ICT now included in medical curriculum

The STI Education Services Group (STI-ESG) and the De Los Santos Colleges (DLSC) have forged a partnership to produce the country’s first information and communication technology (ICT) learned nursing and physical therapy professionals.

STI’s tie up with the DLSC, which resulted in the renaming of the medical school to STI-De Los Santos Professional Colleges, would guarantee nursing and physical therapy students with courseware, academic curriculum, facilities and faculty that are enhanced by ICT, thus make them more globally competitive professionals.

STI has a separate program for nursing graduates who may want to take retooling or reviewer’s course. The 40 to 50-hour program, according to John Tubongbanua, STI assistant vice president for academics, will be made available by January or even sooner.

Data from STI said the STI-De Los Santos Colleges merger, which marks another milestone in the country’s history not only in IT learning but in nursing and physical therapy education as well, is in anticipation of the massive requirement for therapists and nurses over the next decade in many countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, Poland, Western Europe and Chile.

In the US alone, "there will be 225,000 openings for all manner of therapists" including physical therapists and nurses, information gathered by STI from the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics revealed.

"It is obvious throughout the medical industry that the demand for nurses and physical therapists is huge globally, so the enhancement is not centered around here locally. STI is trying to prepare them so that they are not traumatized when they go out of the country," Tubongbanua said.

Dr. Efren De Los Santos, DLSC president, said the STI-De Los Santos Professional Colleges "have envisioned all the possibilities" to give students "an outstanding future." "We shall and will aim to be one of the best nursing and physical therapy schools in the Philippines complete with modern facilities that one can dream of," De Los Santos said.

Studies conducted by Business Development also said the US will face a shortage of 110,000 to 330,000 nurses by 2020, Time said.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) and the National League for Nursing (NLN) asserted that the new nursing shortage is "very real and very different from any experience in the past."