Hospitals to Nurse Volunteers: "Show Me the Money"

SPONSORED ARTICLE

In light of the upcoming run that ALLGEN is sponsoring, we thought it appropriate to bring up the topic of volunteering.

We all know that many nurses are offering their services as volunteers to hospitals and other health institutions. The sad truth is that majority of these institutions require nurse "volunteers" to pay a fee in order to serve. Note the use of quotation marks on the word volunteer. By definition, the word volunteer imparts the idea of free will. Merriam-Webster gives us the following descriptions.

As a noun:

1 : a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service: as a : one who enters into military service voluntarily b (1) : one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest (2) : one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration

Nowhere in the definition can you see any mention of money. Monetary compensation is not the essence of volunteering. Why then are "volunteer" nurses in the Philippines asked to pay to render their services?

You may say that the intention of those nurses who volunteer are not that pure anyway. Some - if not many - nurses volunteer simply because they need the experience in order to get accepted to higher paying jobs outside of the country. But, did you know that if you render volunteer service while not a registered nurse, it won't be counted anyway?

That is beside the point, though, volunteerism ought to be a pure act. On the one hand, hospitals and health institutions accepting volunteer nurses ought to willingly accept the services of those who offer - without any thought for the additional income that can be had. On the other hand, nurses ought to willingly offer their services without making "experience for their resume" the primary objective. Isn't helping others without asking anything in return the spirit of nursing anyway?

What do you think about volunteering and volunteer fees? Do you have any personal experience? Do share them with us!

0 Vote up Vote down

mae · 758 weeks ago

at the hospital where im working as volunteer nurse they call us now as nurse trainee for them not to be questioned about the fees they are collecting....when i was a student the fee was 3,000 pesos but when its my turn to volunteer it rise to 4,000 pesos......

freda · 758 weeks ago

nurse volunteers are being taken advantaged of by the hospital and might as well be called slaves. In more progressive countries new nurses are hired on a probationary status and paid a living wage. Administrators, owners, stockholders (no matter what nationality) use these neophyte nurses to lower their bottom line and increase their profits. All nurses should be outraged by this abuse of recently graduated nurses!

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

lenny · 756 weeks ago

you're absolutely right , freda, in fact in my province Nueva Ecija there's a hospital who really collecting fees for the volunteers even they are graduated from their school whicn is Nueva Ecija Colleges and double collection for non graduated or comes in other school. I dont understand that because you wanted to have experience needed for the employment you have to pay for the experiences you might gain in their hospital... I hope that hospital like this give their attention and consideration for the future nurses..

dota · 755 weeks ago

Guys, for me all of them are bunch of suckers..they have no heart ravish and inhuman. Nurses are people serve people starting from birth until to the dying patients.I cannot imagine how cruel our government and hospitals to take advantage in our profession (F.U. FREAKS!) they are the one who punishing us in our own country...Well you cannot stop us from applying to other countries not just beacause of your stupid system but for greener pasture of our family.