Villar Bats For One Nurse Per Barangay

Senate Bill No. 726 or “A Nurse in Every Barangay Act of 2016” proposes to establish a program for the employment of nurses in every barangay.

Villar noted that the foreign demand for Filipino nurses have waned through the years, thus leaving many of our nurses enemployed and/or underemployed. The Professional Regulation Commission estimated that there are at least 300,000 unemployed nurses in the country.

“The non-deployment of nurses abroad should be viewed as a welcome opportunity to improve the delivery of health services, particulary in far-flung areas. The government may engage the services of the nurses to be at the forefront of government health care programs,” Villar said.

Under the bill, each local government unit is mandated to employ one registered nurse in every barangay within their jurisdiction.The Department of Health is mandated to issue guidelines setting the qualifications of nurses to be deployed to barangays as well as come up with a module for the relevant training of these nurses. The guidelines should not discriminate against the hiring of fresh graduates or newly-passed registered nurses.

Barangay Nurses will be entitled to a monthly stipend preferably equal to Salary Grade 15 or about P25,000, consistent with the mandatory minimum entry-level pay for government nurses under Republic Act 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002.

Nurses under this program are required to provide an annual health status report regarding the average health and wellness of the barangay and must provide suggestions to the local government units to improve the health and wellness of all citizens of the barangay.

The duties of each dispatched nurse include educating their respective barangays on the importance of health, hygiene, sanitation, and wellness. Their goal is not only to address the immediate medical needs of the community, but also, through education, to prevent illnesses and ailments.