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What is a salary?

A salary is

For me, a salary is something you earn, what you have after all your expense. Expense
is not just in monetary terms but expense such as your efforts, time spent, energy
consumed by hard work. You earn your salary.

Moreover, before you even think of the expense invested on your duty as a nurse, you
can look back on the expense of nursing school - the tuition and the miscellaneous,
laboratory fees almost equating to each other, handouts vital for quizzes, the books
heavier and more expensive every year level. The uniforms that once fit you now
squeezing your body, telling you to pay for another one. You think of all these
expenses. That by the time you graduate, you hope and make sure that you make those
requirements for your job application and grab the opportunities to get hired. We think
of how we can live by with the career we have chosen - how to make a living out of
what we have.

It is easy, of course. Get a job.

Yes, you get a job and then get payed. But how much are we paid? How come some
registered nurses go abroad and work there instead of here. There is a law that nurses'
salary should not be less than salary grade 15. Salary grade 15 is 27,565 pesos above
(Philippine Salary Grade The Salary Standardization Law IV, 2017). But in the
recent articles, .... Not all institutions and not all nurses fully implements this salary.

In the Philippines, it is often heard that wages and salary of employees here are
underpaid. Well, it maybe true to some jobs and it differs per business and per
implementation of a company. For nurses, I think having the "not less than grade 15
salary" is enough. What is disturbing is how the Law, Section 32 on health human
resources production, utilization and development of the Republic act 9173
stated that in order to enhance the general welfare, commitment to service
and professionalism of nurses the minimum base pay of nurses working in the
public health institutions shall not be lower than salary grade 15. This is
prescribed under Republic Act No. 6758, otherwise known as the
"Compensation and Classification Act of 1989".

"Gloria Amariego, chief nurse at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), said the
Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) have been urging the Aquino administration
through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to increase the number of
nurses not only in PGH but in all government hospitals in the country so that the
practicing nurses could work with quality on their patients." (The Manila Times, May
2016). Specifically, Ms. Amariego is referring to the ratio of the nurse-patient in the
hospital setting. At present, there is an estimate ratio of 1:30 nurse-patient per
hospital.
For a nurse..

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