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Sunday, September 17, 2006
Cebu's nurses join CA lawsuit
CEBU CITY -- Nurses who took the board exams in Cebu City are fighting at the Court of Appeals (CA) a petition to prevent the oath taking of the 2006 successful nursing board examinees.
In a four-page motion for leave of court and an 11-page comment-in-intervention filed at the CA last Wednesday, a newly-organized organization in Cebu said they were "merely victims" in last June's alleged board exam leaks.
The group is called Tanan (Tapok-tapok sa Nagkahiusang Nurses Batok sa Retake) and bands together the nursing board passers and their parents. They announced their move Saturday, after a march attended by more than a hundred new nurses and their parents.
They started the walk at the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) 7 in Guadalupe and ended it at the Fuente-Osmeña circle. The participants wore orange stickers with the words "no retake" and rallied behind the banner "Nars for Justice."
Coordinator Wivina Pumatong, a parent of a 2006 nursing board passer, said Nars is an acronym for "nurses against retake seeking justice."
She said they opposed the proposed retake since Cebu City examinees passed the exams fairly.
"Examinees are innocent victims of the whole controversy and by not allowing them to practice their profession despite having passed the licensure examination, (that) is tantamount to a deprivation of their right to property without due process of law," Tanan's comment-in-intervention read.
Lawyer and Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella is representing the interveners. He said he believes in "the cause of the case."
Balanced
Representatives of nursing schools in Cebu also spoke during the rally.
The interveners defended the PRC and the Board of Nursing, who allowed the nurses to take oath despite reports of cheating during the board exam.
"While they allowed the successful examinees to take their oath, nonetheless, they also directed the full-blown investigation on the persons and parties involved in the leakage," the comment read.
PRC 7 initiated the oath-taking ceremonies last Aug. 17 and 18, barely beating the CA-issued temporary restraining order (TRO) against the oath-taking of nurses on the 18th.
The petitioners are Rene Luis Tadle, president of the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), College of Nursing; Earl Francis Sumile, president of the League of Concerned Nurses; and Michael Angelo Brant, president of Binuklod na Samahan ng mga Student Nurses.
Isolated
Tanan noted that the cheating, if there indeed was any, consisted of isolated cases in Manila and Baguio. No cheating happened in Cebu City, the petitioners said.
Labella said he appeared before the CA in Manila to represent Tanan last Thursday. There, even the UST said they are specifically questioning the test results in Manila and Baguio.
"They (Cebuano nurses) should be given an opportunity to exercise their profession, especially since they passed the exam honestly," he said.
Besides, in order to work in the United States, for instance, the nurses have to hurdle the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) and the National Counsel Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX), they said.
But because of the TRO, Melissa Bautista, 21, fears she may have a hard time taking the CGFNS this coming November and March next year.
Bautista and more than 1,700 board passers in Cebu have yet to receive their licenses, a requirement in taking the CGFNS, despite having already taken their oaths.
Working
But she is hopeful that once the TRO will be lifted on Oct. 18 or before that, she and the others can pass the requirements in time for the March CGFNS exams.
Bautista is a graduate of the Cebu Doctors' University. She took the board exam last June.
She is glad that the schools and the hospitals in Cebu are behind them. Even with Manila-based hospitals saying they won't hire nurses who took the 2006 board exam, many of the Cebu-based nursing graduates are already working.
"A lot of us are already working in hospitals and are even accepted as clinical instructors," she told Sun.Star.
Bautista is working in a medical clinic of a Cebu hotel. Her father heads the legal affairs committee of Tanan.
"Grabe among kahago... we reviewed for two months and were sleep-deprived and even TV-deprived. We had a lot to sacrifice over the board exam," she said. (JGA/Sun.Star Cebu)
(September 17, 2006 issue)
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