The audacity of hope

Hope has been getting a bad name in this country lately. For starters, ask Kris Aquino. She’d say, the audacity (shamelessness) of Hope! Now, our politicians are offering hope to our nurses who are suffering the consequences of the flawed nursing licensure examinations last year. That’s the audacity (shamelessness) of politicians exploiting hope.

False hope. That’s what it plainly is. I think it is unfair of politicians, including Ate Glue, to offer hope that the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) will reverse its ruling on the eligibility of nursing board passers in that flawed examination last year. The CGFNS is quite clear in two news releases published in their website. Affected nursing examinees must retake the questioned tests if they want to be certified.

The CGFNS has also made it known that they are not about to reverse their ruling and they don’t entertain appeals. Yet our politicians won’t leave it at that and move on. Ate Glue even ordered a stop to all talk about the nursing board retake for fear it would "sabotage" a last ditch appeal by a congressional task force leaving for the US to seek reconsideration from the CGFNS. That trip may turn out to be nothing more than a junket.

In a news release bylined by Barbara L. Nichols, chief executive officer, CGFNS International, she made it clear "CGFNS concluded that the licensure process for the June 2006 licensure exam is not comparable to that required of US nurses." An earlier release explains why. "The compromised June 2006 licensure examination," CGFNS pointed out, "raises significant questions about the accurate assessment of the competencies of many of those individuals."

And we have to understand why they are being strict. "The integrity of foreign licensing systems ultimately affects the health and safety of patients in the United States, a primary consideration of CGFNS in its role in evaluating candidates under US immigration law. The decision announced today is made in support of this critical mission of CGFNS."

I guess we have to realize that once we enter the global economy, we have to abide by world class standards that are necessarily imposed. Yet, we almost always insist that we deserve some special consideration. We think and act as if we never left home where it is always possible to get our way with the right connections.

Well, the CGFNS is not questioning our right to do what we want under our jurisdiction. This is why CGFNS noted "CGFNS raises no question of their lawful right to practice nursing in the Philippines. US immigration law, however, requires CGFNS to make a determination as part of the VisaScreen process about several elements of the visa applicants’ education, training, license and experience — including their comparability to US nurses."

And the determination is that the 2006 examination outcome is not good enough for America because of that element of doubt caused by the cheating. In other words, they are saying those nurses are good enough for you because you decided to take the risk, but not for us. If they want to work for us, "the June 2006 passers are able to overcome this bar and qualify for issuance of a VisaScreen certificate by taking the equivalent of Tests 3 and 5 on a future Philippine nursing exam."

In other words, CGFNS, a private organization with the responsibility of evaluating and verifying credentials of nurses, has standards to protect.   Nurses in the US, after all, are malpractice-liable (just like doctors and other caregivers) and so are the hospitals employing them. In a sense, their being strict is also a defensive move required of them. Succumbing to our pakiusap na puede na yan is dangerous and could be expensive if they are sued.

Let as assume, for example, that nurses, who passed the tainted exams of 2006, ever get cited for a possible malpractice case. Justifiable or not, any malpractice lawyer would have a fiesta on the fact that their credentials are less than "kosher". That’s why CGFNS has no choice but to play it by the book, to show in case they are sued, they have done what is expected of them.   

CGFNS officials know that the defendants for these malpractice cases can extend beyond the hospital, quite possibly to CGFNS and its officers too. (Officers can be sued as individuals). To lessen damages, the hospital’s lawyers will surely cite the CGFNS as the main culprit, since the hospital acted in good faith, when it employed a nurse, sanctioned by the commission.

In fairness however to the innocent victims of that examination mess, government must extend economic assistance, beyond just the costs for retaking the exams. After all, it was government’s ineptness in allowing the cheating to happen that is now causing damage to the examinees and their families. It is also government that dilly dallied in resolving the problem.

The administration must also go after those who were behind it and profited from it. I get the impression that after all that had been said, no one is going to get punished for the crime… as usual. That’s why the world can’t take us seriously. Whatever happened to the Strong Republic?

Because hope springs eternal… we can always hope that they will reverse their ruling for our nurses. But the more responsible thing for public officials to do is what the Secretary of Labor had been saying all along… move on, retake the tests and get it over with.

Hopeless

Consider this news story as a prime example of how hopeless Ate Glue can be.

"President Arroyo yesterday ordered the release of more funds for the natural family planning information program after a Baseco resident told her she has had 18 children in 26 years, 14 of whom are living.

"Rosalie Cabiñan was one of the guests in yesterday’s roundtable discussion in Malacañang... Cabiñan said her eldest is 25 years old, and that she gave birth to her youngest last July."

Good gracious!!! Ate Glue was before a woman who has given birth to 18 children and she is telling her to seek natural family planning information! That woman should have had tubal ligation years ago and the husband vasectomized. The woman’s husband is practically jobless and what odd jobs he gets cannot bring the resources needed to raise that many children.

Anyway, the story goes on to say that Ate Glue advised the woman that she should breast feed to space out her children and the story just gets weirder and weirder. Ate Glue was presented what can be considered an extreme case and she definitely didn’t react as responsibly as a leader of this nation, who also happens to be an economist, is expected to. It was politics as usual!

As for the Catholic Taliban among our faithful who will react negatively to my comments here, all I can say is I believe in a very reasonable God who expects us to use the intelligence He has given us to make the proper decisions that befit our particular situation. The Bible has passages of Jesus trashing man-made rules of organized religion (e.g. Mt 12.11-12 and Lk 13.11-12) that clearly do not respond to very real Earthly problems.

That woman who gave birth to 18 children needs help and not a lecture on man made Church doctrine on family planning.

Pinoy joke

Here’s Atty. Sonny Pulgar.

Q. What’s the difference between corruption in the US and in the Philippines?

A. In the US, if they get caught, they go to jail. In the Philippines, if they get caught, they go to the US.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]