Through the years, Nurses, Nursing Leaders and Nursing organizations have been fighting to uphold the welfare of the Nursing profession in the Country. Several laws have been passed to give the nurses security and alleviate the problems present in their workplaces. However, given that the nurses are still presently in chains of poor working conditions, low income, volunteerism and unstable employment, a new bill has been circulated and passed in the congress and senate which was later on vetoed by President Aquino. It is the Comprehensive Nursing Law of 2015.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, chairman of the Committee on Civil Service and Government Reorganization, sponsored the bill which will "expand the scope of nursing practice to encompass not only the nursing education service but also research, and leadership and governance, as inherent areas of the practice."
One of the main provisions in the bill is the setting of the minimum base pay of Filipino nurses to Salary Grade 15 or P24,887 for public and private health institutions (Article VII Section 47).
It also requires passing a National Nursing Admission Test or NNAT before admission to any Basic Program for Nursing Education (Article V Section 35).
Now, the major turning point of this law was supposed to be the Salary increase of all the nurses in PUBLIC AND PRIVATE health institutions which would apparently improve their lives and would encourage them to perform to the best of their ability and to render quality nursing care to the patients.
However, on June 15, 2016, the proposed bill was vetoed by President Benigno Aquino III noting that the that the minimum base pay for entry-level nurses has already been increased through Executive Order No. 201, series of 2016, which raised their total guaranteed annual compensation from P228,924.00 to P344,074.00.
This raise on the flip side, is only applicable to those who are working in Public institutions and no changes were made for nurses working in Private institution.
On the brighter side, several senators have committed to re-file the bill for the sake of all the Filipino nurses who have been struggling due to exploitation and injustices in the archipelago.
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