Philippines News August 30-Sept5 issue

[suzanne4]

For those of you that have not seen it, there is a full article on the front page written by the Dean of the University of the Philippines School of Nursing stating: (the version that is in print in the US)

Don't hire new grads, dean tells US Nurses.

Also included is the fact that Arkansas has refused to issue a licence to any nurse that took the NLE exam in June, 2006.

For all of you that told me that I had no idea of what I was talking about and I am sure calling me every name in the book, there it is in black and white.

[whammy78]

[caloy]

To answer the question posted by Dush

i don't think that would be fair. And besides the parts of the test that had leakage were not included in the results (so i guess, no one was able to cheat successfully)

Someone correct me please, if i'm wrong

[stickadoraRN]

i agree with caloy.however,the US must not be mistakenly judged on the way they look at the june 2006 passers.they,in fact,are not greatly affected with the june 2006 NLE issue.if there is,only few.the ncsbn stated in the the media that june 2006 passers are not to blame and to be puniched by the issue because everyone in the batch are victims.if they opt to apply and work in the USA, there are standards and tests to be done in order to be a practicing RN in the state.the NLE is not the only basis for judging the competency of the nurse but it is actually on the performance in the area, performing the over all education and skills he/she had taken and mastered.if the nurse is not competent, the license can be revoked anytime (negligence, malpractice,etc) and that will be the time to say that the nurse isn't competent enough in her profession.

with the Dean of UP,it is shameful to put her colleagues and fellowmen down from her own mouth!yes it is true, she has her wealth and position that is why it is easy for her to say those stupid things.very unjust to june 2006.and even the state boards were shocked by the way she addressed her statements due to her judgemental attitude that should not be in any way be against filipino nurses, she might be getting out of her mind, remember, she is a filipino too.

[tantrum]

I don't think the Dean of UP was just speaking about the June NLE passers. She even clarified in the newspaper that her view is that all graduates should have some work experience (locally) before working overseas.

Although I agree that employers should be selective, I don't believe that a long period of clinical experience can screen off bad nurses. Plus, how can all the new RN's have local experience if they are not being paid properly if they work locally? Some are even paying for their "clinical experience".

She kept on parroting the flawed statistics by Galvez-Tan about hemorrhage of medical personnel. There are too many schools and too many RN's in the Philippines. Each year there is an exponential increase in the number of students and graduates in Nursing. What is lacking are the funds necessary to hire the right number of nurses. That's the reason why there is an absurd nurse:patient ratio in govt hospitals, not because there are very few applicants.

[pinoy_guy]

i don't think that would be fair. and besides the parts of the test that had leakage were not included in the results (so i guess, no one was able to cheat successfully)

someone correct me please, if i'm wrong

'test 5 questions still computed in nurses final grade'

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?storyid=49459

a statistician on monday said she did not invalidate 90 nursing board exam questions in computing the final grades of the board examinees. the 90 questions, all from test 5 of the 2006 nursing licensure exams, were reportedly leaked to several review centers two days before the exams.

in an exclusive report on abs-cbn's bandila, dr. mila ibe said removing 90 out of the 100 questions from test 5 of the nle would invalidate the whole test.

"if you remove 90 questions, then only 10 would remain. [ten questions] would no longer be dependable or reliable to gauge [the examinee's] knowledge of test 5," she said. test 5 tackles questions on psychiatric nursing.

ibe said she removed 20 leaked questions of test 3 of the nursing board exams in the computation of the final grade. she said she did not receive confirmation that the 90 questions on test 5 should be left out of the final computation of the results of the board exams.

"better to nullify it than to take it for what little information that you get from the remaining 10 items. i won't allow that only 10 (questions) would be the basis (for the test 5 results)," she added.

. . . . .

she said that she was not given a test framework or list of topics that should be tackled in the licensure exams to gauge the knowledge of the examinees.

prof. rene tadle said failure to use the test framework invalidates the results of the whole exam.

'flawed computation shows need for retake'

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?storyid=49561

the 2 statisticians consulted agreed that there should be a retake.

the only question is retake of what?

the easy way would be to retake only tests 3 & 5.

however, the quote "prof. rene tadle said failure to use the test framework invalidates the results of the whole exam." showed their position to retake all 5 tests.

this, plus the earlier testimony of another examinee that tests 1 & 2 were also leaked...

i agree with suzanne. why fight a battle and lose the war?

if you fight this retake, you waste your time--years of waiting for the courts to decide--waiting for your license which might in the end not even be given, if the courts rule on a mandatory retake.

best to retake the nle, get your license, get a job, and earn money (pesos or dollars, it's up to you).

good luck to everybody

[pinoy_guy]

I don't believe that a long period of clinical experience can screen off bad nurses.

I agree.

I have actually met nurses with 10+ years of experience who can't (or won't) accept newer/better ways of doing things.

how can all the new RN's have local experience if they are not being paid properly if they work locally? Some are even paying for their "clinical experience".

this is sad, but I think this is common now.

She kept on parroting the flawed statistics by Galvez-Tan about hemorrhage of medical personnel.

somebody should challenge this guy's statistics. he even went to the US to lobby against hiring of Philippine nurses.

he said that "1,000 hospitals have closed down in the Philippines" because of alleged lack of nurses and doctors. if you don't think critically, you might just believe that statement based on his credentials.

my question is, if 1,000 hospitals have really closed down, then where is that list of hospitals???

the only "hospitals" that have closed are the health clinics in the rural areas--but then these were closed due to lack of funds. imagine health clinics with no medicine, no equipment, and no budget to pay for salaries of the doctors and nurses.

doctors/nurses do not take a Vow of Poverty.

we need money too. we do not aspire to be filthy rich, as some of these rabid crusaders against foreign deployment of doctors and nurses seem to imply.

somebody should publicly challenge Galvez-Tan's statements and statistics to expose the inaccuracies.

regarding "hemorrhage"...maybe they should get the real numbers in Manila. I bet there are tens of thousands (probably more!) of unemployed nurses.

the nurses who actually get jobs outside the Philippines are a mere trickle compared to the glut inside the country.

it should be noted that taking all the requisite exams costs a lot of money...and it is hard to pass all the exams.

somebody credible should speak out, not this guy who spouts incredible figures.

There are too many schools and too many RN's in the Philippines. Each year there is an exponential increase in the number of students and graduates in Nursing.

exactly.

What is lacking are the funds necessary to hire the right number of nurses.

I agree.

this is why it's frustrating to watch the news, and hear about billions of pesos being frittered away just like that.

That's the reason why there is an absurd nurse:patient ratio in govt hospitals, not because there are very few applicants.

amazing, huh?

I have seen hospitals with 2 RNs caring for 53 patients.

and 16 nursing students assigned to one patient.

[tantrum]

The hospitals that closed are mostly small private rural hospitals that are losing money. This is a product of the economy (its the old mantra- its the economy, stupid) and not real shortage of personnel. Majority of the patients are too poor to go to a private hospitals. The FEW govt rural hospitals that closed are in remote areas without ANYTHING (meds, doctors,lab). If the govt just equip these hospitals and pay their personnel properly, there will be no lack of applicants.

As for Retake and No Retake battle, I don't think there will be any winner regardless of the outcome. With the slow legal process and potential challenges up to the Supreme Court, it will probably take a year to have it settled. The PRC could have avoided this mess by not announcing the results and immediately retesting everybody. In that way, you don't divide the Nurses into the pro and anti retake group.

The real lesson is to reform the system. I agree with proposal closing all review centers and mandate all the schools to give their own review (what are they teaching anyway?).They should also have independent body choosing the BON and NOT allow any dean or review center (if they are not dissolved) to choose any BON member or examiner. There should also be an increase in the salary of BON members (significantly) to match the salary of a dean of nursing.

[corrupted_caregiver]

The question is "when"? I can burn money (even though I'm in debt in the amount of hundreds of thousands) but the time.. We can't turn it back. Hahayz

We need a major overhaul (this has been an issue since the time of dinosaurs but nothing happened). As I've said, to be a hero is to die young. If Jose Rizal will turn over again and again in his grave if he will see the country now.. Review Centers are there and thriving BECAUSE of the LACK OF PREPARATION in Nursing SCHOOLS itself. Hey, if you are well prepared, why waste money ayt? I mean, even UST, UP, and PLM are enrolling in review centers. So I think the schools are the ones that need to be improved. And improving it is a major overhaul to the educational SYSTEM that has been set decades ago. Schools are business institutions. It is governed by profit and loss law. Supply and demand. There is money involve (as evidenced by tuition fees). And if there is money involved, there is corruption. I smell corruption. Everyone becomes corrupted.

Nursing Dx: Ineffective educational system related to appetite of school owners and stockholders for money

I have to go on with my life again. Got to train as a medical transcriptionist. I mean, more knowledge makes more life meaningful, ayt? Wrong, wrong.

:uhoh21:

[Rep]

The hospitals that closed are mostly small private rural hospitals that are losing money. This is a product of the economy (its the old mantra- its the economy, stupid) and not real shortage of personnel. Majority of the patients are too poor to go to a private hospitals. The FEW govt rural hospitals that closed are in remote areas without ANYTHING (meds, doctors,lab). If the govt just equip these hospitals and pay their personnel properly, there will be no lack of applicants.

As for Retake and No Retake battle, I don't think there will be any winner regardless of the outcome. With the slow legal process and potential challenges up to the Supreme Court, it will probably take a year to have it settled. The PRC could have avoided this mess by not announcing the results and immediately retesting everybody. In that way, you don't divide the Nurses into the pro and anti retake group.

The real lesson is to reform the system. I agree with proposal closing all review centers and mandate all the schools to give their own review (what are they teaching anyway?).They should also have independent body choosing the BON and NOT allow any dean or review center (if they are not dissolved) to choose any BON member or examiner. There should also be an increase in the salary of BON members (significantly) to match the salary of a dean of nursing.

Letting the schools review their own students for the nursing board is a good move because they will put more effort in teaching the students and making sure they got the lessons right. This will make the schools more competitive in producing good students who will pass the board. Also this will discourage diploma mills since students will go to good schools instead them.

This is business and that is why review centers are propping up and they want to produce high percentages of passing that some of them are willing to looks for ways to increase their rates to the point of cheating. Having a good passing rate will ensure a lot of enrollees in the review and that is money.

Just my opinion.

[suzanne4, RN]

Sorry, but the recent huge expansion of review centers has nothing at al ldo to with preparation of the student for the actual exams, but getting a kick-back from an agency................for every resume or nurse that they send their way.

To be above board, no review center should have any type of contract with any agency, and I am even seeing it happen with new centers, that have not even had student go thru and graduate. And since most of the operators have no experience in the US, nor know nothing about how things are done here, they are more prey for unscrupulous agencies, without even caring about the nurse.

And shame on them. If you are going to attend a review center there, please make sure that the operators as well as the instructors actually have a license to practice in the US, and investigate them. Several of the more popular ones, the license does not exist, or has been revoked. Be very careful on what you do............it is your money.

[dyan_gorgeous RN]

hello everyone.. i saw that news.. she said that not to degrade or even pressure those june 2006 passers but because she wants the newly grads to stay in the country to have some "at least 2 years" of experience before leaving the country because some students didn't have enough exposure to hospitals and this dean just want to build each of them the confidence.. but, given the situation that after 6 months of training as a staff nurse they still don't have salary.. some even call this exploitation because they are working as one of the hospital's staff already.

[Rep]

And shame on them. If you are going to attend a review center there, please make sure that the operators as well as the instructors actually have a license to practice in the US, and investigate them. Several of the more popular ones, the license does not exist, or has been revoked. Be very careful on what you do............it is your money.

Philippines does not require an instructor to be a US licensed nurse. Only a Philippine license will do, even these review centers will conduct reviews for the NLE and later the CGFNS or NCLEX. If one requires a Us licensed instructor then you won't find any becasue every one of them are already in the US. The salary of an instructor is not that much.

In the city where I live before the review centers are staff by only Phil licensed nurses and I know some of them because they are my classmates.

Way back in my time when I took the CGFNS, our instructors were only Philippine licensed except the one who taught us Mental Health who worked for a time in the US as a psychiatric nurse.

Although it would be nice to have US licensed instructors but the thing is there are not any. And the government does not care a bit. They only care are the remittances we send back.

The issue of leakages is an old story and it happened in every professional exams like engineering and medicine way back in 1990's where one medical school was suspected to have informations before the conduct of the exams that being conducted there but the thing is the issue died immediately. Investigations were done on that school but nothing came out because nobody wants to talk. The only thing happened is that school is remembered for that incident ever since.

It is only the nursing leakage that brought so much attention for a fact that we Filipinos were known for importing nurses abroad and the mentally at home that Filipino nurses are known for their kindness and dedication towards the nursing profession which I do not agree because nationality has nothing to do with nursing care.

I still thing that it is better for schools to provide the review themselves for the NLE and leave the CGFNS and NCLEX to others who can provide the instructors. And you are right that many review centers for the CGFNS/NCLEX have tie ups with agencies and that creates pressures for them to have their nurses pass these two exams regardless for what it takes.

Even to the point of having the nurses memorized 3 or 4 questions from the CGFNS and NCLEX. These are just rumors I heard when I was in the Philippines and not a new thing to me.

In my opinion, it is easy to cheat in the NLE considering that PRC are run by a few people who are greedy for money but for the CGFNS and NCLEX, it is not that easy.