers against future discrimination.

[Rewind: Politician caught in English-only controversy]

The EEOC has seen an increase in complaints alleging discrimination based on national origin amid a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, said Anna Park, a regional attorney for the EEOC. That's especially the case in California's central valley, where a greater share of the complaints the agency receives relate to such issues than in the nation as a whole.

In this case, the current and former hospital workers filed a separate complaint under state law in part because monetary damages are capped by federal law, said Julie Su, litigation director for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which represents the plaintiffs. They want the English-only policy to be changed and for hospital staff to be trained on the new rule.

[Political candidate's statement: 'This is Alabama, we speak English']

Under California law, employers may require workers to speak English if there is a business necessity, Su said.

Delano Regional Medical Center is a 156-bed hospital located about 30 miles north of Bakersfield.

Israel not hiring Filipino nurses—Baldoz

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MANILA, Philippines—Israel is not hiring Filipino nurses, Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldos said Monday in a strong warning to Filipino nurses dreaming to work there. 

“Filipinos are hired in Israel as home-based caregivers, and not as nurses,” she warned, citing a report of Labor Attache to Israel Merriam Cuasay saying the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Tel Aviv continue to receive reports that certain unscrupulous recruiters are still offering jobs for Filipino nurses for a Jordan Valley Medical Center.

“This center is fictitious. No such hospital exists in Israel. Job openings in Israel are only for home-based caregivers, not nurses,” Cuasay reported to Baldoz.

The labor and employment chief had noted that just recently, the so-called Jordan Valley Medical Center figured in the news after the Department of Foreign Affairs also issued a warning to Filipino nurses that the hospital is non-existent.

Baldoz’s warning to Filipino nurses not to fall prey to illegal recruiters promising them jobs to the fictitious hospital was followed by a directive to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to conduct a massive information campaign against illegal recruitment activities through its regional and provincial offices.

“I direct the POEA to bring this warning down to all local government units to inform our countrymen of this illegal and criminal activity. It must issue an advisory or a bulletin right away and exert all efforts to identify and apprehend these illegal recruiters luring nurses to non-existent jobs in that country,” Baldoz said.


http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20101129-305942/Israel-not-hiring-Filipino-nursesBaldoz

Free the 43 Health Workers NOW! Unity March on December 2!

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Free the 43 Health Workers Alliance is a consortium of non-government health organizations, health professional organizations, church institutions, human rights groups and advocates founded on February 2010 to call for the immediate release of the 43 health workers. Since then, the alliance has launched massive campaigns for immediate legal action and public information.

On February 6, forty-three health workers were illegally arrested by combined forces of the Philippine Army and Philippine National Police while conducting a First Responders Health Skills Training in Morong, Rizal. They were incarcerated and tortured in Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal, and later on transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, after relatives and supporters demanded that the health workers be transferred to a civilian detention facility from the courts.

Comments From Filipino Nurses Facebook Page (Batch 2)

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[Nurse Junex] Just wanted to reiterate: Im calling to all To my fellow colleagues who are Trainees/Volunteers, please share your experience. It maybe sentiments or not...This is the time to hear your voice out as this will be shared tomorrow during the public hearing w/ Sen. Pia Cayetano... 

Comments From Filipino Nurses Facebook Page (Batch 1)

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Filipino NURSES

‎[Nurse Junex] Any Nurse Volunteers/Trainees? Can you please share with us your real experiences?