Freeliner by Diego B. Ledda, Jr.

THE scandal pertaining to the leakage of the Nursing Board Examination last June 2006 has created a bad image for the nursing profession. What hurts the examinees most is that the proposal of the Nursing Council of the Philippines to hold the National Council for Language Examination (NCLEX) required by the United States for nurses in the Philippines will be frozen. And according to the Board, the Philippines will no longer be considered in the near future as one of the sites of the examination.

Statements from several schools particularly St. Luke’s Hospital is very alarming that they won’t hire nurses from this batch of board passers. Of course, much more from countries recruiting nurses from our country.

The leakage in the board examination is now a subject of controversy considering two of the five subjects are involved. These are: Mental Problems adn Clinical Surgery. Mr. Dante Ang, the Chairman for Overseas Filipino Workers, was apparently digusted over the leakage issue. He is one of the persons who is pushing the holding of the NCLEX in the country.

Initially, NCLEX is available only in Hongkong, United Kingdom and South Korea. But in the past years, Taiwan and Japan were added to the list. Our nurses who want to work in the USA have to go to these countries to take the exams. Some of the charges are personal while recruitment agencies offer it for free, not knowing that these are normally imputed to their recruitment fees.

Board examination leakage is also done by unscrupulous review schools and colleges or universities in order to gain fame through most number of board passers or even for topping the examination or by some schools where they are being subjected to closure due to unproductivity.

In fact, during our Board Examination for the licensure of Certified Public Accountants in May 1983, there was a leakage scandal involving review schools. I was then reviewing at the PRTC Review School in Manila. The subject involved was Law and Taxation and was the only subject in question out of nine subjects. How much more with two subjects out of five as in the case of the recent Nursing Board Exam?

During a break in our examination, it was found out that the leakage given out were all there in the examination. Since the leakage was known to the other examinees, the issue came out all over the newspapers. My review school joined the protest of many schools marching on the streets in front of the PRC building and condemning the PRC Board of Accountancy (BOA) officials that resulted in the resignation of the Chairman and some officials of the BOA. The decision was to re-take the examination, so our stay in Manila had to be extended for another week. The difference between the PRC officials during that year and this time is that they are more sensitive to criticism that time and have delicadeza so to speak.

The June 2006 batch must re-take the two subjects. This is to restore the lost integrity and competence that many people and employers lost from them and the perception that they chated their way to the profession must be erased. Importantly, nurses hold the lives of the people and a single error cannot reverse the action taken on their patients. A scoundrel would always cheat others out of her incompetence.

It hurts that many good people had to suffer for the evil works of few people. But if they realy believe that they are capable nurses, why not? This is to erase the impression, especially on the topnothcers that, they benefited  from the leakage. For how can they be so proud of their certificates or individual licenses if it is tainted with doubts? The review schools and the  PRC officials involved must be punished soa s not to repeat the same or similar incursion in the future.
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