Arroyo Sets Aside P20-M For Nurses Exam

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 15 Mar) - President Gloria Arroyo allocated P20-million for a special voluntary nurses examination following a ruling by the U.S. Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) on the controversial nursing license examination last year, government media said.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 609 directing the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to administer the special voluntary examination to nurses who passed last year’s tainted Board of Nursing (BON) examination.

Authorities said some nursing review centers leaked answers to the examinations in exchange for money.

Arroyo’s directive stemmed from the decision of the CGFNS decision that Philippine nurses licensed pursuant to the BON test of June 2006 shall not be eligible for the grant of Visa Screen certificates.

Nurses can take the special examination either in June or December.

"The examination shall be for the equivalent of Tests III and V of the June 2006 BON examination. The results of these tests shall not affect the validity of the licenses previously issued to the voluntary examinees," the Philippine News Agency quoted Ermita as saying.

Ermita said the nursing examination process will still follow the rules and procedures as provided by the Professional Regulation Commission. DOLE will monitor all stages of voluntary examination processes and examination fees will be waived.

The E.O. 609 provides that after correction of the special voluntary nursing test, the BON shall report the results only to the DOLE secretary, unlike the previous policy where the nursing board exam result is reported to the PRC. Public announcement of those who passed the tests will be undertaken both by the DOLE and the BON chair.

The Labor department has been authorized to designate special nursing review centers duly recognized by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

The CGFNS noted that a retake of and passing the equivalent of Tests III and V of the June 2006 BON examination shall remedy the eligibility problem of the June 2006 BON passers. (Mindanao Examiner)

Gov't Blamed For Woe Of Pinoy Nurses

MANILA – “The decision of the CGFNS to disallow visa application for June 2006 Nursing Board Exam can only be blamed squarely on the government’s tolerance on the masterminds of the test leakage. There was indeed no closure, only cover-up”.

This was the reaction of Elmer Labog, of the party list group Kilusang Mayo Uno, on the ongoing problems the nurses are facing as the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), a US government agency handling the entry of foreign nurses declared a ban for nurses who took the June 2006 exams.

“Despite the public outrage about the leakage, no one was made accountable and everything was just swept under the rug. The R.A. Gapuz Review Center which according to witnesses was in the center of the leakage had not been investigated, along with the rest of the 19 individuals who were implicated as culprits of the leakage,” Labog said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

“Although we have great faith on the capacity and credibility of our nurses, we cannot speak the same for the Professional Regulations Commission, the Board of Nursing and the government who neglected the leakage case filed by the nurses themselves,” Labog said.

“We cannot blame our workers seeking greener pastures outside the country since unemployment and underemployment here are running at double-digits. The trend of our medical workers going out of the country should and can be reversed. The budget for health care should be increase to accommodate more nurses and doctors and entice them to stay,” opined Labog.

“In the first place, our country is dire need of health practitioners, particularly nurses and doctors. Massive brain drain occurs because the present wages of health workers could not even make the healthy. If a doctor receives P 7,000 take home pay, then how can you expect them to stay?” Labog said.

“The Barinaga-Beltran Bill seeks to address this in part by increasing pay for private workers by P125/day while another bill pushes for a P3,000 across the board salary increase for government employees which medical workers can benefit from if approved. This should’ve been the priority of the legislators, along with the Baringa-Beltran Bill seeking for P125 wage increase rather than the Anti-terrorism bill,” Labog said.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) already waved a red flag on the continuing hemorrhage of our medical workers and proposed a substantial increase in benefits for medical professionals to make them stay,” he said.