2006 nursing board passers will be allowed to take oaths

Amid controversies, the Professional Regulation Commission has allowed the board passers of the June 2006 nurse licensure exam to take their oath next month.

PRC chairman Leonor Rosero said that successful board candidates will be allowed to take their oath on August 22 as professionals.

But she was quick to warn that if the ongoing investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation shows that a leakage took place, the commission will not hesitate to revoke or suspend their licenses.

Rosero said that two PRC employees, Anesia Dionisio and Virginia Madeja, who were identified as the source of the leakage, were "inhibited" from performing their functions while under investigation. Tracing which schools and who among the board examinees who passed benefited from the leakage is a tall order for the NBI.

"It's now the job of the NBI to establish if there was really a leakage. The only evidence that we have is the manuscript of the 500 test questions. How this manuscript landed in the hands of the students, that we really don't know," Rosero said.

Bowing to pressures, the commission finally released the results of the June 11-12 nursing board examinations last July 20. More than 17,000 of the nearly 43,000 nurses who took the exams passed.

The board topnotcher came from the University of Pangasinan, with a 83.20-percent score. The second placer graduated from the University of the Philippines in Manila. Of the schools with more than 100 examinees, Saint Louis University in Baguio City was topnotcher.

It was earlier reported that the leak took place in Baguio.

Last Tuesday, officials of the Ray Gapuz Review Center -where the leakage was allegedly sent- denied any participation in the disclosure.

Ray Gapuz, founder and chairman of the company, however admitted that he received a faxed copy of an 18-page handwritten manuscript a day before the exams containing questions on nursing terms in bullet points which allegedly came out in the examination sheet.

Gapuz even admitted that he allowed the circulation of the manuscript to students who had asked him if they can read it or share it with other students. - Jasmin R. Uy