Nursing board fallout: No takers for June passer
Nursing board fallout: No takers for June passer
By Christian V. Esguerra, Leila Salaverria, Juliet Labog-Javellana
Inquirer
Last updated 05:42am (Mla time) 08/23/2006
Published on Page A1 of the August 23, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
FIRST, SHE WENT to a government hospital near a shopping mall in Quezon City, hoping to land a job as a nurse.
Told to first fulfill the requirements -- to show certificates of passing and of a board rating -- Bea Tibacan, 21, went straight to another government hospital to file her application.
She also applied at a middle-class hospital nearby and another private hospital in Mandaluyong City.
The hospitals all told the nursing graduate of St. Jude College in Manila that she would get a call if she was accepted. About a month has passed and she is still waiting for a call.
“They all asked me if I was a June passer,” Bea told the Inquirer yesterday. “Whenever I answered in the affirmative, the atmosphere, their tone would suddenly change,” she said, of the people who took her applications.
The prospects of those who passed the tainted June nursing board exams landing a job in the United States are also bleak.
Some hospitals in the United States have sent word that they will not hire Filipino nurses who graduated this year because of the leakage in the board exams, according to Dante Ang, chair of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.
A total of 17,871 of the 42,000 examinees passed the board exams conducted on June 11 and 12.
Like many of her fellow nursing graduates, Bea is growing frustrated while waiting for the cheating controversy to be put to rest.
The National Bureau of Investigation has yet to complete its investigation of allegations that questions and answers had been leaked prior to the exams. The Court of Appeals has yet to decide on a petition seeking to nullify the results of the test.
Experiencing discrimination
In the meantime, Bea’s plan of working in the United States hangs in the balance. The second of five children, she said her plan was to work right away to help her three siblings who were still in school.
She said the stigma of being part of the infamous “Batch of June 2006” had taken its toll on her.
“I feel very low,” she said. “I really came in prepared for the exams and I knew I passed (with no leakage whatsoever). Yet I, and many others, am experiencing discrimination. It’s very unfair.”
Willing to take exams again
If only to salvage her dignity and future, Bea said she was willing to take the exams again.
Bea said she was hoping that the investigation would soon be completed and that it would determine who were the people behind the leakage.
“Examinees who cheated should never be given a license,” she said.
Ang said an inter-agency task force looking into the leakage was also asking the Court of Appeals to invalidate the oath-taking of nurses who took the controversial exam and order the graduates to again take the two tests affected by the leakage.
“We will file a case in the Court of Appeals as an intervenor,” Ang said in a phone interview.
Some 3,000 of the 17,871 who passed the board exams were able to take their oaths on Aug. 18, hours before the Court of Appeals stopped the mass oath-taking scheduled by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) for Aug. 22.
The PRC on Aug. 17 decided to allow the passers to take their oaths at any PRC office nationwide. The next day, the court issued a temporary restraining order, which PRC Chair Leonor Rosero said reached the PRC at 4:30 p.m.
PRC against take-two for passers
To comply with the TRO, the PRC yesterday stopped the oath-taking of those who passed the June nursing licensure examination. But it said it was against compelling all those who took the June exams to take the exams again in December.
Rosero made the announcement as those who passed the exams trooped to the PRC office in Manila to inquire whether they would still be able to take their oaths and register as nurses.
She also said the PRC would not stop those who had already taken their oath from registering as nurses.
“Those who took their oath before the TRO was issued could still register because they were not covered by the order,” Rosero said in a phone interview.
She said she was not amenable to requiring those who took the board exams in June to again take even just Tests III and V, the parts of the exams tainted by the leakage.
“When we released the results of the June 2006 exams, we decided that there would be no retake. Why would we release the results if we would just order a retake?” Rosero said.
She said the PRC believed that it had removed the effect of the leakage from the exams by invalidating 20 leaked questions in Test III and reducing the weight of Test V because 90 of its 100 questions were leaked.
Waiver
Rosero said those who passed the June exams but did not want to be associated with them could still voluntarily take the exams again in December by submitting a waiver seeking to invalidate the results of the previous exams.
She also said that releasing the results of the exams did not mean that the PRC would not penalize those who would be found to have cheated.
Ang said the Task Force on the US National Council Licensure Exams (NCLEx), which he heads, had taken the position that the graduates who took the June nursing exams should be made to retake Tests III and V.
The task force includes the Department of Foreign Affairs, NBI and the Intellectual Property Office.
Mediocre
Ang noted that after the PRC reduced the weights of the two subjects, the passing mark was based only on 80 percent of the exams.
“If you lowered your bar of excellence, you lowered your bar of competence and that is not good for the credibility of our nurses. At best, you’re a mediocre nurse,” Ang said.
The leakage has adversely affected the credibility of Filipino nurses and the country’s nursing profession.
“It is terrible because the NCSBN (National Commission for State Boards of Nursing in the US) has deferred the Philippines as a possible testing center indefinitely,” Ang said.
Prior to the leakage, he said the NCSBN had placed the Philippines on the agenda for consideration as a testing site for the National Council Licensure Examination, an entry level exam that Filipino nurses must pass to be able to practice in the United States.
The Philippines, a top exporter of nurses to the United States, is seeking to become an NCLEx testing site because 83 percent of those who take the NCLEx are Filipino nurses, according to Ang.
Outside of the United States, Hong Kong, Britain, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia have been designated testing sites.
FROM: http://newsinfo.inq7.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=16742
By Christian V. Esguerra, Leila Salaverria, Juliet Labog-Javellana
Inquirer
Last updated 05:42am (Mla time) 08/23/2006
Published on Page A1 of the August 23, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
FIRST, SHE WENT to a government hospital near a shopping mall in Quezon City, hoping to land a job as a nurse.
Told to first fulfill the requirements -- to show certificates of passing and of a board rating -- Bea Tibacan, 21, went straight to another government hospital to file her application.
She also applied at a middle-class hospital nearby and another private hospital in Mandaluyong City.
The hospitals all told the nursing graduate of St. Jude College in Manila that she would get a call if she was accepted. About a month has passed and she is still waiting for a call.
“They all asked me if I was a June passer,” Bea told the Inquirer yesterday. “Whenever I answered in the affirmative, the atmosphere, their tone would suddenly change,” she said, of the people who took her applications.
The prospects of those who passed the tainted June nursing board exams landing a job in the United States are also bleak.
Some hospitals in the United States have sent word that they will not hire Filipino nurses who graduated this year because of the leakage in the board exams, according to Dante Ang, chair of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.
A total of 17,871 of the 42,000 examinees passed the board exams conducted on June 11 and 12.
Like many of her fellow nursing graduates, Bea is growing frustrated while waiting for the cheating controversy to be put to rest.
The National Bureau of Investigation has yet to complete its investigation of allegations that questions and answers had been leaked prior to the exams. The Court of Appeals has yet to decide on a petition seeking to nullify the results of the test.
Experiencing discrimination
In the meantime, Bea’s plan of working in the United States hangs in the balance. The second of five children, she said her plan was to work right away to help her three siblings who were still in school.
She said the stigma of being part of the infamous “Batch of June 2006” had taken its toll on her.
“I feel very low,” she said. “I really came in prepared for the exams and I knew I passed (with no leakage whatsoever). Yet I, and many others, am experiencing discrimination. It’s very unfair.”
Willing to take exams again
If only to salvage her dignity and future, Bea said she was willing to take the exams again.
Bea said she was hoping that the investigation would soon be completed and that it would determine who were the people behind the leakage.
“Examinees who cheated should never be given a license,” she said.
Ang said an inter-agency task force looking into the leakage was also asking the Court of Appeals to invalidate the oath-taking of nurses who took the controversial exam and order the graduates to again take the two tests affected by the leakage.
“We will file a case in the Court of Appeals as an intervenor,” Ang said in a phone interview.
Some 3,000 of the 17,871 who passed the board exams were able to take their oaths on Aug. 18, hours before the Court of Appeals stopped the mass oath-taking scheduled by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) for Aug. 22.
The PRC on Aug. 17 decided to allow the passers to take their oaths at any PRC office nationwide. The next day, the court issued a temporary restraining order, which PRC Chair Leonor Rosero said reached the PRC at 4:30 p.m.
PRC against take-two for passers
To comply with the TRO, the PRC yesterday stopped the oath-taking of those who passed the June nursing licensure examination. But it said it was against compelling all those who took the June exams to take the exams again in December.
Rosero made the announcement as those who passed the exams trooped to the PRC office in Manila to inquire whether they would still be able to take their oaths and register as nurses.
She also said the PRC would not stop those who had already taken their oath from registering as nurses.
“Those who took their oath before the TRO was issued could still register because they were not covered by the order,” Rosero said in a phone interview.
She said she was not amenable to requiring those who took the board exams in June to again take even just Tests III and V, the parts of the exams tainted by the leakage.
“When we released the results of the June 2006 exams, we decided that there would be no retake. Why would we release the results if we would just order a retake?” Rosero said.
She said the PRC believed that it had removed the effect of the leakage from the exams by invalidating 20 leaked questions in Test III and reducing the weight of Test V because 90 of its 100 questions were leaked.
Waiver
Rosero said those who passed the June exams but did not want to be associated with them could still voluntarily take the exams again in December by submitting a waiver seeking to invalidate the results of the previous exams.
She also said that releasing the results of the exams did not mean that the PRC would not penalize those who would be found to have cheated.
Ang said the Task Force on the US National Council Licensure Exams (NCLEx), which he heads, had taken the position that the graduates who took the June nursing exams should be made to retake Tests III and V.
The task force includes the Department of Foreign Affairs, NBI and the Intellectual Property Office.
Mediocre
Ang noted that after the PRC reduced the weights of the two subjects, the passing mark was based only on 80 percent of the exams.
“If you lowered your bar of excellence, you lowered your bar of competence and that is not good for the credibility of our nurses. At best, you’re a mediocre nurse,” Ang said.
The leakage has adversely affected the credibility of Filipino nurses and the country’s nursing profession.
“It is terrible because the NCSBN (National Commission for State Boards of Nursing in the US) has deferred the Philippines as a possible testing center indefinitely,” Ang said.
Prior to the leakage, he said the NCSBN had placed the Philippines on the agenda for consideration as a testing site for the National Council Licensure Examination, an entry level exam that Filipino nurses must pass to be able to practice in the United States.
The Philippines, a top exporter of nurses to the United States, is seeking to become an NCLEx testing site because 83 percent of those who take the NCLEx are Filipino nurses, according to Ang.
Outside of the United States, Hong Kong, Britain, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia have been designated testing sites.
FROM: http://newsinfo.inq7.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=16742
Above statements are not true. Possible that, he/she is not an RN, alam nyo ba pag mag apply sa hospital it would even take 2 months or more at di tinatanong if anong year ka kumuha ng NLE, kasi nakasulat yan sa board rating paper mo. NURSE BA TO ANG SUMUSULAT NG NEWS NA TO? OR FEELING NURSE LANG? trying to make the fire bigger... NAKAKAHIYA KAYO... AT HINDI TOTOONG WALA NG NCLEX DITO, PENDING YUNG DECISION, TANUNGIN NYO ANG BON NG USA, bAGO KAYO MAGLABAS NG ARTICLE...
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:40 AM
Dante Ang is ignorant about what competence mean in nursing. The board exam alone does not gauge the competence of a nurse. Even if the June 2006 board exam was tainted with a leakage issue, it does not mean that the board passers will be incompetent nurses in the future. Competence comes through practice. There will be always a starting point -- eventually nursing skills will be honed through the years of practice. So to generalize that June 2006 boardpassers will become incompetent nurses is such a careless and ignorant statement.
Posted by
Anonymous |
6:25 PM
Dante Ang is ignorant about what competence mean in nursing. The board exam alone does not gauge the competence of a nurse. Even if the June 2006 board exam was tainted with a leakage issue, it does not mean that the board passers will be incompetent nurses in the future. Competence comes through practice. There will be always a starting point -- eventually nursing skills will be honed through the years of practice. So to generalize that June 2006 boardpassers will become incompetent nurses is such a careless and ignorant statement.
Posted by
Anonymous |
6:25 PM