Thursday, September 28, 2006 Nurses ordered to retake tests
OVER 7,300 nursing graduates are in for a second round of the board exams, after months of uncertainty about their job prospects here and abroad.
Malacañang has approved a retake of the scandal-hit exams last June, to silence doubts about the examinees’ competence and the nursing profession’s integrity.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the decision was reached during the Cabinet meeting Tuesday and that Labor Secretary Arturo Brion and the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) were tasked to iron out details of the special exam.
The order will come from the PRC. But at the policy level, there is already a decision that there will be a retake. The President made the decision, Ermita said.
Apart from the 7,322 out of 40,000 applicants who passed the nursing exams last June, other Filipino nurses, including those abroad, were affected by the reported leakage, Ermita added.
Calling the order “unfair” to the Cebuano board passers, Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella hopes the President will reconsider her decision.
Labella is also the lawyer of the Cebuano intervenors in a case filed against the PRC and the Board of Nursing.
“I hope that the President will seriously reconsider her decision considering that the case is currently being heard at the Court of Appeals,” said Labella, upon hearing the news last night.
The petitioners are Rene Luis Tadle, president of the University of Sto. Tomas, College of Nursing; Earl Francis Sumile, president of the League of Concerned Nurses; and Michael Angelo Brant, president of the Binuklod na Samahan ng mga Student Nurses.
Limited
The intervenors are Cebu-based board passers and their parents collectively called Tanan (Tapok-tapok sa Nagkahiusang Nurses Batok sa Retake).
Labella appeared before the CA in Manila last Sept. 14 for a hearing, where he pointed out that the petitioners were only concerned about the alleged leakage in Manila and Baguio.
“Cebu was never alluded to have benefited from the said leakage,” Labella said.
So a retake for all board passers would be an injustice to Cebu-based nurses, he added.
He has yet to meet with the leaders of Tanan for their next move. But initially, Labella will suggest that the group write a letter to President Arroyo, asking for a reconsideration of her order.
President Arroyo, in Executive Order 565, has also ordered that the PRC be attached to the labor department for general direction and coordination, following the leakage.
The scandal’s effect on the nursing profession is a labor matter, Ermita explained, because it affects the placement of professionals both locally and abroad. (Sunnex/JGA)
