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By Frank Lloyd Tiongson, Reporter
NURSING is seen as the best
choice for a tremendous number of would-be college students in this
country.
The Manila landscape, for one,
seems like a sea of white uniforms in their daily commute; almost
everyone is eager for their share of the career’s promises and the
allure of working abroad with high pay.
Schools have been more than happy
to oblige, some even diversifying to nursing programs where
previously they offered computer courses.
In no other decade has the term
“diploma mill” resounded as ominously as it does now.
Ironically, the “boom” has
spelled the decline of nursing education as many schools treat the
course as a veritable goldmine.
There are 456 nursing schools in
the Philippines, according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
From just 40 nursing schools in
the 1970s to 251 in 2003, the number has increased
“logarithmically” in the last five years, says Dr. Gene Nisperos,
vice chairman of the Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), a
grouping of health-care professionals.
Based on the number of board
examiners, there are 80,000 to 100,000 nursing students each year,
an increasing figure “because of a large number of examinees
failing each year,” Nisperos added.
Historically, Nisperos said, the
Philippines had been a prime source of nurses worldwide,
particularly during the 1970s. In the last five years, however, the
global demand for nurses has intensified and more than eight out of
10 Filipino nurses now work abroad.
The large demand is due to the
standard nurse-to-patient ratio in developed countries as well as a
“general disinterestedness” in nursing. An aging population also
spurs the need for more health-care professionals such as caregivers
and nurses.
And starting in 1998, health
maintenance organizations abroad employed more nurses than doctors
to save on operating costs, Nisperos said.
Passing-rate plunge
The “boom” in the nursing
profession did not mean improved education here. According to CHED
tallies, the national passing rate from 2004 to 2007 hovered around
50 percent—49.40 percent in 2004, 51.69 percent in 2005, 45.17
percent in 2006 and 45.44 percent in 2007.
There was a plunge from the high
rates of 1970s and 1980s. Then the national passing rate ranged from
80 to 90 percent.
A 2006 HEAD study revealed that
around half of the total number of nursing schools in the country
registered a passing rate of less than 50 percent. The group also
identified 20 schools that consistently registered a passing rate
below 30 percent.
Nisperos, meanwhile, traced the
proliferation of poorly performing nursing schools to CHED’s low
standard. The commission merely requires schools to maintain their
passing rates above 30 percent, he pointed out.
The Higher Education Act of 1994
mandates CHED to “monitor and evaluate the performance of programs
and institutions of higher learning for appropriate incentives as
well as the imposition of sanctions such as, but not limited to,
diminution or withdrawal of subsidy, recommendation on the
downgrading or withdrawal of accreditation, program termination or
school closure.”
CHED Chairman Emmanuel Angeles
says the commission is not remiss in upholding the standard of
nursing education. “At the moment, [CHED’s] authority is clipped
due to the court injunction on the giving of sanctions to
nonperforming nursing schools,” he explains.
Nisperos also attributes the
declining quality of nursing education to a “dearth in faculty.”
He claims that “a lot of faculty, especially clinical instructors,
are leaving or planning on leaving the country for a job abroad.”
According to a HEAD survey, 85 to
90 percent of nursing faculty members are planning to work abroad.
Angeles blames the lower passing
rate to the “inadequacy of qualified” hospitals where nurses
train.
He also cites as recurring issues
the open admission policies or poor screening in most schools,
limited laboratory and library facilities as well as the lack of
training on the use of modern equipment that continue to
characterize many nursing schools.
To curb the proliferation of
sub-standard nursing schools, CHED put in place in May 2004 a
moratorium on new nursing programs.
Big business
Nursing education costs an
average of P40,000 per semester. Students shoulder staggering
affiliation fees to gain clinical experience in hospitals, as well
as buying the required equipment such as stethoscopes from the
school itself.
Some schools, according to
Nisperos, even requires pre-board examinations for its students.
Those who fail are asked to re-enroll for another in-house review
class for which the student again pays for.
This has never been done before,
he says, as schools maintained acceptable passing rates.
Enrollment in review centers,
both in or outside schools, has almost become mandatory to
compensate for the poor quality of instruction in most nursing
schools. On average, a review course costs P13,000.
Considering the large white sea
of nursing students in the country, schools and review centers have
practically become multimillion- peso industries instead of serious
educational institutions.
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