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The Commission on Graduates of
Foreign Nursing Schools rejected Monday an appeal by a Philippine
delegation that nursing graduates who passed the June 2006 board
exams need not retake leaked portions of the test before they can be
allowed to work in the United States.
ABS-CBN’s
North America News Bureau reported on Tuesday that CGFNS officials
told the delegation led by Bacolod City Cong. Monico Puentevella its
decision on the retake is final, adding that it would continue to
deny VisaScreen certification to June 2006 nursing board passers who
fail to retake and pass Tests 3 and 5 of the nursing board.
“The
decision on this issue made and announced by the CGFNS Board of
Trustees on February 14 was unanimous. That decision is final, and
will not be reconsidered. The Philippine delegation accepted that
fact,” a report on the CGFNS website said.
“We hope
that is the message the delegation will take back to the
Philippines—that the time for challenges and delegations is
past,” the CGFNS said.
Puentevella
said the group talked to CGFNS Board of Trustees President Dr.
Lucille Joel, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Barbara Nichols and
counsel to CGFNS John Ratigan for three hours at the CGFNS
headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Monday night.
With
Puentevella were Dr. Leonor T. Rosero, chairman of the Philippine
Professional Regulation Commission, Dr. Remigia Nathanielz from the
Commission on Higher Education and Philippine Nurses Association,
and Renato Aquino, leader of the Alliance of New Nurses.
Puentevella
told ABS-CBN the delegation was not sure if it could convince CGFNS
officials that a retake of the exam was unnecessary. “Still, they
have to protect their turf and we had to make our case,” he said.
He said CGFNS
officials explained that the leakage was an “internal problem”
that should have been solved by Philippine authorities.
Puentevella
said Joel and Nichols pointed out that the CGFNS decision on the
retake “was based on US law, and what US law required of CGFNS in
the circumstances of the June 2006 examination.”
Both officials
told the Philippine delegation that the CGFNS found that the
licensure process for June 2006 nursing board passers was not
comparable with the licensure process for US nurses.
“The key
question was not what Philippine authorities did, but what US
authorities would have done in similar circumstances,” the CGFNS
panel said.
The panel also
urged the delegation to convince the government to implement the
retake immediately.
“The sooner
the responsible authorities in the Philippines move forward to
implement the steps for a retake of Tests 3 and 5, without the need
for Philippine nurses to surrender their current licenses in order
to do so, the better it will be for all concerned,” the panel
said.
About 17,000
nursing graduates passed the June 2006 board exam and were sworn in
as licensed nurses last year. Of that number, 1,687 retook Tests 3
and 5 on December 2 and 3.
Nursing Prof.
Rene Tadle, president of the UST College of Nursing Faculty
Association, who has been at the forefront of the movement for all
concerned to retake the questioned parts of the June 2996 exams,
told The Times Rosero should resign. “That is the most honorable
thing for her to do,” Tadle said.
Rosero was
among the PRC officials who decided to readjust and recompute the
examination subjects’ values and grades which skewed the passing
and failing grades.
On Tuesday
Malacañang support the position of the PRC to enforce the voluntary
retake of the exam.
Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the retake should be provided free.
Ermita said
that what has to be corrected is the impression that the 17,000
nurses who took their oath failed to pass the requirement of
international nurses.
“To cure
that [negative impression abroad] I suppose we may just have to
allow them to have a validation retake if they want to go to the US
for them to be accepted under the aegis of CGFNS,” he said.
 --ABS-CBN
Interactive
and Sam Mediavilla
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