Herbosa wants to create a nursing advisory council
Nursing students of Centro Escolar University. (File photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa plans to create a nursing advisory council and appoint a “chief nursing officer” that would help address issues of the shortage of nurses, partly due to their leaving for abroad.
According to Herbosa, he proposed the council to a nursing group, which only initially proposed appointing a chief nursing officer.
“The WHO [World Health Organization] recommends a chief nursing officer. That’s what they’re pushing — that I appoint a chief nursing officer. I’ll do more than that. I’ll support the creation of a chief nursing officer and I’ll also create a whole council,” Herbosa said, speaking partly in Filipino, in a press briefing on Monday.
He added that both the public and private sectors would be invited to sit on the council, along with the Philippine Nursing Association, the Philippine Board of Nursing, and the Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Philippines.
However, Herbosa said that the Department of Health (DOH) would still have to issue an administrative order and get the support of Congress in coming up with a law that would allow him to appoint a nursing executive.
“We’ll try to create a department administrative order creating this particular council … and we will appoint a chief nursing officer, and to make this legal we’ll probably ask our friends in Congress to eventually pass a law to be able to create a chief nursing officer for the Philippines,” Herbosa said.
The proposal came after Herbosa suggested allowing “almost passing” nursing exam flunkers to qualify for a special permit and practice entry-level positions in government hospitals.
Several lawmakers opposed the proposal. The Professional Regulations Commission pointed out that there was no law allowing Herbosa to issue special permits to unlicensed nurses.
Herbosa previously said that there were 4,500 vacant nurse positions in DOH hospitals.
