Testing center for US-bound nurses perilled

An expert from the University of the Philippines expressed hope yesterday that the leakage controversy in the nursing board examinations will not hamper plans to put up a testing center for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) in the Philippines.

Dr. Marilyn Lorenzo, director of the UP Institute of Health Policy and Development Study, said that when the leakage controversy broke out, there were fears that the plans to create the NCLEX would be gravely affected.

The NCLEX is administered by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), a non-profit organization composed of the boards of nursing of 50 states of America, the district of Columbia and five United States territories.

"But there is a possibility that they will see that we don’t tolerate things like this," Lorenzo said in an interview. "It shows that we really work to solve the problem, that we respect the integrity of licensure examinations. To me, it could work both ways. Those who leaked (the questions) should have thought about the consequences."

Lorenzo was the chairwoman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Technical Committee on Nursing Education. She recently resigned from the committee, along with the committee’s other six members because of the failure of CHED to act on their recommendations, which were intended to ensure the quality of nursing education in the Philippines.

Lorenzo said having a testing center for NCLEX in the Philippines will benefit Filipino nurses because they will no longer have to teave the country to take the nursing tests required for overseas work.

"Most examinees go to either Hong Kong or Guam. So you can imagine how much our nurses can save if there is a testing center here," she added.

An opposition lawmaker, on the other hand, said the Philippines’ request for the US to set up an NCLEX here in Manila was "spoiled" by the reported leakage in the nursing board exam.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago said the leakage reports jeopardized the lobby for the NCLEX, which is supposed to help Filipino nurses who want to enter the nursing profession in the US.

Santiago said the Professional Regulation Commission, Philippine Nursing Association and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration have been working for years to convince the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing to establish an NCLEX center here.

Outside the US, he said the NCLEX may be taken only in centers in American Samoa, Australia, Canada, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the Virgin Islands.

"India and South Korea have NCLEX centers. This is one of the reasons why their nursing graduates are finding it easier to pass the test and enter the US nursing profession," Santiago said.

Filipino nursing graduates, however, still "have to travel abroad to take the NCLEX, and this tends to create accompanying disadvantages and pressures," he added.

Santiago said the NCSBN had been reluctant to allow the conduct of the NCLEX in the Philippines "precisely because of misgivings about the ability to protect the integrity of documents here."

The NCLEX is administered by the NCSBN through the Pearson Professional Centers, an independent global network of testing facilities. The centers "are designed solely for high stakes testing, and deliver the highest level of examination delivery security and control."

Santiago said the surge in the number of Philippine nursing licensure examinees, coupled with the fewer candidates passing the test, "clearly betrays the unchecked proliferation of substandard (nursing) schools or so-called diploma mills."

Last month, a total of 42,006 examinees took the nursing licensure test. Only 42.4 percent or 17,821 of them passed. The December 2005 nursing eligibility test was taken by a total of 13,108 examinees and only 53.9 percent or 24,287 of them made the grade.

The June 2005 nursing licensure test had a total of 26,000 candidates, and 49.4 percent (12,843) of them passed. — With Delon Porcalla, Alma Maceda Calleja