November 2008 Philippine Nursing Board Exams Results – Surnames Starts in “D”
CHED Disapproves Ceiling Proposal for Nursing Students Enrollees to Curb Oversupply
COMMISSION on Higher Education (Ched) chairman Emmanuel Angeles denounced proposals imposing a ceiling on the number of college students that would like to take up nursing in an effort to put a halt on the oversupply of nurses in the Philippines.
CHED cited the that setting a limit to the number of enrollees to be accepted in the nursing schools all over the country will mean a violation of the basic human right to choose the education the students want to pursue.
About 470 nursing schools proliferate in the country with an annual enrolment of nearly 100,000. Only a handful of these schools are considered excellent by CHED with an annual passing rate of 90 percent. Last year, 64.909 nursing hopefuls took the board and eventually 31,000 of them passed.
CHED said that the only way they can limit the oversupply is to limit the nursing schools providing nursing courses. The most valid basis of barring a school from conducting nursing courses are lack of proper facility and incompetence of faculty members. However, we are yet to see these control measures being implemented in the school system.
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Is there really an oversupply of Pinoy Nurses in the Philippines?
Recent reports state that there is an oversupply of Pinoy nurses now in the Philippines due mainly to 2 factors.
1. Highly commercialized nursing schools – Students are still being advised to take on Nursing because they and their parents believed that becoming a nurse abroad is their ticket to escape poverty. Success stories of Pinoy nurses abroad are being flaunted everyday by nursing schools to attract more and more students to boost their earnings. And one way or another, someone from the family has direct link or relation to someone who is making big bucks abroad that only solidify the intent of the students to take on nursing.
The result – more and more high school graduates are now flooding these nursing schools as the preferred college course. Tens of thousands also end up taking the nursing board exams. The high board passing rate also encourage the students to take on the course.
2. Practical Nursing programs – Not many people know on the onset that Practical nurses end up to be the nursing assistants to registered nurses here and abroad. The proliferation of practical nursing programs from various nursing school institutions, which is a vocational course to begin with, has attracted even more students to easily jump into the nursing boom.
False advertising plays the part on the oversupply. Students are led to believe that Practical nursing course is their shortcut to going abroad than taking the full 4-year course. But recent reports showed that graduates of practical nursing are having a hard time finding jobs abroad contrary to what has been advertised when they are enrolling in those practical nursing schools.
This has raised concerns at PNA which warned students to be very careful taking on this course as it is not a guarantee that they will get working visas or immigrant status in the US for example.
Now with all unemployed nurses around, how will the government deal with this oversupply situation? This will definitely add to unemployment rate in the future if and when the government will not take action as early as now to curb the impact of this impending oversupply as well as the effect of deteriorating demand in the nursing profession here and abroad.
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When Nursing is Not a Lucrative Profession Anymore for Future Pinoy Nurses
Recent reports have suggested that Nursing is not a lucrative profession anymore for future Pinoy nurses.
This came after PNA revealed that job opportunities for Pinoy nurses are not as promising as it used to. Now future nursing students are advised to think twice before taking the nursing course. Those that think that this nursing profession is their ticket to success by working abroad is in for a big disappointment.
The culprit is the big drop in demand for nurses abroad mainly in the US and UK. Now, local hospitals like the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and St. Lukes Medical Center have serious backlogs to consider as nursing applicants are advised to wait 6 to 12 months.
Despite this, nursing schools continue to lure students to enroll which further fuel the over supply of nurses in the country. The PNA blamed these schools for commercializing the profession thus more and more high school graduates are entering the nursing profession yearly.
In our earlier report, Nursing is the top choice amongst enrollees this year based on CHED reports. This commercialization of the profession also raise up the tuition cost of becoming a nurse and other expenses for those planning to go abroad.
Now, more than ever, CHED should be able to provide governance to the nursing schools. Recent reports showed that CHED still failed to clamp down on incompetent nursing schools which add more insult to the injury the profession is taking in right now.
So what’s in store for our nursing graduates this year? That is something the Philippine government should really be concerned with if they cannot create demand outside the United States and the UK soonest.
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