Changing the Face of Nursing in the Philippines  
           “Project Entreprenurse will push the boundaries of nursing
     Ethel Doria Sinajon is a 42-year-old registered nurse and married
with two children. She was challenged to enrol in nursing as a second
courser in a college in Kidapawan City due to her daughter’s condition,
who is a type I diabetic. After hearing about Project Entreprenurse from
her husband, Mario, she was encouraged to join also because of her
daughter’s condition. “I want to share my knowledge on how to manage
type I diabetic patients and act as a support group to the parents,” Ethel
added.
     Elizar Bulac, on the other hand, is a graduate of both BS Nursing and
BS Physical Therapy. “Business is rooted in of our family. My father is a
retired business manager and my mother ran her own business. I worked
in a hospital for two (2) years. I also worked as Medical Sales Executive
in direct selling and served as Insurance Career Agent in a prominent
insurance company. These experiences have taught me to pursue my
dream of becoming a successful nurse entrepreneur. This newly-formed
nurse cooperative gives us hope and opportunity to fulfil our dreams.
Secretary Marianito Roque keynoting the launching ceremonies of
Project Entreprenurse
            “I want to serve my community, practice my profession and earn
at the same time. Another reason why I joined this project is so I can
render nursing services to those who are less fortunate. I would like to
discover my calling and make a real difference in the world,”
says Jessamine Russel Dela Pena, member of the Davao del Sur core
group of Project Entreprenurse.  “Project EntrepreNurse makes it
possible for us to change the face of nursing in our country. It is an
opportunity to develop a higher skill in the profession. My community is
starving for nurses who will not only address pathologies and
epidemiology but serve as change agents and role models for
environmental sanitation and safety for the good of the public.
EntrepreNurse could be a significant key for social change,” thus added
Kerwin  Pagaran, member of the core group for Davao City. “The
project makes affordable and accessible health care services to indigent
Filipinos,” concluded Geofford Montejo, speaking for the core group of
Davao Oriental.
            The idea that nurses could engage in the independent practice of
nursing is allowed in both Republics Acts 7164 and 9173 which regulate
the practice of nursing, but somehow, something got lost in  the
translation and all our nurses were encouraged to achieve their dreams by
working abroad. Project Entreprenurse, an initiative of the Department of
Labor and Employment piloted in Davao, aims to change the outlook of
nurses in the country and help them recognize that nurse
entrepreneurship is a viable option for them.  Faced with bleak prospects
of formal employment in the local jobs market and dwindling
opportunities abroad, the nurses of Davao have answered the call of the
DOLE to engage in nursing-related businesses for themselves, such as
home health care, outsourced health service delivery, lying-in clinics, etc.
The DOLE will provide the start-up capital for the cooperatives.
Governor Cora Malanyaon of Davao Oriental and Secretary Esperanza
Cabral signing the manifesto of support for the initiative
            Nearly 500 nurses in Region 11 have now banded together to
form nurses cooperatives and are busy complying with the requirements
for registration with the Cooperative Development Authority as a
cooperative. After registration, they will be assisted by MASICAP to put
together business plans that they can use to 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 capitation fund, foreign donors and migrant Filipino
organizations abroad. The DOH will be a critical partner as source of
data on the status of health services delivery in poor rural communities.
Even before CDA registration, the Davao del Norte group, buoyed by the
expression of total support by Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, have
already started negotiating with local chief executives, with successful
results.
            “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 mortality,” explained Undersecretary Carmelita
Pineda who is one of the prime movers of the initiative. USEC Pineda
was the focal person of the DOLE for the hugely successful Project
NARS, which deployed freshly graduated nurses to the poorest
municipalities in the country for six months.
practice in the country,” predicted Dr. Josefina Tuazon, Dean of the UP
College of Nursing and an active member of the small group pushing for
the project. “
            “This initiative will change the face of nursing in the country,”
echoed Board of Nursing member Marco Antonio Sto. Tomas, who has
been pushing for nurse entrepreneurship for years.
            On the other hand, DOLE Secretary Marianito Roque and
DOH Secretary Esperanza Cabral, member and chair of the Philhealth
Board, both vowed in a recent planning workshop for Project
Entreprenurse to initiate changes in the composition of the package of
benefits for Philhealth members to include home and rehabilitative
services, a move seen as critical in sustaining the operations of the
newly-organized nurses’cooperatives.
 
Author: Atty. Jalilo dela Torre
Regional Director, DOLE RO-XI
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.
SEVERAL national agencies on Thursday launched a program that
would generate jobs for nurses in the country.
The program dubbed "Project EntrepreNurse" will make way for the
creation of nurses' cooperatives within localities to introduce a whole
new home health care industry in the country.
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Initated by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), Board of
Nursing-Professional Regulation Commission (BON-PRC), Department
of Health (DOH), and Philippine Health Corporation (Philhealth), among
others, the program will grant nurses' cooperatives with as much as
P500,000 worth of grant for their operation.
Davao Region will be the pilot area for the program wherein there will be
one nurses' cooperative for each of the five provinces and one for Davao
City, Dole secretary Marianito Roque said at Apo View Hotel.
Roque said Davao Region is chosen as the pilot area because the idea for
the program was conceptualized by Dole regional Director Jalilo dela
Torre.
Dela Torre said other than City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the program has
received the support from Governors Corazon Malanyaon, Rodolfo del
Rosario, and Douglas Cagas.
"We believe that the local chief executives here are very passionate
advocates for health reforms," dela Torre said on the program's
effectivity in the region.
A total of P16 million will be required for the entire country in the
program's full implementation. An allotment of P1.2 million will be
granted for the region with P300,000 per cooperative however Dole
regional director Jalilo dela Torre said during the press conference it
could go as much as P500,000 per cooperative.
Roque said the program would utilize the high unemployment nursing
rate of the country. "There are continous employment opportunities both
here and abroad but the situation is that we graduate so much na sobra ito
sa absorbtive capacity and overseas employment na available," Roque
said.
"Every year for the last 3 years we have about 70,000 new board.
Question is if the employment absorption capacity of the Philippines can
take that in? Annually 2,500 to 3,500 lang ang nakakapasok sa local
employment. Although we have the overseas program na naga-absorb
somewhere from 10,000 to 20,000 of our nurses. You add these two it
still isn't enough for the number of graduates," Roques said.
The program's strategy is to encourage nurses to form cooperatives with
a minimum number of nurse members of 500 and manage nurses' clinic,
under the supervision of trained and experienced nurses, which will
deploy newly licensed nurses to poor rural communities with little or no
access to basic health care, Roque said.
The nurses' services will be compensated by the local government unit
(LGU), Philhealth, HMOs, by the patients themselves on per visit basis,
or from grants from local and foreign donors. Congressmen and Senator's
Priority Development Funds shall be tapped also, Roque said.
Roque said nurses working under the cooperative may have other work
as hospital nurses. "The nurses can do it part time but they cannot serve
homes and the hospital at the same time. It could be that their home
service would be for one or two hours then go back to the hospital,"
Roque said.
Doctor Josefina Tuazon, Dean of the University of the Philippines
College of Nursing (UP-CN), however, clarified that the program is still
at the planning stage. "It's stll in the process of really determining the
exact form in which it will take," Tuazon said.
The Davao Region will be the pilot area for the program wherein there
will be one nurses’ cooperative for each of the five provinces and one for
Davao City. It is chosen as the pilot area because the idea for the program
was conceptualized by Dole regional Director Jalilo dela Torre.
Nearly 500 nurses in Region 11 have now banded together to form nurses
cooperatives and are busy complying with the requirements for
registration with the Cooperative Development Authority as a
cooperative. After registration, they will be assisted by MASICAP to put
together business plans that they can use to 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 capitation fund, foreign donors and migrant Filipino
organizations abroad. The DOH will be a critical partner as source of
data on the status of health services delivery in poor rural communities.
Even before CDA registration, the Davao del Norte group, buoyed by the
expression of total support by Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, have
already started negotiating with local chief executives, with successful
results.
The program’s strategy is to encourage nurses to form cooperatives with
a minimum number of nurse members of 500 and manage nurses’ clinic,
under the supervision of trained and experienced nurses, which will
deploy newly licensed nurses to poor rural communities with little or no
access to basic health care.
Project EntrepreNurse is an initiative of the Department of Labor
and Employment (DOLE) piloted in Davao. This project aims to
change the outlook of nurses in the country and help them recognize that
nurse entrepreneurship is a viable option for them.
Project Description:
An initiative of DOLE, in collaboration with BON-PRC, DOH, PNA,
UPCN, OHNAP and other government and non-government entities to
promote nurse entrepreneurship by introducing a home health care
industry in the Philippines:
1) to reduce the cost of health care for the country’s indigent population
by bringing primary health care services to poor rural communities,
2) to maximize employment opportunities for the country’s unemployed
nurses and
3) to utilize the country’s unemployed human resources for health for the
delivery of public health services and the achievement of the country’s
Millennium Development Goals on maternal and child health, consistent
with the Fourmula One for Health framework of the Department of
Health.
Here’s the Audio Visual Presentation (AVP) of the Project
EntrepreNurse of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)
Region XI:

The program will be implemented also in cooperation with UP-CN,

Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), Occupational Health Nurses
Association of the Philippines (Ohnap), Cooperatives Development
Authority (CDA), Insurance Commission, LGUs and other sponsoring
agencies or organizations.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on January 23, 2010.

An initiative of DOLE, in collaboration with BON-PRC, DOH, PNA,

UPCN, OHNAP and other government and non-government entities to
promote nurse entrepreneurship by introducing a home health care
industry in the Philippines:

1. to reduce the cost of health care for the country’s indigent

population by bringing primary health care services to poor
rural communities,
2. to maximize employment opportunities for the country’s
unemployed nurses and
3. to utilize the country’s unemployed human resources for health
for the delivery of public health services and the achievement
of the country’s Millennium Development Goals on maternal
and child health, consistent with the Formula One for Health
framework of the Department of Health.

First Project