CHEd’s Changes on the Nursing Curricullum was met with protests and rejections

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CHEd released last week Memorandum Order No. 5 which mandates nursing schools to add new subjects and increase the hospital hours of nursing students starting this school year. It will be applicable only to incoming freshmen nursing students.

Several stakeholders such as a group of private school and the parents of the incoming nursing students cry foul to this move since they claimed that no public consultations was done by CHEd to that effect. They claimed that the additional year and longer hospital hours will be costly for the parents of nursing students. CHEd was quick to respond saying that they did consulted the group 3 years ago through Maria Teresita Sy-Sinda, chairperson of CHEd’s Technical Communication on Nursing Studies.

Ms. Sy-Sinda said nursing school owners, parents and related institutions were consulted during the drafting of the program. According to her, the original plan was to turn the nursing degree into a five-year program to ensure graduates’ competence. This, she said, was turned down by the stakeholders, citing the additional costs it would entail. She further claimed that the new program was much better because of the integration of the review for the licensure exams in the nursing schools.

As we blogged recently, private nursing review centers now have to comply with the strict standards set by CHEd if they wish to continue operating, Sinda said, adding nursing schools that fail to meet the minimum passing rate for three years could be closed down.

Another setback made by the new curriculum is that it gets rid of “special courses” for professionals applying to nursing schools. Before, professionals like doctors can finish a nursing degree within 18 months because of the special courses offered by schools. Now they have to go through the whole program to become a nurse.

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