Photo by Günter Valda on Unsplash
Part XLIX of the “Back-to-Basics Governance” Series
“It’s a good idea to allow Filipino students to study nursing in the U.S., but it will further deplete their already depleted presence in their homeland. And very soon, hospitals in the Philippines will run out of nurses. And it can create a healthcare crisis in the Philippines. God bless the Philippines” — Opinion of Joseph G. Lariosa, the dean of Filipino correspondents in North America. — As posted in the Facebook Group called the Bulan-Magallanes Corridor to Mexico and North America at this link.
Dean Lariosa is right. Because there is now a shortage of nurses and other medical professionals in North America, Europe, and other developed nations and Third-World countries like the Philippines. The World Health Organization and other medical groups estimate that the universal shortage of nurses will reach 13 million by 2030. Or more, especially if the present age of pandemics continues. Nurses and other First Responders are getting sick, too, and many of them have died or been forced to retire due to burnout, especially if they have served more than 20 years in hospitals or clinics.
Joseph Lariosa posted his comment on May 31, 2023, after this column discussed this topic with an Intro Note: If the educational sector of the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda can help secure “student’s visas,” for at least 3 million qualified Filipino students (and possibly another 3 million equally-qualified students from Mexico) to study nursing in their schools and get Board-certified, it can begin the “Golden Age of Nursing and Medicine” not only in the Golden State but also the entire country plus the U.S. territories like Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More short-term ideas by this Sunday on how to fund the education of even 7 million nurses in Oakland and the other cities in Alameda County by 2030. And make all the nursing graduates in Alameda County 2025 bi-lingual in speaking ability.
But the idea of turning out Board-certified 3-million nurses each from the Philippines and Mexico is part of a suggested “reinvention” of universal healthcare. This column describes the process in this article, Why “Project 541” and “Medical Moonshot” Will Succeed Beyond Wildest Dreams, published on March 5, 2023, at this link.
“Medics” is the term used in the title of this article because it is suggested that they will be trained like the members of an Army Medical Corps (AMC). The world will need to organize versions of such AMCs even in their national-guard organizations or police departments — as part of suggested Medical Centers, the pioneering model done in the City of Manila, Philippines, in the early 1900s by American colonial authorities. This suggestion is because the military, sheriff departments, and police agencies are the most-organized governmental agencies in most countries.
This column describes last June 21 how the 1900-era American Medical Center in the City of Manila was done in this article, The U.S. “Medical Center” Project in Manila in the 1900s Can Motivate Oakland to Become the Next “Medical Mecca” at this link.
“Due to the advances in Internet communications, classes for the first-four semesters may be done by distance-learning methods in the Philippines (or other foreign countries participating).“
The article also mentioned a successful study program for bright Filipino high-school graduates to study in American colleges where they took medical courses — from nursing to medicine to liberal arts, engineering, and post-graduate studies. After they graduated, they worked for a few years in the United States. Then they returned to the Philippines to join the Philippine civil service, which the American colonial authorities set up. Of course, the Medical Center prioritized training more Filipino nurses, physicians, biochemists, medical researchers, technicians, and technocrats. The Americans established Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and other medical courses in a new University of the Philippines. The Philippine General Hospital and the National Science Board were also established simultaneously, which did research and development as an R&D Center. The troika of infrastructures was set up in a common compound of several hectares in the Ermita District of the City of Manila.
Due to the advances in Internet communications, classes for the first-four semesters may be done by distance-learning methods in the Philippines (or other foreign countries participating). Then nursing and other medical students can also participate in the Philippines in what is now “telemedicine,” where patients and a medical crew can do medical exams online. More of these suggestions will be discussed later in this column.
This journalist has also created two Facebook Groups, the first proposing turning existing Philippine government-owned local hospital systems into healthcare cooperatives. The Facebook Group’s name is DrRizal.com/HMO Proposal for Sorsogon & the PH, and the second site devotes itself to the revival of the Pacific-Islander diet. The other Facebook Group is called Pacific-Islander Diet (www.pidiet.com). Both are back-to-basics moves to help Filipinos get affordable healthcare coverage by maximizing “preventive medicine” and improving patients’ health through a proven ancient diet and regular exercise.
Perhaps Mr. Lariosa and this columnist’s other friends that are medical professionals (active or retired) may like to help edit and improve a future book project. Soon to be finalized is the galley proof of a book about the present mini-series on Oakland becoming a “Mecca of Medicine,” anchored on reviving the Holy Names University by turning it into a Medical Center. Yes, a bastion of a medical co-op owned by public entities, patients, employees, faculty members, students and alumni, and their kin as additional stakeholders.
