Background of the study If you are a nurse who recently took the board exam, then you must

be one of the many new graduates who are considered to be unemployed. After the long weekend parties, holidays, and vacation trips a month ago, you should have recently wondered 'hey what's next for me now?' Well you are not alone. In fact, many of my review mates in a local review center headed to many local BPO companies here in our city. BPO or business process outsourcing involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Employees who work under these companies are referred as call center agents or customer service representatives. I'm sure any graduates here in the Philippines has once in a while heard things related to call center companies, etc. That is totally a no-brainer. Undergraduates, unemployed graduates of nursing almost exclusively resort working for these companies. Armed with your English language literacy, this work will not need so much of your math skills nor theoretically inclined whatsoever which are related to your degree. If you have been very comfortable using the language then you should be fine with it. Nurses who have been very dedicated to their fields is left with no choice but to work for companies that give them a good offer . I think nuses too are very cpable of working in these BPO companies a well. WHY? Heres a short list : Nurses are trained to work under pressure . They accomplish the job completely and right on time. We are very accustomed facing he people and talking to the peoplecase study presentations, care plan defense, community programs, health teaching to our patients , thesis defense and proposal, etc. Almost every nurse who finished the degree is equipped with good language skills. We have refined interpersonal relations to different people. People friendly that is. Disciplined with strong working ethics Sanay sa puyatan INDEED What I have cited are just some of the reasons why nurses are good fit for such job. And that is why also many call center companies welcome theses manpower with open arms. Another point to raise would be : Nurses studied for a BSN degree for 4 excruciating yearswhy then work for BPO companies? Your parents and kind relatives exhausted around Php 500,000,00 700,000,00 for you to finish nursing , work as a nurse, and go abroad . They did not spend amount of money for you to end up sitting on a swivel chair in a front of computer with the headset on.

To work as nurse you need to finish the degree. Versus to work as a call center agent you only need 4 semesters of any course in college . Yes you got a work . But still, you are considered to be underemployed since your work is not in line with the degree you earned. Perhaps you will still be included in the DOLE statistics Meager Wage of hospitas (6-10K) VS the enticing 10-18k od BPO companies. Non contractual (for staff nurses) VS Contractual f BPO companies. And to sum this up NAKAKAPANG HINAYANG! This issue is truly a reflection of our economys poor condition. The surplus of manpower in our country has lead to the emergence of temporary/ contractual employment wherein workers are very vulnerable to any possible exploitation. Still, nurses who decides to work off the track for these companies are not be blamed. A decision as to be made and its for the benefit of their families and for personal growth as well. Manila A lawmaker and a labor center are protesting against the Department of Labor and Employments (DOLE) call to licensed nurses, nursing graduates, and other jobseekers with healthcare backgrounds to consider the array of non-clinical, yet, medical-related job opportunities as alternate careers in the healthcare industry. DOLE secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said nurses who are having difficulty finding employment should consider applying at business process outsourcing (BPO) companies or the so-called call-centers. After failing to find jobs for nurses abroad, the government now wants them to work as call center agents. From nursing volunteers to domestic helpers to call center agents, whats next for Filipino nurses? This clearly shows the governments lack of a comprehensive employment plan for graduates, said Gabriela Womens Party Rep. Emmi De Jesus. Earlier, the DOLE cited a report of the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) stating that the knowledge process oustourcing sector as one of the fast-growing sectors and that it has fastgrowing and innovative trends and advancements in the healthcare industry. The BLE said that jobless nurses should go out-of-the-box, beyond the traditional clinical jobs, and explore other emerging medical and health-related careers. With the growth trend in the healthcare information management outsourcing industry, healthcare careers now expand into various disciplines which opens huge career opportunities for nursing graduates and allied medical professionals, Baldoz said. The Career Guides posted at the BLE website at cites healthcare knowledge process outsourcing careers, such as clinical research associates and clinical appeals specialists. Citing the BLE Career Guides, Baldoz also said healthcare outsourcing jobs pay P14,000 ($325) to P18,000 ($418), while clinical appeals specialists employed in the BPO industry receive a basic pay of P20,000 ($ 465) to P40,000 ($930). The salary in these alternate medical careers is double the average monthly salary of P10,000 ($233) received by nurses working in hospitals and private institutions. Baldoz said. Beyond the higher pay, considering these medical-related careers as employment alternatives is a win-win solution for jobseekers in the healthcare industry. These jobs, alongside with constant re-tooling and re-training, add to

their educational expertise which will increase and broaden their competencies as they venture to their dream medical profession in the future, Baldoz said. The DOLE also has its own Project Entreprenurse, a project that seeks to transform nurses into entrepreneurs supposedly providing healthcare services in communities. An initiative of DOLE and other government and non-government entities, Project Entreprenurse pushes for nurse entrepreneurship by introducing a home health care industry in the country. In it, jobless nurses are being organized into cooperatives, whose main purpose is to deliver home health care services to its own members and members of HMOs, Phil health members and self-paying members. The goal is to secure at least 500 members per cooperative for a city and at least 1,000 members for a province. According to the DOLE, the project strategy is to encourage nurses to form cooperatives and manage nurses clinics, under the supervision of trained and experienced nurses. The newly licensed nurses will be deployed to poor rural communities, and the services they give will be supposedly compensated by local government units, Philhealth, HMOs, and finally by the patients themselves on a per visit basis. A similar effort of the non-government organization Nurses Vox Healtcare Coop Philippines to provide alternative sources of income for nurses through Project HOPE (Hastening Options for Productivity and Employment) that also has the same goals as the DOLEs project.