What is Project Entreprenurse?

An initiative of DOLE, in collaboration with BON-PRC, DOH, PNA, UPCN, OHNAP and other government and nongovernment entities to promote nurse entrepreneurship by introducing a home health care industry in the Philippines: 1. 2. 3. to reduce the cost of health care for the countrys indigent population by bringing primary health care services to poor rural communities, to maximize employment opportunities for the countrys unemployed nurses and to utilize the countrys unemployed human resources for health for the delivery of public health services and the

achievement of the countrys Millennium Development Goals on maternal and child health, consistent with the Formula One for Health framework of the Department of Health. First Project The Davao Region will be the pilot area for the program wherein there will be one nurses cooperative for each of the five provinces and one for Davao City. It is chosen as the pilot area because the idea for the program was conceptualized by Dole regional Director Jalilo dela Torre. Nearly 500 nurses in Region 11 have now banded together to form nurses cooperatives and are busy complying with the requirements for registration with the Cooperative Development Authority as a cooperative. After registration, they will be assisted by MASICAP to put together business plans that they can use to ask for grants from government and non-government sources. Among the potential sources of revenues for the cooperatives are the local government units, Philhealths capitation fund, foreign donors and migrant Filipino organizations abroad. The DOH will be a critical partner as source of data on the status of health services delivery in poor rural communities. Even before CDA registration, the Davao del Norte group, buoyed by the expression of total support by Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, have already started negotiating with local chief executives, with successful results. The programs strategy is to encourage nurses to form cooperatives with a minimum number of nurse members of 500 and manage nurses clinic, under the supervision of trained and experienced nurses, which will deploy newly licensed nurses to poor rural communities with little or no access to basic health care.