Nursing Controversy

MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) Labor Secretary Arturo Brion on Wednesday again asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to sign a draft executive order (EO) allowing his department to administer the special voluntary retake of tests 3 and 5 for the 17,000 passers of the June 2006 nursing board exam.

Brion’s request was made after the United States Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) rejected with finality the last-ditch effort of a four-member task force to allow the board passers to acquire VisaScreen certificates that would allow them to work in the US as healthcare professionals without retaking the two tests.

However, in his weekly press briefing, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the retake will be administered by the Professional Regulation Commission.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, for her part, said she has already instructed Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to coordinate with other concerned agencies on the partial retake. She said the government will subsidize the cost of the retake.

Ermita said the cost of the retake would run to about P900 per student.

Various congressional and administrative inquiries concluded that questions to tests 3 and 5 were leaked to review centers in Manila and Baguio.

Brion said he already submitted the draft EO to Malacañang, but expects Arroyo to wait for the report of the team led by Bacolod Representative Monico Puentevella before acting on the labor chief’s recommendation.

Under the draft EO, the President authorizes the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to administer the retake, which will be offered along with the June and December nursing board exams this year.

The same draft EO indicates that applications for voluntary examination shall be filed with the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) under the same administrative processes in applying for the regular nursing board.

It provides that the exam be conducted in the same manner and under the same security safeguards observed for regular board exams.

Brion's representatives will monitor all stages of the voluntary examination process.

The labor chief, together with BON chairperson Carmencita Abaquin, will release the names of those who pass the examination, notify the individual nominees, and furnish the CGFNS with the official results and with such information about the regularity of the examination as the CGFNS may require.

He said he would meet this week with the deans of nursing schools recognized by the Commission on Higher Education as centers of excellence in nursing for their possible conduct of the review for the voluntary examinees.

“We will also formulate with the deans guidelines on the conduct of the review and settle how the government’s assistance shall be handled,” he said. “Hopefully, this retake will be the final and closing chapter of our June 2006 nursing board exam traumatic experience.”