Implementation of NARS program expanded to all 139 towns in Eastern Visayas
TACLOBAN CITY – The implementation of Nurses Assigned to Rural Service (NARS) has expanded to all 139 towns in Eastern Visayas with nearly 700 nurses deployed by the national government under the second phase of this emergency employment program.
Department of Labor and Employment regional director Forter G. Puguon said that after the service of these 688 nurses on March 2010, they would make recommendation whether there’s a need to make the initiative as regular government program.
“From there, we are going to assess and recommend based on the results observed in the two pilot batches,” Puguon told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
Last April 2009, a total of 575 nurses were hired by the national government representing the first batch that served in 115 municipalities. Nurses spent the first three months working in a government hospital, and the next three months in rural health units.
The second group started their contract October this year.
Puguon said that all municipalities have five nurses assigned under this project except the remote towns of Silvino Lobos and Mapanas in Northern Samar .
“We have not found nurses that are interested to serve there. I even asked Manila to extend hiring to accommodate recruitment but there were no takers for those areas,” he added.
Considering that there are only few applicants in Northern Samar, assignments for the province were filled out by nurses from other towns in Leyte .
Under NARS, each of the identified towns was expected to have five qualified nurses who avail the program, which seeks to address the growing number of registered nurses in the country who have been unemployed since passing the nursing board examination and lack the experience to work abroad.
The program will be implemented only for a year. Nurses will get P8,000 allowance while undergoing free training.
“For the second batch, payment of allowance has been a problem because Land Bank cannot immediately process all applications for automated teller machine cards. We have to send our staff to the field to personally bring checks to the nurses,” Puguon explained.
The NARS Program, a training cum deployment project, aims to address the glut in inexperienced nurses and the proliferation of “volunteer nurses” working in hospitals without being paid, but instead, they themselves pay the hospitals to obtain certificate of work experience; and promote health of the people and bring the government closer to them.
Unemployed nurses will be mobilized in their hometowns to initiate primary health, school nutrition, maternal health programs, and first line diagnosis; inform about community water sanitation practices and also do health surveillance; and immunize children and mothers. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)
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