ESPINOLA, MATHEW GIAN Y. PROF. REDELITA G.

HABOC
BSN 4-4

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ON THE ARTICLE “COVID-19 AND THE

INTERNATIONAL SUPPLY OF NURSES”

In light with the global pandemic, there are numerous unprecedented

challenges being faced by the healthcare profession. The rapidly growing health
crisis directly translates to increasing workload of the healthcare professionals. The
article mentioned above tackled the impacts of the global pandemic on the nursing
workforce. It also talked about how the healthcare profession, especially nurses,
was dealt with extra hours worked and the taxing burden of wearing personal
protective equipment during their work shifts. Another point which I would like to
emphasize is the part of the article of which it stated a “new normal” for the nursing
profession which ultimately leads to increase of nursing staff and betterment of the
nursing profession and workplace.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), decent work is

defined as “productive work for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity,
security and human dignity”. A work is considered as decent when it pays a fair
income, guarantees a secure form of employment and safe working conditions for
the employee. During the global pandemic, the said definition of a decent work
became little to none existent in the nursing field specially in the Philippines. A lot of
reports regarding overworked and underpaid nurses are flooding the national media
as the effect of the pandemic continuous to worsen every day. As a future nurse, it is
very alarming how the national government handles the health crisis which forces
nurses and other healthcare professionals in a position where a lot of them are not
renewing their contracts or filing resignation letters due to the poor response of the
government.
 Although nurses and other healthcare professionals are bound to do good
and help the public especially in this challenging times, we cannot disregard the
seemingly inhumane work conditions and unfair compensation for their work. What I
find very disturbing is the fact that Filipino nurses work extended hours in a very hot
personal protective equipment suit, in which they can’t eat nor take bathroom
breaks, yet the hazard pay and other financial compensations are unjust or not
being released by the government. It seems like nurses work extra hard for the work
they did not ask for yet efforts are not compensated properly or appreciated in a
pretentious manner.

At this rate, employment of nurses would be directly affected and would

significantly drop due to the said problems in the workplace. Although the
Philippines is one of, if not the top supplier of professional nurses in the world, there
are little to no efforts shown to make Filipino nurses stay and serve their own
country. Although many hospitals are scrambling now to hire nurses and other
health care professionals, others still chose not the work due to multiple reasons
such as unbalanced workload, small compensation and increasing risk of
contracting covid-19.

With these said, It is important that we learn from this global pandemic so that
we can be prepared in the future. I personally believe that the healthcare
professionals are not at fault with our current situation today since medical
professionals in the Philippines are up to par with the best. This challenging times
should enlighten the nation that we are already overflowing with competent
healthcare professionals, we just need to make them stay to serve their own country
by improving their work environment and giving fair compensations.

Reference: Buchan, J. (2020) COVID-19 AND THE INTERNATIONAL SUPPLY OF

NURSES. International Council of Nurses. Retrieved From
https://www.icn.ch/system/files/documents/2020-
07/COVID19_internationalsupplyofnurses_Report_FINAL.pdf