Europe-PH News

A German national who initially was not able to speak one complete English sentence, Daubenbuechel said that he immediately liked everything about the country, and decided to permanently stay. "After seeing some beautiful beaches, I said to myself, "Ihe Philippines is my country,’ said Daubenbuechel, who is also the project director of the Philippine Healthcare Initiative. Seeing the prospect of the Philippines as a thriving retirement and health-care haven catering to foreign nationals, Daubenbuechel was tapped to become a key personnel of the RHC, a public¬private¬partnership of the European, American, Japanese and Korean chambers of commerce, along with the departments of Tourism (DOT), Health (DOH), and Trade and Industry, and the Philippine Retirement Authority. Recalling how he ended half the world away from Germany, Daubenbuechel said a visit to his uncle Hanz Brula, who is married to a Filipina, Avelina Constantino Brula, in Marinduque was his introduction to the country. He then learned how to speak English when he worked at a hotel in Manila, and learned English through conversations with the staff.
"Filipinos are very talkative and always very curious. I easily made friends, and we traveled a lot to Puerto Galera and other beaches. After three months, I realized I wanted to live here," Daubenbuechel said. But before he could permanently stay in the country, Daubenbuechel went back to Germany to study tourism management, believing that tourism is the right way to go for the country. "Then I came back and became an intern at the DOT because that would give me a network with the different resort and hotels," Daubenbuechel said.
He said luxury resort Amanpulo offered him a job in 2008, but he turned it down after meeting European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Vice President Henry Schumacher. The RHC, according to Daubenbuechel, was a brainchild of Schumacher, and it was a project where he saw a lot of potential and where he can contribute immediately. The long and short story DAUBENBUECHEL said the Short and Long Stay Visitor Program offers seniors the opportunity to "test¬live" the country and learn more about its people, culture and lifestyle. The RHC provides seamless travel, starting with their arrival at the airport, transfers, accommodations and tour packages. "We are like your concierge," Daubenbuechel said. Daubenbuechel said the DOT and the DOH assist them in their marketing campaigns in key countries abroad.
"In the long run, the Philippines benefits, because one retiree who decides to stay here permanently spends an average of $1,500 to $2,000 per month. That is somewhere $20,000 per year, compared to a tourist who spends $3,000 and only comes every other year, maybe just once," Daubenbuechel said Geriatric care DAUBENBUECHEL said Germany currently needs 30,000 geriatric nurses. Although the Philippines has an oversupply of registered nurses, most of them are not qualified in Germany with its strict requirements. "There is no geriatric¬nurse training in the Philippines," Daubenbuechel said.
He said most educational institutions in the country have very good nursing programs¬but provide less than a hundred hours for geriatric nursing and do not cover the gerontopsychological aspects.
"In Alzheimer, dementia, or other cognitive diseases, there is basically a character change happening in the patient. You need to take care of them differently. You need to talk differently to them. This is what is not being taught," Daubenbuechel said To convert a registered nurse into a geriatric nurse, Daubenbuechel said, the RHC will send two Filipino nurses to Germany for six months to be trained in this specialized aspect of health care. After that, the nurses would develop their curriculum¬training system together with assistance from Germany, and then cascade it once they return to the country. "They will impart this to universities and training institutes," Daubenbuechel said. He said that, currently, all the nursing homes in the Philippines get registered nurses who are trained for geriatric practice, but after six months they run to the US, where they get bigger pay as caregivers. Daubenbuechel said the solution is to develop a vocational sixmonth training as initial require¬ment for a registered nurse.
Then train them for three more months in school and three months on site in the nursing home to get the additional requirement for a qualified geriatric nurse. He said geriatric nurses can receive P18,000 as starting salary as compared to government hospitals, which provide a P10,000 salary. Daubenbuechel said it is interesting to note that geriatric homes are usually run by nurses and not doctors. He said Germany has opened the borders for nurses, in general, but registered nurses are not accepted as geriatric nurses.
According to Daubenbuechel, his idea is to initially train registered nurses to find out if they fit the requirements to become geriatric nurses, rather than sending them off right away to Germany only to be sent back if they are not qualified. A new business THE 35¬year¬old Daubenbuechel, who always longs for the traffic¬ and pollution¬free Marinduque, recently established his Rain Tree Care Services and Senior Residence. That’s my private business, nursing home specializing in geriatric patients," Daubenbuechel said.
Daubenbuechel is currently developing a nursing home in an exclusive subdivision in Muntinlupa City. He said he wanted to open the facility eight months ago, but the local government and homeowners’ association had some issues. He said the local government unit told him the subdivision has zoning laws but he pointed out that a nursing home is not a business entity like a school, whose population could obstruct traffic. "It is called a residential¬care facility. Mostly in nursing homes, you take the blood pressure, blood sugar and the likes.
But you do not do that, because it makes them feel sick like they are in a medical institution," Daubenbuechel said. Daubenbuechel said nursing work in a geriatric home is minimal and maybe just 20 percent of the job, with the rest focused on the social activities. Daubenbuechel said that, for the meantime, they will only accept Filipino patients in their facility. "We have 7 million Filipino elderly. We have to care for them first, and then we can look at foreigners later on," Daubenbuechel said.

Source: Business Mirror