Nursing Test Scam Linked to Poor
Education, Labor Export
Top nursing educators
and former CHED authorities say that the recent nursing board exam leakage
is just the tip of a bigger problem – the deterioration in the country’s
nursing education and government’s export of nurses abroad.
By Arthur L.
Allad-iw
Northern Dispatch / Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY – “Why
blame us on the mess attributable to few persons, particularly the two
members of the Board of Nursing (BON),” said one of the Nursing Board exam
passers who was among the complainants on a case against those involved in
the recent board leakage scam filed at the Professional Regulatory
Commission (PRC) in Manila.
Addressing thousands
of professional nurses and nursing students to the main issue where those
involved in the scam must be investigated and punished, Vernon Peralta,
who passed the board exams for nurses June this year, emotionally said in
a forum on August 11 that board examinees should not be made as
sacrificial lambs for the mess as the wrong was committed not by them.
Dr. Fe Marilyn
Lorenzo and Prof. Cora Anonuevo, both from the College of Nursing of the
University of the Philippines in Manila, told the fully-packed forum that
they had been calling for the resignations of the members of the BON to
pave the way for the investigation. The move was also to cleanse the
agency that prepares and administers the board exam for nursing.
Held at the Easter
College gymnasium here, the forum was attended by at least 2,000 nursing
professionals and students from different schools in Baguio, Cordillera,
Pangasinan, La Union and Ilocos. The forum entitled: “Quo Vadis
Philippine Nursing?” tackled the burning issues on leakage scam and the
public health care system.
Ninety-two examinees
in this city filed the case in the PRC. The case was backed by more than
400 PNA members.
Punish two BON
members
Northern Dispatch (Nordis)
learned from the nurses leaders that the two BON members allegedly
involved in the scam as the Sets III and V of the examinations were traced
from them were Anecia Dionisio and Virginia Madeja. They were allegedly
stopped from performing their functions but are not suspended that would
have prevented them from using their positions to influence the on-going
investigation.
Nursing professionals
said that the PRC task force which is conducting an investigation tends to
exonerate the two members of the BON and their cohorts in the leakage scam
considered to the worst on the history of Philippine licensure
examination.
“The BON members
filed their courtesy resignations on July 21, 24 and 26 but the PRC
rejected it,” added Anonuevo who saluted the 92 Baguio complainants for
their courage in exposing the alleged leakage.
PNA, the Associations
of Deans in the Cordillera, and the examinees hit the PRC for not forming
an independent fact-finding body to investigate the scam and their move
which tends to exonerate those involved in the scam.
The PRC has denied
any scam but backtracked from their statement when more leaked questions
were revealed even in Metro Manila.
Symptom of worst
health care
Both Lorenzo and
Anonuevo said that the scam is a symptom of the present crisis in the
country’s health care system.
Lorenzo observed that
the quality of the nurses’ graduates has declined as the passing rate
slowly goes down – from 54 % in 2004 to the present 42%. She said that
while the number of nursing schools has doubled to 400 many of these are
not performing well. These schools produce poor graduates and do anything
including leakage just to evade the closure of their profitable nursing
schools.
Lorenzo, who teaches
at the University of the Philippines’ College of Nursing in Manila,
resigned as member of the technical group of the Commission on Higher
Education (CHED) monitoring nursing schools over Malacanang’s failure to
adopt recommendations to improve the nursing and health care system.
Among the CHED’s
technical group’s recommendations is to produce quality nursing graduates
that caters to the needs of the country rather than going abroad. Six out
of 10 nurses leave the country every year, she said, causing the delay on
specialized procedures. In this case, she said they need to develop nurses
on the specialized cases which derail the fast delivery of health care
services.
Service to the
needy
Dr. Ana Marie Leung
reacted on the problems confronting the health care system raising the
call to re-orient nursing education to the original call of service to the
most needy. Leung, a UP Manila graduate, is the director of the Community
Health Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (CHESTCORE),
has for decades been rendering health services to far-flung communities in
the region and Ilocos.
Supporting the move
for an independent fact finding body on the leakage, Leung agreed that the
health care system in the Philippines must adopt changes particularly on
addressing the health needs of the people.
“Instead of
strengthening the public health care system, the government promotes a
labor export policy which includes our nurses. An estimated 85% (about
150,000) of employed Filipino nurses are working abroad. The 50,000 nurses
who left in the past four years have far exceeded the graduates of 20,000
during that same period. It is even estimated that 80% of public health
physicians have taken up or enrolled in nursing,” Leung said.
Leung hit the
government and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration saying
they are more concerned about the effects of this nursing board
examination scam on the reputation of the graduates abroad, including the
Philippine bid to have a local National Council Licensure Examination for
Nurses (NCLEX) for them to work in the United States.
Seeking to get the
reactions from the health sector, including students on how they will
address the leakage scam, the forum was organized by the Philippine Nurses
Association (PNA) chapters in Baguio and the Cordillera and the Cordillera
Associations of Deans of the Philippines Colleges of Nursing. Nordis /
Bulatlat
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