Nursing Board Examinees Say Cheaters Pose Danger to Profession

The recent nursing board examinees in Baguio City say their complaint against the alleged examination leakage, filed before the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) last week, is not merely confined to the scam. They are more concerned, they say with board passers – who, because they allegedly benefited from the leakage, would pose great danger to public health services when they begin practicing their profession.

BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch

Posted by Bulatlat

BAGUIO CITY – The recent nursing board examinees in this city say their complaint against the alleged examination leakage, filed before the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) last week, is not merely confined to the scam. They are more concerned, they say with board passers – who, because they allegedly benefited from the leakage, would pose great danger to public health services when they begin practicing their profession.

While supportive of the complaint, professional nurses in this city say the leakage issue is now elevated to a higher level as the scam was a manifestation of systemic problems encountered by the profession. The root causes of the scam, the nurses say, should be investigated, including the possible involvement of members of the Board of Nursing, review centers and other government officials.

The call to trace the roots of the scam was issued by representatives of the examinees, deans of nursing colleges, and officers of the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) in a June 30 press conference held here. They also revealed that 425 professional nurses in Baguio and Cordillera expressed support to the complaint filed before the PRC, demanding the creation of a body to investigate the scam.

The scam

The June 11 and 12 board examination in this city was allegedly marred by fraud when the R.A. Gapuz Review Center was reported to have given its student reviewees notes containing a considerable number of questions that later came out in the examination.

The Gapuz review handout – a xeroxed 18-page handwritten review notes – allegedly contained exactly the same examples as those in the actual exams.

The complainants said 46,000 took the exam held nationwide, with some 6,000 of them in Baguio. Two thousand of the Baguio examinees took review classes at the R.A. Gapuz Review Center and received copies of the review handout. 

Saying that the leakage was unfair for those who reviewed for the exam, the examinees filed the complaint last week while the motion for intervention was filed on June 28 directly at the PRC national office.

‘Culture of cheating’

The examinees as well as the professional nurses in this city under PNA condemned the “culture of cheating” evident in the board examination.

Dr. Mary Grace Lacanaria, dean of the Saint Louis University and head of the Cordillera Associations of Deans of the Philippines College of Nursing (ADPCN), said they do not tolerate cheating.

She said a national official of the PNA who is also working with a review center tried to convince her to stop their move to investigate the leakage scam. They are determined, however, to push through with their fight, she said.

“It can be a David vs. Goliath, but we (as David) are being supported in the struggle as manifested by broad support for the intervention,” Lacanaria said. She said they have the support of PNA chapters and ADPCN nationwide, the Baguio City Council which passed a resolution supporting investigation of the scam, and the offices of Senators Juan Flavier and Pia Cayetano.

The profession (nursing) deals with human lives and should not be put under question considering the business of saving lives is one where mistakes cannot be tolerated, said the nurses in their motion to intervene.

“We firmly believe that only those who are capable are fit to be admitted to the nursing profession, and this capability is demonstrated when one passes the board exam fairly and squarely,” it said.

Roots of the scam

Northern Dispatch also learned that at least 200 questions in the board exam were also leaked in Metro Manila. 

PNA officers of Baguio said that among the 420 nursing schools nationwide, there are at least 25 threatened with closure due to poor performance.

Prof. Caster Palaganas, who teaches at the Baguio campus of the University of the Philippines and is a PNA member, said these schools invested millions and will try their all to have access to examination questions leakage to improve their passing percentage.

Meanwhile, the complainants condemned the backdoor channel talks initiated by the PRC officials with the Board of Nursing (BON), allegedly to cover up the issue and BON’s involvement.

“Why not act on our complaint by creating an impartial body to investigate those involved in the leakage?” they said in the press conference.

The BON is headed by Eufemia Octaviano with the following as members: Remedios Fernandez, Gracia Dioniso, Letty Kuan, Estelita Galetira, and Virginia Madeja. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat

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