Unemployed nurses may soon find their last ray of hope to land jobs in their chosen careers.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said they need nurses who are willing to volunteer in helping them during times of massive emergency situations.
“We need nurses, who are willing to train for disaster risk management and first aid operations,” NDRRMC administrator Benito Ramos said.
Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) administration officer Olive Luces explained they aim to have an inventory of nurses, who will be tapped in times of flood and massive earthquakes.
Luces denied having shortage on teams to respond in emergency situations, reiterating they only want to ensure they have enough hands in dealing with worst-case scenarios.
“We cannot project the impact of a disaster that’s why we need to have a large pool of nurses who are knowledgeable in first aid treatments, which we need in disaster response operations,” Luces said.
“They are needed in relief operations especially in camp management to prevent epidemic in evacuation centers,” she added.
But the OCD administration officer clarified volunteer nurses will only receive subsistent allowances for food, lodging, and personal gears and medical equipments.
“There will be no perks that’s why we need them to volunteer. The only benefit they can take from this is the free training,” Luces noted.
Earlier, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) executive director Julito Vitriolo said there are around 400,000 unemployed nurses this year.
The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) reported about 287,000 nurses are not employed in 2011.
