Since 1994, 100,000 Filipino nurses have left the Philippines to work abroad. A good proportion of that figure are doctors who decided to become nurses.
Here is one more young doctor shifting into the field of nursing. She expresses her sentiments and reasons for choosing a new career. I do not blame her for her decision. Maybe if majority of the doctors here become nurses, and leave for greener pastures abroad, some good leader(s) of this country will notice there’s a big problem in the health system, and do something about it. I just pray that when that happens, it is not too late yet.
Excerpts from the article:
“If this nation thinks that paying $200 to a doctor here is equivalent to $5,000 to a nurse abroad and should be enough compensation for our toil and brains, I am not going to play a martyr. We doctors are just like every decent, hard-working citizen of this country who has an instinct of self-preservation. We are trying to stay afloat even as the nation seems to be sinking. Government officials can continue to bicker until one day they have to go to a hospital — only to find it empty. We boast about the brawn we send overseas, but if we lose our brain as well, what is going to happen to this country?”“Since I am young and broke, this could all be useless bellyaching. But couldn’t it also be the valid complaints of a thinking citizen of this country? Although some of our colleagues remain hopeful about our country’s future, I don’t think I can stay longer, waiting for a miracle. I am turning 30 in a few months, with only one ton of medical textbooks and a stethoscope for assets. And I still owe my parents half a million pesos in medical school tuition. A doctor cannot save lives if his own is in peril.”