10,000 Filipino nurses took US licensure test

A total of 9,837 Filipinos took the United States licensure examination for nurses for the first time from January to June 2008, indicating they wanted to seek employment in America, former Senator Ernesto Herrera, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, said in a press statement Saturday.

Herrera said the number of Filipino nurses who took the NCLEX and implicitly sought jobs in the US in the first semester was roughly steady -- just 107 shy of the year-ago takers. He said a total of 9,944 Filipino nurses took the examination in the first half of 2007.

The NCLEX refers to the National Council Licensure Examination administered by the US (National Council of) State Boards of Nursing Inc. (NCSBN).

In the whole of 2007, a record total of 21,499 Filipinos took the NCLEX for the first time (excluding repeaters). This was up 6,328 or 42 percent compared to the 15,171 Filipinos that took the NCLEX for the first time in 2006, according to Herrera.

The TUCP has been an aggressive backer of the country’s nurse practitioners. The labor group has been pushing the deployment of Filipino nurses to lucrative job markets overseas, saying professionals should enjoy the right to take their skills to where these would get the greatest reward.

For years, Herrera has been urging regulators to close down a growing number of substandard nursing schools.

"Regulators should now be extra vigilant, and see to it that nursing students are kept away from low-grade schools," said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.

He cited the need for the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to shield parents and students from the proliferation of so-called "diploma mills."

"We must stress that regulators are duty-bound to safeguard the hopes and dreams of tens of thousands of Filipino families to produce a nurse practitioner who will eventually lead them to a better quality of life," Herrera said.

At present, almost 500,000 students are enrolled in nursing schools nationwide, according to the CHED.

Of the 132,187 graduates that took the last two Philippine nursing licensure tests in December 2007 and June this year, only 56,689 less than 43 percent passed, according to Herrera.

Last month, a Commission on Audit report revealed that of 263 nursing schools, only 111 had at least 50 percent of their graduates pass the Philippine licensure tests from 2001 to 2005.

Like the TUCP, the CoA blamed the CHEd for the problem, for failing to promptly close down deficient schools and raise the quality of nursing education.

source: INQUIRER.net