CHAPTER 1THE PROBLEMIntroduction
Interest in the concepts of job satisfaction has grown in recent years because of their efficacy on work commitment, and their basicimportance to the understanding of a worker’s behavior and thecontinuous effective operations of organizations.In the Philippines, nurses have been constantly exposed toconsiderable internal and external organizational issues which couldhave negative effects on their level of job satisfaction and workcommitment. Several literature on nursing have raised the issues onheavy workload, poor working conditions, meager compensationpackages, poor interpersonal relationships, weak leadership, non-recognition of exemplary work, and lack of opportunities for careergrowth as possible major factors of work stress and dissatisfaction. These issues may serve as possible causes for nurses to reconsider theirlong-range work options, and lower their work commitment.In spite of an average of 600,000 college students enrolling innursing courses every year, making up 25% of the total college enrollees,the nursing sector of the Philippines is incurring a shortage of nurses(Solmerin, 2007). This could be the result of massive exodus of nurses tomany countries. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show
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that the Philippines is leading other nations in the exportation of nurses(www.abbaphilippines.com; Gatbonton, 2006; Villas, 2004), comprising25% of all overseas nurses worldwide (Estella, 2005). As of 2006, thereare already 164,000 Filipino nurses, 85% of the country’s total, workingoutside the Philippines in about 46 countries. Out of this total, around100,000 of them have left only within the past 10 years (Cueto, 2006; www.sunstar.com.ph; Estella, 2005; Omi, 2006). There are also those who are still in the country who, while waiting for opportunities to behired abroad, are not practicing their profession, instead they end up working as call center agents and tellers in some private banks.Dr. Irineo Bernardo, executive officer of the Philippine HospitalAssociation, as quoted by Estella (2005), avers that the turnover of nurses has been particularly high from year 2000 to 2007. And as morenurses leave, the Philippines is only left with more unskilled anduntrained nurses.In 2001, the Philippine Overseas and Employment Agency (POEA)reported that 13,536 Filipino nurses went overseas. In contrast, thatsame year, only 4,430 students passed the Nursing Board Examination,clearly showing that the country has been exporting more nurses than itis producing (Estella, 2005). Jossel Ebesate, secretary general of the Alliance of Health Workers(AHW) as cited by www.sunstar.com.ph, said that if the trend of exporting nurses outside the country continues, the Philippine health-
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care system will soon collapse. This observation is supported by recordsfrom the Department of Education (DepEd) which show that as of 2007,the nurse-to-student ratio in schools is already standing at 1:4,830(Hicap, 2006; www.gov.ph). This broad ratio gap manifests the difficultyof the government to help students who are facing malnutrition andhealth problems to perform well in school. DepEd officials explain that if only schools have enough medical personnel, then the health concerns of students could have easily been responded (Hicap, 2006; www.gov.ph). The public school nurses are among those responsible for theimplementation of DepEd’s key programs on school health and nutrition. These programs are (www.deped.gov.ph): a) health and nutritioneducation; b) national drug education; c) health services; d) medical,dental and nursing; e) TB (pulmonary tuberculosis) prevention andcontrol; f) school milk project; and g) breakfast feeding program.Given such important duties and responsibilities, the DepEdnurses are only receiving an entry basic monthly salary of P11,167.00(www.sunstar.com.ph), a far cry from the salaries they could get abroad which range from P100, 000 to P150,000, exclusive of fringe benefits(Adversario, 2003; Rosario, 2006).Under the Republic Act 9173, otherwise known as the Nursing Actof 1992, government nurses are supposedly provided with salaryadjustment. But until now, this adjustment has remainedunimplemented (Villas, 2004). It could have increased the monthly
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