A plan to add healthcare assistance and healthcare associates in hospitals in a bid to address the impact of nursing shortage in the country was proposed to President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, July 11. President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo courtesy of Yummie Dingding/PPA Pool)
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson J. Prospero De Vera III said he presented to the President a medium-term plan to create healthcare assistants and healthcare associates during a sectoral meeting in Malacañang. "The medium-term is, we are working with TESDA (Technological Education and Skills Development Authority) to create what we call health care assistants and health care associates," De Vera said. "You know, the hospitals are saying that the nurses have too many tasks that they are unable to focus on patient care. So we are working with the Private Sector Advisory Council in the Department of Health (DOH) to identify the tasks that nurses should not be doing anymore so they can focus on patient care," he added. The CHED Chairperson told the President that skills such as checking a patient's blood pressure, temperature, and patient care "will be produced by a shorter program to produce what we call health care associates and health care assistants." "This can be a certificate or diploma program issued by TESDA or CHED or by both so that we produce – you don’t have to wait for five years to produce it; you can produce it within a year or two years – so we will have supplemental workforce to address the needs of our hospitals. That’s the medium-term," De Vera explained. He further said that the plan would help "deload" the nurses' workload thus, allowing them to be more efficient as they would be able to focus on more patients through the additional workforce.

President Marcos presides over a sectoral meeting on Tuesday, July 11, to discuss the plans of the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education. 📷 Yummie Dingding/ PPA pool @manilabulletin pic.twitter.com/Yu5CGr3GvY

— Betheena Unite (@MB_unite) July 11, 2023

Another medium-term plan De Vera presented to the President was the development of a fast-track master’s program. "What we saw is that many of the schools cannot open a lot of sections because they lack teachers with master’s degrees; a lot of the nursing faculty with master’s degrees are also being recruited by other countries," he said. "So we are producing a short-term fast-track master’s program to produce more teachers so that the schools can have more classes. So that’s the medium-term," he added. This as only about 50 percent of nursing graduates pass the licensure test. De Vera said they are now working with the DOH, private hospitals, and universities with "very good" track record in having review classes. "So we will hold special review classes for those employed in the DOH and in private hospitals as aides or assistants so that they can pass the licensure test and we can produce more graduates," the official said. The lifting of a 10-year moratorium on the creation of new nursing programs is the government's long-term plan to address nursing shortage. De Vera said there are 54 universities that applied to open nursing programs. Once approved, these universities can produce about 252 students by academic year 2027-2028. "So that’s the long-term. You lift the nursing moratorium so you will have more schools that will offer nursing programs and produce more graduates. But we don’t have to wait for five, six years to produce more," he said. The moratorium was lifted after 11 years of its imposition which aimed to keep the quality of nursing graduates up. At present, De Vera said 51 percent  of the registered nurses in the Philippines are practicing abroad. On Monday, Marcos stated that the Philippines became [“a victim of our own success”](https://mb.com.ph/2023/7/10/us-business-execs-intend-to-work-with-ph-in-improving-its-healthcare-system) especially during the pandemic where a lot of world leaders have asked for the country’s help to deploy more Filipino nurses and medical practitioners abroad. This, he said, has resulted in the shortage of healthcare workers in the country.