NEW YORK-While a recent test leak scandal has threatened the image of Filipino nurses, their reputation as among the world's best remains intact with various American hospitals, which are stepping up recruitment of more nurses from the Philippines, according to the highest ranked Filipino-American nurse in the United States.
"There's a little bit of concern as a result of the scandal, but no massive reaction among nursing leaders and hospitals", says Wilhelmina M. Manzano, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System.
“It’s actually a major concern within the
Philippine Nurses Association in America (PNAA),” disclosed Manzano, 48,
herself a member of PNAA New York.
“They’re worried about what impresssions
people would have about the competency or integrity of Filipino nurses.”
Manzano says any harm caused by the
scandal is not irreparable, and both the Philippine government and nursing
leaders can still rectify the damage.
“To preserve the integrity of the whole
licensing process, the leaders must set very strict parameters to make sure it
doesn't happen again,” she says. “The process must be tightened so that people
can’ be paid off or bribed. People need to be made accountable once the
authorities find out who’s responsible (for the leak). They need to make sure
that these people understand the implications of what they’ve done and make
them suffer the consequences. ”
Manzano, who obtained both her nursing
and masters degrees in nursing administration from New York University, wears
three hats as a nursing executive who is known in the industry for promoting
clinical excellence.
At the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare
System, she oversees more than 4,000 nurses, an estimated 20 percent of whom
are Filipinos, as chair of the chief nursing officers council of the system’s
more than 50 top-quality hospitals, specialty institutes, and continuing care
centers throughout New York, New
Jersey, and Connecticut.
The system is the largest secular not-for-profit, non-governmental health care
system in the United States.
“Everyone agrees that Filipino nurses are
very hard working, they’re caring, they’re flexible, and they have a really
great work ethic," says the Manila-born Manzano, whose parents hail from San Rafael, Bulacan and
Asingan, Pangasinan. A mother of two boys, she was 18 when she moved to the U.S.
“It’s that personalized touch and genuine
interest in caring for the patients and their families that set Filipino nurses
apart from the rest,” she elaborates.
By Edmund Silvestre
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