UB Graduates to Replace Outgoing Filipino Nurses

Andre Sosa

According to Doctor Sosa, the hospital is banking on a compassion of young nurses to fill the void that will be left upon the departure of the Filipino nurses.  Should the situation be exacerbated by an all-out rash of COVID-19 cases, the K.H.M.H. chair says that the hospital will be forced to hire at least thirty additional nurses.

Dr. Andre Sosa, Chair, K.H.M.H. Authority

“We hope to be able to fill the gap with the graduating classes of nurses from UB.  We are told by the Chief Nursing Officer that there will be forty graduates and that priority will be given to the K.H.M.H. to be able to recruit these nurses.  There are no posts available in the public sector and that gives us at the K.H.M.H. a certain advantage to be able to recruit at least a large number, we hope, of these nurses.  But we also have an externship program at the K.H.M.H. and what it is, is that we hire or we create positions for these nurse who have graduated but still waiting to take their exams.  Presently there are eight positions for these young nurses.  The board has recently voted to expand the number of positions to fifteen, so that is a stop-gap measure, but also we have temporary positions for Primary Care Assistants and that also helps to some extent.  So if the situation does not deteriorate in terms of the COVID pandemic then perhaps we will be able to fill the gaps.  The problem, however, is if we have a full-on outbreak of COVID whereby we will need to staff the COVID Unit and then we will be looking at a need for at least thirty more nurses.”