MANILA – A total of 95,282 nursing graduates, considered an all-time high, will take the two-day November 2009 nursing licensure examination starting Sunday in various testing centers throughout the Philippines, according to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC). (See related story: November 2009 NLE Exams Results)
Marco Sto. Tomas, a member of the PRC’s board of nursing, announced that because of the record number, they decided to put up additional testing centers in La Union province in Northern Luzon to accommodate the graduates from the provinces of Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, all in the same region.
Based on the PRC official records, Sto. Tomas disclosed that Metro Manila accounted for the biggest number of examinees, with 40,621; followed by Baguio City in the Northern Luzon highlands, 14,102; Cebu City in the Visayas, 8,899; Davao City in Mindanao, 8,143; and Iloilo City in the Visayas, 6,020.
After a review of past tests, he added that the passing rate has been declining, now estimated at 40 percent, which indicated the urgent need for the academe to identify where the examinees are having difficulty.
According to Sto. Tomas, the test given by the board aims mainly to test the “minimum competence” of the country’s nursing graduates to assume entry-level positions..
For this reason, he urged the Commission on Higher Education (Ched), which has jurisdiction and control over all colleges and universities, including those owned and operated by the state, to look into the matter.
“There is much to be desired in the production line,” Sto. Tomas emphasized. “The board of nursing is mandated only to regulate the practice of the profession. The concern goes back to the colleges of nursing which are under the jurisdiction of Ched.”
Despite the 40 percent national passing rate, Sto. Tomas said many of those who hurdled the exams remain jobless due to lack of the actual two-year employment experience required by foreign employers.
As a result, many licensed nurses have been forced to take up employment, especially in the country’s “sunrise industry” of call centers. Others have opted to work for foreign and local pharmaceutical companies as “med reps,” or medical representatives.
For some time now, many Filipino families have regarded nursing as a way out to help improve their lives. As such, they sacrificed to send their children to nursing schools in the hope that if they passed the exams, this would serve as their “passport” to high-paying jobs abroad.
In fact, for a time, the demand of Filipino nurses by foreign employers has been so high that licensed physicians even went back to school to take up nursing.
Still recruitment industry leaders, like Lito Soriano, have confirmed the observation of Sto. Tomas that there remains a great demand for Filipino nurses abroad but they are having difficulty filling the job orders.
In particular, Soriano disclosed that Filipino nurses are highly in demand in the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia as well as in the US and the United Kingdom and Germany in Europe.
The problem is, most of the applicants are not qualified because they do not have actual work experience, like the two years required by foreign employers, Soriano lamented. He added most of the applicants, although highly qualified, only have volunteer work to cite as their experience.
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