Deans
of the country's 442 nur-sing colleges have taken a stubborn stand against the
pronouncement of Malacañang favoring the nursing board examinations retake.
Bohol
president of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) Fran-cisca Baluyot said the
strong opposition mounted by the deans alone should cause Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
to reconsider the Palace's decision.
PNA-Bohol
has a separate formal position made clear in its recent resolution against the
retaking of at least tests III and V of the leakage-scandalized board examinations
for nursing in June.
| | | "There
have been no stringent policies governing the supposed areas for re-examinations,"
Baluyot told the Chronicle.
She
sought the intervention of Gov. Erico Aumentado, whose presidency of the Union
of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) may influence Malacañang.
Baluyot
said Aumentado, also the head of the provincial governors, had assured her of
relaying to Arroyo the organized dissension to the retake. |
The
retake could withhold, as a consequence, the professional licenses of the over
17,000 June nursing examination passers.
Baluyot
said both the PNA and nursing schools have demanded the Professional Regulation
Commission (PRC) to release the licenses.
The
government can later revoke the licenses of the passers may be found involved
in and guilty of the leakage, Baluyot said.
Baluyot
prayed that ULAP, through Aumentado, can force the government to side with the
nursing school deans, PNA and the examinees themselves who had honestly labored
to pass the board examinations.
The
no-to-retake advocates are checking reports that certain powerful members of the
Philippine Nurses Association in America (PNAA) prodded Arroyo to favor re-examinations
allegedly "because the United States will not accept nurses who cannot undergo
retest."
Baluyot
said these PNAA people do not own hospitals or nursing homes in the US.
They
prejudice the successful Philippine nursing examinees who are now prepared to
take the test given by the US National Council for Licensure Examinations (NCLEX),
Baluyot said.
She
maintained that while the retake "will punish the innocent for the guilty,
it can't erase notoriety either."
Meanwhile,
a daughter of Baluyot who is a US hospital director reported an unprecedented
decline of Filipino nursing applicants during the jobs fair in New York the other
day.
This
caused the US employers to ask where are the Filipino nurses, known worldwide
as extra-caring indefatigable workers. (VCA) | 
