New Nurses Oath Taking -overcrowded

Extortion,' overcrowding mar oathtaking of nurses

Thousands graduates who passed the nursing board examinations grappled with hours of delays, overcrowding and "extortion" at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City before even getting a chance to have their oaths taken as new nurses on a rain-drenched Tuesday.

Radio dzEC reported Tuesday that the oathtaking at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City started nearly two hours late as security guards turned away nurses and parents who came in droves to the site.

Several parents who were turned away complained that they even paid P300 to P400 for the tickets sold by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC).

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he will look into the complaint and will coordinate with PRC and Palace officials on the matter.

"Obviously there was some misrepresentation there. We'll see if we can coordinate with PRC Chairwoman Leonor Rosero or Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita," he said.

A PRC official interviewed by GMA News said the ticket fees were necessary because the government has to rent a suitable venue for the affair.

Jose Beltran, one of the parents who were turned away, said he and his family members were not given receipts for the tickets, which he said were marked "complimentary."

Other parents lamented that they were denied a "chance of a lifetime" to see their children finish years of hard work with an oathtaking ceremony.

Some parents who were turned away consoled themselves by buying T-shirts sold by hawkers outside the coliseum. The shirts were emblazoned with the message, "Anak Ko Nurse Na (My Child is Now a Nurse)" and were priced at P120 each.

The confusion over the "overcrowding" and the "extra" tickets delayed the start of the oath-taking to 10 a.m., even as some of the nurses were not able to take their oaths.

The oathtaking for the passers was scheduled for October 2 at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City starting at 8 a.m. for surnames starting with A to J; and 1 p.m. for surnames starting with K to Z.

An advisory from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said those residing outside of Metro Manila who wish to claim their certificates via the DOLE Regional Offices are advised to register with the Regional Office nearest their place of residence/work.

The DOLE Central Office shall transmit in batches the Certificates within three days from receipt of notice from the Regional Office concerned.

Source: GMA7

UK requirements for RP nurses

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Nursing Licensure Examinees who would fail the June 2007

This is good news for the nursing graduates who took the June 2007 exam.

Nursing licensure examinees who would not pass the June 2007 may still have the opportunity to practice their course through a scheme the Department of Labor and Employment has been trying to work out.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said only half of the 78,000 examinees, including the 12,000 retakers, were projected to pass the board licensure test.

DOLE is contemplating on a fall back position of issuing licenses as practical nurse to those who would fail the test.

“[We are anticipating] that many of them will do re-take so we think that one fall back position is to have them licensed as practical nurse. This is assuming that there are some that would not do the re-take," Brion said in an interview.

According to Brion he already proposed this measure to Senator Edgardo Angara and to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and to Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) and they all agreed to its viability.

“We will meet soon and discuss this," he added.

Licensing the nursing examinees who failed the board exam as practical nurse is a way of helping them achieve their dreams of finding employment opportunities abroad, Brion said.

“These will be a sunrise opportunity for them because they could still practice their course even though they failed the test," he noted.

Demands for practical nursing are similarly increasing especially in hospitals abroad, the labor chief noted.

Results of the June nursing board exam would be out “by the middle of August," Brion said.

The next licensure exam for nurses is scheduled in December.

The 12,000 retakers in June were those who wanted to seek employment in the United States following the decision of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) to deny work visas to the June 2006 examinees because of allegations of cheating that marked the testing process.

Tags:
Nursing Licensure 2007,
Board Exam,CGFNS,
NCLEX

The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) today condemn the exploitation of Filipino Nurses

SILVER SPRING, Md., June 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) today condemned the exploitation of immigrant RNs by unscrupulous U.S. employers and called for better enforcement of immigration laws.

They cited the case of 26 registered nurses from the Philippines who say they were brought to New York under false pretenses and denied the rights guaranteed by their employment contract. When the nurses resigned, they were sued by their former employer and accused of professional misconduct. On March 22, ten of the RNs were indicted in Suffolk County Supreme Court on charges of endangering their patients. Remarkably, the nurses' employment attorney was also indicted, for conspiracy; they all plead not guilty.

The nurses had been hired through a recruitment agency to work at specific nursing home facilities on Long Island. When they arrived in the U.S., they discovered they actually were working for another agency. Over a period of months, the nurses said, the agency refused to pay them according to the terms of their contracts. They also said they were not properly trained for their new jobs and were required to care for more patients than they believed was safe.

"This case may be just the tip of the iceberg. Nurses who come to the U.S. deserve to have their rights protected," said Tina Gerardi, RN, interim chief executive office of NYSNA. "Instead, these nurses were placed in the untenable position of being captive to an employer under conditions that did not allow them to provide safe patient care."

Gerardi said NYSNA became aware of the nurses' situation in May 2006 and assisted them in getting a hearing before the State Board for Nursing after the recruitment agency accused them of professional misconduct. "They couldn't get work because the issuance of their licenses was on hold pending investigation of an allegation of patient abandonment," Gerardi said. "Those charges were dismissed by the state board. We are greatly concerned these RNs are now being prosecuted for the same actions."

"The real patient endangerment lies in the deplorable conditions that led the nurses to leave. After exhausting all possibilities to resolve their concerns with the facility and the agency, the nurses left without providing two weeks notice. These brave nurses deserve the nursing community's full support because they refused to remain in a situation where patients were being denied the kind of care and staffing they deserved," said ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, RN, MSN, CNOR.

The nurses' plight has become a cause celebre in both the Philippines and the New York City Filipino community. The RNs are expected to participate in the New York Philippine Independence Day parade on June 3, where they will receive support from both the Filipino and nursing communities.

The ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the interests of the nation's 2.9 million registered nurses through its 54 constituent member nurses associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of

nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

Govt offers nursing exam retake subsidy

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