Project Entreprenurse set to provide opportunities for nurses
Source: www.goodnewspilipinas.com
The Department of Labor and Employment has launched a new project that provides opportunity to Filipino nurses to become productive while practicing their skills and extending much-needed health services in the countryside.
“Project Entreprenurse is a first of its kind in the Philippines. It seeks to change the outlook of nurses in the country and help them recognize that nurses entrepreneurship is a viable option for them,’’ said Labor Undersecretary Carmelita Pineda, one of the prime movers of the initiative.
“I believe that the significant impact of these newly-formed nurses’ cooperatives will be in public health, where they are expected to contribute to the achievement of our Millennium Development Goals on maternal and child health,’’ she said.
Pineda said the program will be pilot-tested in Davao, adding that the provincial and local government units in Region 11 (Davao Region) have openly answered the call of the DoLE to engage its nurses in the project.
She said some 500 nurses in the region have initially banded into cooperative and are currently complying with the requirements for registration with the Cooperative Development Authority as a cooperative.
The DoLE, she said, will provide the start-up capital for the cooperatives.
According to Pineda, the nurses will be assisted in putting together their business plans so they can ask for grants from government and non-government sources.
Among the potential sources of revenues for the cooperatives are the local government units, PhilHealth’s capitalization fund, foreign donors and migrant Filipino organizations abroad, she said.
Pineda lamented that the growing concern on the lack of formal employment in the local job market and dwindling opportunities abroad has inspired the department to come up with new projects for nurses.
An ICU MICU registered nurse has a median annual income of $63,078 while an RN ICU makes $76,000. Those who perform the job of an ICU CCU nurse in ME has an annual pay check of $65,000 while the ones called RN ambulatory earns $50,000 on average.
Registered Nurse Wage in ME