MANILA, Philippines - The country has 39,455 new nurses, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) reported yesterday.
PRC said 39,455 or 44.51 percent of the 88,649 who took the November 2008 Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) passed the grueling two-day test.
Jovie Ann Alawas Decoyna of Baguio Central University topped the board exam with a score of 89 percent.
A majority of the top 10 examinees were graduates of nursing schools in the provinces.
Dr. Florence Caoa-on, dean of the college of nursing of BCU, said Decoyna deserves to be a topnotcher “because she was really a bright student.”
According to the PRC, the top three performing schools with more than 100 examinees in the November 2008 NLE were (1) Xavier University; (2) Silliman University; (3) Central Philippine University, Saint Louis University and Southern Luzon Polytechnic College-Lucban.
Top performers with less than 100 examinees were (1) Saint Paul University-Iloilo, University of St. Louis-Tuguegarao, Foundation University; (2) Chinese General Hospital College of Nursing and Liberal Arts and (3) Mindanao State University-Marawi City.
Marco Sto. Tomas, PRC Board of Nursing (BON) member, said the passing rate for the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) has been on the decline for the past decade.
He said the passing rate has gone down from 55.8 percent in 1998 to 45.2 percent in 2006.
A 43.1 percent passing rate was recorded in the June 2008 nursing board examination. – With Artemio Dumlao