DOH-Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) Regional Director Eduardo Janairo vowed to provide more significant trainings for nurses to increase their knowledge and competencies during the recent two-day “Hospital and Public Health Nurse Conference” held in Pasay City.
“We will provide the needed educational programs to ensure that their capabilities and qualifications respond appropriately to the health needs of the people and challenges of times,” said Janairo.
He said the conference would give essential updates, introduce new policies, and strengthen the service delivery network to improve the quality of care in the community and hospital setting.
The nature of public health nurses’ work in hospitals and in the community, she said, is physically and emotionally demanding.
“They don’t just deliver care and provide physical and emotional comfort to patients and their families; their work also entails critical tasks such as monitoring and assessment of their patients and assists in the conduct of disease surveillance and initiating interventions in the communities to prevent outbreaks.”
Currently, he said there were 1,496 deployed in the region under the Nurse Deployment Program or NDP. Cavite with 235 nurses, Laguna with 289, Batangas -235. Rizal – 241 and Quezon with 406.
According to Janairo, DOH-CALABARZON is the only regional office which has employed all job order nurses for 2018 even with the budget reductions implemented.
“We do not want to sacrifice health care particularly now that we have the Dengvaxia concern to monitor for 5 years. We also need the manpower to accommodate the growing health needs of its population of 14,414,774, making it the most populated region in the country.”
The Department of Health National Deployment Program is a composite of several human resources for health that aims to deploy, community-oriented and dedicated human resources for health to difficult areas.
The NDP intends to improve access to quality healthcare services, address the inequitable distribution of healthcare professionals and augment the need for human resources for health especially in rural, underserved, hardship communities; improve local health systems that will support the country’s attainment of universal health care or “Kalusugan Pangkalahatan.”