GMA ‘committed’ to uphold RP nurses’ prestige
By Sam Mediavilla, Reporter
The government will shoulder the expenses of the 1,000 nurses who will retake the leakage-marred licensure examinations in June, President Arroyo announced on Friday.
In a speech at the 2007 International Science Conference of the Phil-American Academy of Science and Engineering in a Makati City hotel, the President said “the government shall provide financial assistance to 2006 nursing board passers for the retake of the exams as called for by the CGFNS [Commission on Graduates on Foreign Nursing Schools].”
The President said she is committed to uphold the prestige and excellence of the country’s nursing profession and expressed displeasure at the putting on hold of the deployment of Filipino nurses as a result of the leakage.
The Philadelphia-based CGFNS announced Thursday that Filipino nursing graduates who passed the June 2006 nursing licensure examination are not eligible for a VisaScreen Certificate.
The certificate is a requirement for nursing applicants in the US.
The President also instructed Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to review the findings of the CGFNS and “seek all forms of relief from the visa hold and appeal for reconsideration of the decision.”
Dr. Dante Ang, chairman of the Commission on Filipino Overseas, once again appealed to the June 2006 batch of nursing examinees to consider the concerns expressed by the CGFNS.
Interviewed over dzMM, Ang made it clear that the issue of a retake is not just a “legal argument” between the board passers and those advocating the retest.
“We cannot argue with America. The VisaScreen Certificates, which the CGFNS issues to foreign nurses, is a requirement prescribed by their law and the concern here is not the legal issue but the public health and public safety of its patients,” he said.
Ang appealed to sectors concerned not to waste the government’s efforts to salvage the future of the nursing profession by refusing to abide with the requirements of the CGFNS.
Ang said he and representatives of the National Bureau of Investigation tried to persuade officials of National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) that President Arroyo was doing something to address the problems arising from the leakage.
“It might hurt to know, and I don’t want to wash our dirty linen in public, but the truth is we cleaned up their mess at our presentation at the NCSBN,” he said.
Rene Tadle of the task force on nursing leakage based at the University of Santo Tomas, renewed his challenge to the Professional Regulation Commission to admit that it committed a mistake.
Tadle said the PRC particularly Chairperson Leonor Rosero should order the invalidation of the certificates of the nurses whom she allowed to take their oath on November 15.
Ang backed up Tadle’s challenge, saying the officials who ordered the recomputation of the results of Tests 3 and 5 should be held responsible.
“The problem is the officials responsible for this fiasco are hiding behind the 17,000 nursing graduates. What they should do is to admit they have committed mistakes and to rectify their error by invalidating the recomputed grades and ordering a retake,” he said.
Rosero said she will meet with nursing industry leaders and get a consensus before deciding on a course of action.
For the moment, she said the Philippine government will abide by the decision of the Court of Appeals that only 1,687 examinees will have to retake Tests 3 and 5 of the exam. The retake was held in December.
Only those who have not yet applied for CGFNS would be affected by the edict, Rosero said.
Source: Manila Times
Tags:
Nursing,
Board Exam,CGFNS,
NCLEX
Saturday, February 17, 2007
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