Empty Places..

A month ago, while watching Bandila Ces Drilon’s Introduction was: “bagong, bagong balita 187,000 Registered Nurses walang trabaho.” My instant reaction was: “Duh, anong bago doon”?! Well maybe the figures ballooned out of proportion. As we all know since 2006, there has been an increase in the number of unemployed Registered Nurses in the country due to the apparent need of nurses abroad. Alongside with this, there was an obvious mushrooming of nursing schools too. Needless to say, we’ve produced a huge number of nurses more than we can handle.

Despite of hospitals being understaffed there are still no vacancies to be filled. Blame it on the tight budget and the undying “kakilala system”. Moreover, there’s also limited opportunities overseas due to most countries’ recession. *Sigh* All of these has been going on for years and yet the government hasn’t made any concrete way to alleviate much less solve the existing problem. Had they foreseen the consequences they’d perhaps consider regulating the number of students and shutting down low performing schools. Little did they know that the vast number of Nursing graduates we have will soon add up to the rising unemployment rate in the country.

On a broader sense, I personally believe that this is not just a problem to be solved by the government but the society as a whole. This indeed is a reflection of our myopic views as a people. We all tend to choose the easy way out. We all cut corners and dish the hard unbeaten paths. Nursing during the past years was seen as a lifesaver as it leads to open doors of opportunity abroad. Easy money and practicality took over dreams.

What does it take to tap into the interests of the youth? Is it hard to convince them to take a plunge to their dreams and abandon the call of the crowd? Does fulfillment come from luxuries and wealth or does it well from realizing one’s full potential? A wise man once said: “if you’re in the wrong place then your right place is empty.” Would be scientists, engineers, architects, teachers, writers or what have you-- all turned their backs and decide to be someone they’re not.

It is not a simple issue of unemployment but persuading the youth to take up something they don’t really have a heart into is a welcome invitation to lost of other competitive professionals. I can foresee a Philippines lacking great men in other important fields. At present, a lot of skills are under utilized, leanings undiscovered and most of all dreams unrealized. This indeed is a multi-factorial problem and no instant remedy can fix it. I believe it will take an awful lot of time before all these are resolved. Until people are lured to money, prestige and the American dream; there will be young minds forced to abandon their goals and settle for what is in demand. Only to realize that dreams thrown at the backseat are the true tickets to real success.

It breaks my heart to see young student nurses who are still naïve to the challenges that lay ahead of them. Then again, I still have hope that we all could learn much about this. It really is after all a simple principle- an excess of anything equates to a deficiency of something.