Filipino nurses in test scandal
Filipino nurses in test scandal
QUESTIONS LEAKED IN RECENT LICENSING EXAMINATION
By Oliver Teves
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/15372140.htm
MANILA, Philippines - Nurses have become one of the Philippines' top exports, helping fill shortages of caregivers at hospitals around the globe. But credentials for thousands of would-be nurses are under a cloud because of alleged cheating in recent certification exams.
Rushing to protect the reputation of the country's nurses, the government has promised to punish those responsible. Several investigations are under way, but no arrests have been made.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, insists the leak of questions in at least two of five test subjects during the June 11-12 nursing board exams was an "isolated incident."
"This should not be cause for any stigma on our nurses or other professionals who remain to be among the best in the world," Bunye said last week.
That's not very soothing for recent graduates who had hoped to get nursing jobs in the United States, Europe or other parts of Asia but find themselves in a legal limbo.
The Court of Appeals has ordered a 60-day suspension for oath-taking by new nurses pending a hearing on the validity of the exams. More than 17,000 of the 42,000 people who took the exams passed.
Some people are urging the government to hold the examinations again, but no decision has been made and some who took the tests have staged protests demanding that the results be accepted.
Josefina A. Tuazon, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of the Philippines, recently returned from a trip to the U.S. where she found a "very strong apprehension about what image this will give to our country and the Filipino nurses." She expects, however, no immediate repercussions on the hiring policies of American hospitals.
FROM : http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/15372140.htm
QUESTIONS LEAKED IN RECENT LICENSING EXAMINATION
By Oliver Teves
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/15372140.htm
MANILA, Philippines - Nurses have become one of the Philippines' top exports, helping fill shortages of caregivers at hospitals around the globe. But credentials for thousands of would-be nurses are under a cloud because of alleged cheating in recent certification exams.
Rushing to protect the reputation of the country's nurses, the government has promised to punish those responsible. Several investigations are under way, but no arrests have been made.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, insists the leak of questions in at least two of five test subjects during the June 11-12 nursing board exams was an "isolated incident."
"This should not be cause for any stigma on our nurses or other professionals who remain to be among the best in the world," Bunye said last week.
That's not very soothing for recent graduates who had hoped to get nursing jobs in the United States, Europe or other parts of Asia but find themselves in a legal limbo.
The Court of Appeals has ordered a 60-day suspension for oath-taking by new nurses pending a hearing on the validity of the exams. More than 17,000 of the 42,000 people who took the exams passed.
Some people are urging the government to hold the examinations again, but no decision has been made and some who took the tests have staged protests demanding that the results be accepted.
Josefina A. Tuazon, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of the Philippines, recently returned from a trip to the U.S. where she found a "very strong apprehension about what image this will give to our country and the Filipino nurses." She expects, however, no immediate repercussions on the hiring policies of American hospitals.
FROM : http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/15372140.htm
