Don't hire new grads, dean tells U.S. nurses
Don't hire new grads, dean tells U.S. nurses
BY JUN ILAGAN
STAFF REPORTER
NURSES in the
By doing so, the Filipino nursing community in the
This is the gist of the e-mail Dean Josefina Tuazon of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing, dated August 25 sent primarily to the president-elect of the Philippine Nurses Association of Southern California, Brenda Cohen. More than 50 other healthcare professionals here and in the
A copy of the letter was provided Philippine News by the president of the Philippine Nurses Association of America, New York-based May Mayor.
The head of the
"Spread the word around that we need to do something in each of our own world," Tuazon said in her letter.
She continued: "For some of you involved directly or indirectly in the recruitment of Filipino nurses, please be selective and choose only graduates from reputable schools. Do not recruit new graduates."
Tuazon further explained that recruiting only the experienced nurses for overseas employment would also help stabilize the turnover rate of nurses in the
On the quality of nursing education in the
"For Filipinos based abroad, we hope you will tell your relatives and friends in the
Along this line, Tuazon insisted that nursing schools ought to have a set of criteria for selecting and keeping students. While she appreciates that most nursing students eagerly look forward to working abroad, the least nursing schools could do is to conduct pre-admission screening and then work hard to make good nurses out of the students.
"Let's pressure schools into adopting a selection criteria," she said. "Not just anybody and certainly not everybody can be nurses. Nursing cannot and should not be merely used as a stepping stone to go abroad."
As investigation into the alleged test leak continued alongside government efforts to start fixing the breached licensure testing system, some "players" are shrewdly, if not inappropriately, positioning themselves to gain from the scandal. Tuazon specifically referred to how several review centers are jostling with one another in order to win over the lost customer base of Gapuz and Inress, two review institutions implicated in the scam.
The scramble seems a pitiful reminder of the gallant and almost successful bid put up by the
Manila newspapers also reported last week that according to Dante Ang, chair of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, he has received information that the state of
In the meantime, PNAA's Mayor expressed her disappointment over the results of the controversial nursing board exams. Whether or not there was a leak, she noted, the passing rate of 42 percent (17,000 out of the 42,000 examinees) is still alarmingly low.
"It is an embarrassing percentage and tends to mirror the deteriorating quality of nursing education in the
"Many schools do not even have hospital affiliations,
Both Tuazon and Mayor, as well as the institutions they represent, however, see a silver lining amid the scandal. "It had to take a scandal like this to call the attention of media and the public to the fact that there is something very wrong in the nursing profession today," Tuazon said in her letter.
The PNAA, on the other hand, has issued a position statement condemning the alleged test leakage.
Philippine News, California
