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By Nora O. Gamolo, OFW Times Editor
The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), an
umbrella organization of individual and various nursing groups in
the country, is opposing the institutionalization of practical
nursing (PN) in the country, and its insertion by the Commission on
Higher Education (CHED) through a proposed ladderization of the
nursing curriculum.
The nurses’ group, whose members and chapters
can be found in all parts of the globe, is proposing instead that a
moratorium on the operation of existing practical nursing programs
be imposed, and a serious review of the program be undertaken to
protect the profession and its practitioners.
“We deplore the moves of government and other
sectors to impose upon the nursing profession critical proposals
like the PN program that gravely impact [on] our profession already
saddled with a host of serious problems that need immediate
meaningful intervention,” the PNA said in a statement co-signed by
representatives of at least 20 specialty nursing groups in the
country.
At this point offering only the Bachelor of
Science in Nursing (BSN) program, the Philippines is perhaps the
only country that prepares nurses for specialized practice in the
country and abroad. The Filipino nurses’ rigid training is made
possible by the professional curriculum that integrates holistic
theoretical training and hundreds of hours of clinical and community
practice.
In contrast to a professional nursing program,
practical nursing can be likened to vocational-technical
training that demands lesser theoretical preparation and does not
prepare a nurse for specialty practice in high-level areas such as
medico-surgical nursing.
The professional nursing curriculum followed in
their formal training partly explains the high global demand for
Filipino nurses, said the PNA, as it warned that the world demand is
for highly-skilled professional nurses, rather than practical nurses
doing only basic nursing care.
Currently, there is no local demand nor specific
job position in the Philippine health care delivery system for
practical nurses, a reality aggravated by an oversupply of nurses
and the consequent unemployment and underemployment of many nursing
graduates.
There is also no licensure of practical nurses
provided for in the Philippine Nursing Act (Republic Act No. 9173),
and the institution of practical nursing has no legal basis, said
the PNA.
The Philippines has 460 nursing schools
producing about 100,000 nurses yearly, many of whom do not pass the
country’s strict, but controversy-laden licensure examination. In
2007, the country registered only 65,000 new nurses.
The PNA also warned that a two-level nursing
practice might cause further deterioration of the country’s
nursing training institutions. The CHED itself has indicated that
only 12 nursing programs are recognized as “excellent,” while an
additional 18 were identified as highly performing in terms of board
performance and quality of their graduates.
The PNA warned that implementing the practical
nursing curriculum will also “further tax the overburdened
training hospitals and nurse trainors,” and that “in the end,
the safety and well-being of the patient is compromised and
endangered.”
There are not enough training centers within the
country that have 100-bed capacities and have formal training
capability “to ensure that students acquire the nursing
competencies to deliver quality health care,” stressed the PNA.
Introducing the practical nursing program is
“a global trend regression and untenable,” said the PNA, as it
informed that many countries, notably the United States, Canada, and
the United Kingdom are currently considering adopting a single
standardized nursing program like what is available in the country.
In Canada, a definite move towards a single BSN preparation is being
put in place.
The PNA charged that the proposal to introduce
the practical nursing curriculum may be part of an effort to avail
of the current popularity of short-term vocational-technical courses
like the caregiver courses, but without any real job opportunities
for the graduates.
Rather than implement the program,
stakeholders need to revisit and review already viable propositions
concerning the profession, without revising the Nursing Law to
justify the inclusion of the practical nursing program in formal
nursing education, said the PNA.
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